Last night GetUp hosted a meetup in Sydney.

I went along. There were less people than I would have thought could be attracted to a movement such as GetUp in Sydney.  Admittedly, we were half an hour late and yesterday was an unseasonably grim, rainy night.

What surprised me was the age demographic. The GetUp team were the youngest people in the room by decades. The where-are-the-youth theme informed my entire evening. We listened to David, Jeremy, Toby and Lachlan.

Coming in late, I’m not sure what we missed, so by the time we were broken into groups of eight to brainstorm ideas for making GetUp bigger, better and faster, my contribution came down to ways of engaging youth in the alternative political debate. I have grand desires, but few ideas.

Inspired I take it upon myself to do some qualitative research.  I seek out the 20 year old girlchild.  For the 2.3 minutes that I had her attention she tells me that,

"Placards and protesting and feminism and left-wingedness is just so 80’s…Young people don’t care mama." 

"Why don’t you care? What has to happen for you to care? What would radicalise you?" I ask.

Girlchild’s answer, "Can I use your car?" 

It’s about getting their attention.  Now how do we keep it?

  

Images scanned from last nights meetup handout 

Women.  Who’d be one?

The rate at which we are abused, beaten and killed has increased by more than 50% in the last seven years in NSW. 

We are the owner-operators of the uterus.  With that, you would think came choice and power. However, even in the 21st century, in large parts of Australia, we still do not have a legal right to determine the contents of our uterus, if we choose to make it gloriously empty.

The anti-choice zealots get away with mauling our morals, spirituality and choices.

The health minister can have a conflict of interest- with impunity.

Then there’s RU486.  Banned in 1996 because of the staunch Catholic and independent MP Brian Harradine from Tasmania, whose vote was crucial to the coalition government as it did not have a majority in the upper house. That was in 1996, when women’s health choices were far less important than selling off Telstra. Almost ten years later- in what condition are women’s reproductive rights?

RU486 was then and is now a proven abortifacient which would be beneficial if added to the repertoire of choice a woman and her health professional could access.

A conscience vote on the status of RU486 is hinted at for Tuesday, 29th  November.  Since when does women’s health need a conscience filter? Is it because everyone feels that they have a right to comment on the coming and goings of the uterus?  Women (and their uteri) are 51% of the population and can determine their reproductive rights. Men comprise 49% of the population and can support a woman’s right to choice and self-determination.

Leslie Cannold puts the whole issue very succinctly:

“This is a vote about the integrity of Australia’s framework for ensuring the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicines we take. It is a vote about whether or not the Therapeutic Goods Administration or the Health Minister should make critical decisions about which drugs are made available to patients, and in what circumstances.”

Tuesday should be interesting.

Most of those voting don’t have a uterus – and even fewer have a conscience. 

Image from here

If your motivation to leave the mainstream media is to browse through blogs because you want to laugh, cry, be challenged, excited, educated or entertained then wander on over to the fabulous feminist marquee set up by Susoz at personal political. 

She has brilliantly put together a compellation of superb posts from blogs that focus on feminist ideas and interests. You will not find a more eclectic group of single-issue bloggers anywhere…oh and be prepared to expand your blogroll, we really are that good.

 
Image from here  

Posted in Anti-war, Feminism, Political, Pro-choice, Social justice, Welcome to my country, WurkRites™ | No Comments »