The Sound of Solidarity

This episode is about what is happening in Melbourne for fans of electronic music from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region, and for music fans who want to recognise and act on what is happening in Palestine.
To discuss this, Tami Gadir is joined by MzRizk, a renowned Naarm/Melbourne radio broadcaster (Boogie Beat Suite, PBS) and prolific DJ (winner, “Best DJ” category, Music Victoria Awards 2022). MzRizk talks about her DJing work, Palestinian solidarity and what it means to express political positions through music and the arts.
MzRizk uses genres such as house, jazz, soul, disco, hip-hop, and Arabic music to foster community and cultural connection wherever she plays—from Melbourne to New York to Beirut and beyond. One of the popular club nights she co-organises is Habibi Hafla, which has been among the Palestine solidarity events that have been put on by local organisers since October 2023.
Music credit:
Ṭarabeat - طربيت, "Kazdoura - ك​ز​د​و​ر​ة"
https://tarabeat1.bandcamp.com/track/kazdoura 
 
 

Writing during the First World War, Lenin analysed how capitalism led to imperialism, which in turn led to war between the great powers. A century on, David Glanz argues that Lenin's arguments and his insistence that workers have the power to end war is still vitally relevant today.

In this week’s episode of our Music and Politics miniseries, we talk to Erima Dall about the course of industrial disputes at the Sydney Opera House construction site and what lessons we can take from how they played out.
Erima is a member of Solidarity, a wharfy, and a Maritime Union of Australia member and delegate. In 2023, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Opera House’s completion, Erima wrote an article on this topic in Solidarity magazine and we’re pleased to have her joining us for this episode.

Zionism argues that antisemitism can't be fought and that Jews need a state at the expense of the Palestinians. David Glanz discusses how Zionism has always fostered racism and collaborated with imperialism.

Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, is an authoritarian leader and an Islamophobe. Barry Pavier, author of Hindutva and the Sangh Parivar in Britain, explains the background to his politics and discusses how the Indian left can fight back.
Read Barry's article here.

Israel tries to smear its critics as antisemites. This episode features five anti-Zionist Jews in conversation, rejecting the myth that Israel speaks in their name. Nachshon Amir, Melanie Lazarow and John (Janusz) Ebel talk with Tami Gadir and David Glanz.

Labor played a key role in the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948, despite enacting antisemitic policies at home. Tom Orsag discusses why the ALP has always supported Israel.

Between 1996 and 1998, the Mirarr people in the Northern Territory fought plans for a uranium mine on their land in Kakadu. It included an eight-month blockade of the mine site. Tami Gadir argues that the mine was eventually stopped due to strong grassroots campaign made up of traditional Mirarr owners, Aboriginal activists and tens of thousands of people in Australia, including environmentalists, unionists and students. 

We're often told people are too selfish to change the world. David Glanz challenges that argument, looking at the development of human society from the earliest years through to the mass solidarity movement for Palestine today.

Western leaders bleat about the "two-state solution". But as Sarah Thorne explains, it has never offered justice for the Palestinians. The only solution is one state from the river to the sea, where everyone has equal rights, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Some musicians are as well known for their politics as they are for their music. Paul Robeson is one such figure. Robeson, born just before the turn of the twentieth century, during his life observed the parallels between the struggles of international workers against their ruling classes and the struggles for Black civil rights at home in the USA. Such sympathies led him to be viciously censored and pursued by the US authorities during the early stages of the Cold War.
What can we learn from Robeson's contributions to radical politics in the twentieth century, and how might those lessons be applied to the present in which politics look very different?
To help answer these questions we talk to writer, editor, broadcaster, and Walkley Award winner Jeff Sparrow about his book, No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson, a finalist in the Best Writing Award in the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2018. Jeff is known for his public commentary on Australian politics and is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.
Link to the book: https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/no-way-but-this-9781925321852
A performance by Paul Robeson at the Royal Albert Hall in 1958: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9FVaHIMgYw&ab_channel=MartyHermsen 

David Glanz outlines the history of Hamas and how its politics have developed. He argues that socialists must support the fight for national liberation today but that freedom for Palestine needs a different strategy.

Phil Griffiths looks back at the struggle of the Black working class in South Africa for inspiration in the fight against Israeli apartheid today.

Israel and the Arab states are tightly connected to US imperialism, argues Lucy Honan. But the many millions of Arab workers have the power that can break their control.

Australian Conservation Foundation's Nuclear Campaigner and long-time environmental activist Dave Sweeney joins us to talk about the numerous pitfalls of nuclear power—from waste to war. 
Since this episode was recorded, The Guardian reports that the only company to have a small modular nuclear power plant approved in the US has cancelled its first project due to rising costs.

Salome MC grew up in Iran and currently resides in the USA. She is a music producer, composer and multimedia artist. She is also on the advisory board for Iran in the American anti-war organisation Code Pink.
Most famously she is known as having been Iran's first woman to be a hip hop MC and rapper.
Salome joins Solidarity to discuss her journey into hip hop and self-expression, her ambivalence about how the label "political" has been used to describe her music, and why she has retreated from the public eye (and ear) to focusing on producing music with other rappers' voices.
She also explains her steadfast anti-war and anti-sanctions position, rooted in a fundamental trust of the judgement and self-determination of ordinary people in Iran and worldwide, and in a belief that children's lives are precious—without qualification.*
Music credits:
Javid x Salome MC, "Virij." Seven Climes, Vol. 1. https://salome-mc.bandcamp.com/track/virij. 
Iman Tarek x Salome MC, "Ghafes." Seven Climes, Vol. 1. https://salome-mc.bandcamp.com/track/ghafes. 
Follow and support Salome on Bandcamp: https://salome-mc.bandcamp.com/. 
Article
Salome MC, "Why Antimilitarism is Not a Partisan Position." Pink Tank Blog, https://www.codepink.org/why_antimilitarism_is_not_a_partisan_position. 
*This episode was recorded a week after the large-scale siege in Gaza began in October 2023. 

Ahmed Abadla (Australian-Palestinian from Gaza) and Jean Parker (Solidarity) discuss why the occupation is the source of the violence and why Palestinians have a right to resist Israel.

All the data indicates that global heating is accelerating. Paddy Gibson argues against despair and for a strategy of resistance that can challenge a capitalist system addicted to fossil fuels.
The graphs he refers to in his talk can be found here.

Erima Dall takes us through the lessons of building anti-war movements, from World War One to opposing AUKUS today, and argues why the politics of the united front is central to winning.

This is a talk by Sophie Cotton about how trans people can fight back against the system. Sophie looks at the different theories of the system and argues that that class struggle is the best avenue to winning trans rights. She also argues that gender and trans experiences are grounded in material fact (contra Kathleen Stock's transphobic feminist book Material Girls). And the talk goes over some of the experiences from the NTEU struggle for gender affirmation leave. 
 
Here are some links for further reading
 
Transphobia runs deeper than the anti-trans bigots (Sophie Cotton) 
 
There's a wealth of articles on LGBT issues in Australia on the Solidarity website
 
Leslie Feinberg's book Transgender Warriors is a great introduction to theorising transphobia, though there are some minor theoretical issues
 
The brilliant book Transgender Resistance: Socialism and the Fight for Trans Liberation, by Laura Miles, is strongly recommended
And Hannah Dee's The Red in the Rainbow: Sexuality, Socialism and LGBT Liberation is great for the relationship between capitalism and queer oppression