August Left Q/A – Educating the haves and have nots: What makes a difference?

Left Q/A – Clive Hamilton – The Story of Protest in Australia

When: Thursday April 6th, 7pm

Where: Bella Union Bar, Upstairs Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St (entrance off Lygon st)

Prominent public intellectual Clive Hamilton will give a lecture about his new book ‘What do we want: The story of protest in Australia’.

The book explores the colourful, enthralling and stirring forms of protest used in the big social movements that define modern Australia. He includes dedicated chapters on the peace movement, women’s liberation, Indigenous rights, gay rights and the environmental movement, and examines how these movements have confronted the ugliness in Australian society and caused epoch defining shifts in social attitudes. He describes protests with scores of thousands marching or sitting down in the streets of capital cities; colourful camps of a handful of protesters in Australia’s forests, singing at bulldozers and blocking paths; acts of bravery by individuals using technology to disrupt stock markets or coming out on television; as well as vigils, leafleting, street theatre, occupations and myriad other creative forms of protest. Hamilton shows that progress occurs because a few individuals begin to demand change.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.

Tickets: $7 general admin, $5 NIBS members. Pre-Booking here.

Left Q/A: The populist right and the anti-globalisation backlash: how should the left respond?

Date: Thursday 2nd Feb, 7pm (doors and bar open at 6:30pm)

Venue: Bella Union Bar,  Level 1, Trades Hall , 54 Victoria Street (corner of Victoria & Lygon Streets), Carlton South (enter via Lygon Street)

Admission: $5 NIBS members, $7 non-members. Pre-book tickets here. 

Brexit, the election of Trump, and the rising popularity of several other ‘populist’ right figures around the world, calls for much reflection and debate on the left. Come listen to and discuss these crucial issues with panelists from various left traditions.

Panelists include:
Arran Gare (Philosopher, Swinburne Uni, author The Philosophical Foundations of Ecological Civilization),
Sue Bolton (Councillor for Moreland, Socialist Alliance),
Graham Dunkley (Vic Uni, author of ‘One World Mania: A critical guide to free trade, financialisation and over-globalisation‘)
Louise O’Shea (Socialist Alternative)

Globalisation & Labour in the 21st Century – Verity Burgmann

Admission: $5 or $3 for NIBS members (pre-book here)

The book argues that despite the adverse impact of globalization on the working-class, today workers around the world are challenging their increased exploitation by globalizing corporations. In developed countries, many unions are transforming themselves to confront employer power in ways more appropriate to contemporary circumstances; in developing countries, militant new labour movements are emerging.Drawing upon insights in anti-determinist Marxian perspectives, Verity makes the case that working-class resistance is not futile, as protagonists of globalization often claim.

Verity is an Adjunct Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Over her career she has established a significant reputation as both a labour historian and a political scientist of social movements and social change.

Left Q/A – 2016 Election Panel

Who should people in Melbourne, who care about both social justice and the environment, vote for? To help you decide, as well as to reflect on the election and future challenges, come to Left Q/A for a panel discussion, featuring several candidates from left/green parties and public intellectual Robert Manne.

Admission: By Donation

Tickets can be pre-booked here:
Speakers
Robert Manne – Public Intellectual and Emeritus Professor at Latrobe University
Zane Alcorn – Socialist Alliance candidate for the Seat of Wills
Senator Janet Rice – Greens candidate for the Victorian Senate
Adrian Whitehead – Save the Planet candidate for the Victorian Senate

Fighting the Corporate Takeover – Anti-TPP Activism & Strategies

Thursday May 19th 7pm, New International Book Shop 54 Victoria St, Carlton, 3053 
Admission: By Donation Pre-Book your tickets here

The Transpacific Partnership Deal threatens to further undermine democracy and welfare standards in Australia. But it has NOT yet been ratified by our parliament! I Such legislation has been been blocked in the past, and can be again. Slowly a grassroots campaign is developing to stop it. Come to hear activists from the union and environmental movements discuss what we can do, and how you can get involved, to stop this latest round of pro-corporate legislation

Panel Speakers:

Kevin Bracken – TPP Union Roundtable

Pier Moro –  Australian Asia Worker Links (AAWL)

Andrew Dettmer – Australian Fair Trade Investment Network (AFTINET)/ Aus Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU)

Sam Castro – Friends of the Earth (FOE).

Corbyn and Sanders: The limits and possibilities of the New Parlimentary Left

As part of its Left Q/A Series NIBS will host a discussion on: Corbyn and Sanders: The limits and possibilities of the New Parlimentary Left

Thursday April  21st 
7pm-8:30pm, New International Book Shop
54 Victoria St, Carlton, 3053 

Recently the United States and Britain have witnessed the emergence of politicians that openly label themselves as Socialists. In the US Burnie Sanders has defied expectations with successes in his campaign for the Democratic candidacy, posing an increasingly serious challenge to the established oligarchy within the Democrat party with his calls for a ‘political revolution’. In the UK Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party with a resounding majority by old and new members alike, and despite almost blanket hostility from the British media has managed to remain popular with many voters. At the same time, there have been those on the left that argue that one or both of these politicians do not represent a radical alternative to the status quo.

This panel will discuss what the possibilities and limits of their success mean for the left both in the US and UK, but also for the left elsewhere.

Panelists include:
– Andrew Irving from the Communist Party of Australia
– Race Matthews member of the Australian Labor Party
– Alex Waters PhD student from RMIT
– Lucy Honan from Solidarity