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Sprouting sh*t for almost nothing
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My interview Razor Sharp 18 February
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace on Razor Sharp on Tuesday 18 February.
http://sharonfirebrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/18-2-14-john-passant-aust-national-university-g20-meeting-age-of-enttilement-engineers-attack-of-austerity-hardship-on-civilians.mp3 (0)
My interview Razor Sharp 11 February 2014
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace on Razor Sharp this morning. The Royal Commission, car industry and age of entitlement get a lot of the coverage.
http://sharonfirebrace.com/2014/02/11/john-passant-aust-national-university-canberra-2/ (0)
Razor Sharp 4 February 2014
Me on 4 February 2014 on Razor Sharp with Sharon Firebrace.
http://sharonfirebrace.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/4-2-14-john-passant-aust-national-university-canberra-end-of-the-age-of-entitlement-for-the-needy-but-pandering-to-the-lusts-of-the-greedy.mp3 (0)
Time for a House Un-Australian Activities Committee?
Tony Abbott thinks the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Un-Australian. I am looking forward to his government setting up the House Un-Australian Activities Committee. (1)
Make Gina Rinehart work for her dole
(0)
Me on Razor Sharp this morning
Me interviewed by Sharon Firebrace this morning for Razor Sharp. It happens every Tuesday.
http://sharonfirebrace.com/2013/12/03/john-passant-australian-national-university-8/ (0)
Posted by John, March 24th, 2017 - under Free speech.
Comments: none
Slightly corrected version of the gloating NewsCorpse broadsheet (Image via @TheFinnigans)
Any debate about free speech in our society is really about free speech for the ruling class, I write in Independent Australia
To read the whole article click here. Top class! Free speech is a fundamental right … but only for the ruling right
Posted by John, March 21st, 2017 - under Malcolm Turnbull, Sally McManus.
Comments: 2
As Unions Australia say:
When corporate power and greed is so out of control.
When union members are hounded by a spiteful government.
When our pay is cut and our safety net torn apart.
When workers are dying.
It’s time to resist.
SHARE if you think it’s time for fairness again.
Or as Jenna Price puts it in today’s Fairfax newspapers:
‘Of all the pathetic jellyfish representing us in Federal Parliament right now, Malcolm Turnbull must be the worst.
‘Last Friday, His Spinelessness said he couldn’t work with the ACTU’s new secretary, Sally McManus, after she told the ABC on Wednesday it was OK to stand up to unfair laws.’
Her recommendation? ‘Join a union. At least they stand up.’
Posted by John, March 20th, 2017 - under Poems, Poems for a new world.
Comments: none
Retreating
I can no longer be outgoing,
I am retreating from the world,
Knowing its horrors
Forces me within
Are they outside or in?
The empathy that kills, kills
The love that loves does, too
The drunken haze of other days
Returns, without the drink
This is for you
That makes me think
Euripides was right
Not light, but night
Without end
Like a poem for a friend
The writing cures all,
Nothing is its thrall
Until the writing ends
Abrupt, corrupted,
The parties contend, within
The writing elevates
That deflated ball
But in success
The great ones fall
Down, down, down
Can you own the page?
Feel the wrath,
Embrace the rage
Against and for
Here is my door
And so the task renews
Inside, always inside,
While outside
The sun shines
On a dying world
I dare not venture out
I see your doubt
But take no more
The steps are broken
We remain awoken
To the nightmare
That is care
Wrapped in flags
Of destruction
We? Too few
The rest flew south
Where icebergs collide
Melted figures hide
In seas torment
That is what I meant
And so the page begins
Anew, impossible
Stuck on repeat
Not total defeat
It is warm inside
John Passant 20 March 2017
Posted by John, March 18th, 2017 - under Poems.
Comments: none
A mythical land
All praise our myths
For they are ours
Grown old, stiffed
Lying rivers rage
White lies our lie
Raging torrents the truth
Brave founders arrive
Genocide befores
The joy of fatal shores
Brave ANZACs protect
Fake freedoms
In foreign deaths
Fair go, mate
It did, and went
Victory, their class hate
Let us rejoice
Young and fleeced
Their wealth, our toil
Silence is the noise
Celebrations, their toys
We play, today
One day
We shall vomit
Their fables
Are we able?
John Passant 18 March 2017
Posted by John, March 17th, 2017 - under ACTU, Civil disobedience, Justice, Sally McManus.
Comments: 1
Newly elected Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus was right to say we should break unjust laws, and I know exactly which one to start with – Labor’s Fair Work regime.
To read the whole article in Independent Australia click here.
Posted by John, March 14th, 2017 - under Bill Leak, Independent Australia, Racism.
Comments: none
Cartoon by Adam Adelpour
Bill Leak may have been the poster boy for “free speech” anti-Section 18C nutters, but his death has not heralded the end of racism and bigotry, I write in Independent Australia.
To read the article click here through to the Independent Australia site. Racism did not die with Bill Leak
Posted by John, March 12th, 2017 - under Poems, Poems for a new world, The Awesome.
Comments: none
I’m excited to announce my collaboration with musical duo The Awesome.
We will be at The Front Gallery and Cafe in Lyneham (next to Tilley’s) in Canberra on Thursday 6 April from 7 pm. Over the night, I will be reading 9 of my poems, many from my recently published book Songs for the Band Unformed, plus a few new ones from the yet to be published second collection. The Awesome have also set three of my poems to song. So you can hear those in musical form too.
On top of that, there will be new original songs by Mili Cifali as well as some Awesome renditions of some great singer songwriters in the poetic style such as Rodriguez, Cohen and others.
My poetry book and The Awesome’s new cd Poplar Road will be on sale on the night. Entry is $18.
Posted by John, March 8th, 2017 - under Poems, Poems for a new world.
Comments: none
Posted by John, March 7th, 2017 - under Poems, Poems for a new world.
Comments: none
If only we knew
The loneliness of politics
Surrounds the withdrawal that is writing
In this nothing cries relief
Beyond the hope of better days
While the garbage sorts pick nits
From the words of wiser ways
They drag us to the sidelines
Of their enlightened graves
This is the way the flame dies
In the long line of small men
And women
All caught, all taught,
The thinking unthinking win
Today, but tomorrow?
Who knows?
The seeds grow
But will the flower?
Now is not the time
It is the hour
If only we knew
If only we knew
John Passant 7 March 2017
Posted by John, March 6th, 2017 - under Class war, Fighting back, Independent Australia, Penalty rates.
Comments: 2
Penalty rate cuts encapsulate the Turnbull Government’s war against the fair go for workers and must be defeated, I write in Independent Australia.
To read the whole article click here. Turnbull’s war against the fair go