Remembering Mike Marqusee (1953-2015)

"Go back to his books and rediscover the potency and the appeal – and, often, the joie d’esprit – of his writings: on cricket, on Muhammad Ali, on his own journey as an anti-Zionist Jew and, of course, on Bob Dylan."

Anne Beech, Pluto Press




"The crowd reminds me that I only put myself
in other people’s shoes
because I couldn’t find my own
and the common locker was so near at hand.”
Mike Marqusee

Mike Marqusee, who died in London last week aged just 61, was a man of immense talents and a beautiful writer who combined a career and life of writing with a profound lifelong commitment to political activism.

One of many things that I appreciated about Mike Marqusee was that he was a living example of the ways that popular culture and writing could be harnessed as a vehicle for radical political analysis and protest without becoming ideological dogma. 

His work also reminded us of the essential importance of art and culture- past and present- to radical political struggles. In a piece in Red Pepper he once wrote:

"The art of the past, is a precious, irreplaceable resource, and one that can be a powerful stimulant in the struggle for that other world we insist is possible. Listening to the voices of the dead is a necessary aspect of ‘contending for the living’..... 

Under capitalism, art is treated as a commodity, but there is something in art of any value that resists that status, breaks out of that dimension. There’s always a disconnection between its market value and its artistic value – whose very nature resists quantification. Each work of art has a claim of its own that cannot be measured in terms of another and thus cannot be reduced to exchange value. This was what William Blake had in mind when he declared: ‘Where any view of Money exists Art cannot be carried on, but War only"

 Marqusee was a writer, a radical journalist, poet, Marxist writer, commentator and political activist. He wrote arguably the finest book on Bob Dylan Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 60s (2005), in which he explored the political, cultural and historical significance and legacy of Dylan’s 1960’s music.

His book on Muhammad Ali Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties is considered one of the great sporting books of all time. In it Marqusee restores Ali as an exemplar and symbol of radical conviction, and explores the ways that popular culture can be simultaneously a vehicle of protest and a vehicle of incorporation.

His political memoir and family history In If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an anti-Zionist Jew combined his own family history, with political theory and analysis of religious texts, to distinguish Jewishness from its co-option by the state of Israel.

Marqusee who described himself as a 'deracintaed Marxist, American Jew" was of Lithuanian-Jewish background and was born in the US, but had lived and worked in the UK since 1971.

Marqusee combined writing and journalism with a lifelong commitment to political activism for left and progressive causes. He was a dedicated political campaigner and activist and for many years, he was the Press Officer for the Stop the War Coalition that organized the over a million people march in London against the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. 

He wrote books and articles on a remarkable and eclectic range of topics as diverse as history, cricket, India, sport, leftist and labor politics, poetry music and arts, popular culture, UK and world politics, anti-Zionism and his own experiences with cancer. He wrote a regular column for the Indian publication The Hindu, and was a regular columnist for the left-wing magazine Red Pepper (his columns are here). 

His last book the Price of Experience: Writings on Living with Cancer was published in 2014 and explores the politics of cancer and his own experience of cancer treatment under the UK National Health Service. Marqusee wrote about the connection and interplay between neoliberal and market fundamentalism and the politics of cancer and the suffering experienced by people living with cancer.

Marqusee was also a published poet. His last book of poetry Street Music included poems written between 2009-2012, including this one.

THIS MORNING’S SURPRISE

This morning’s surprise is how much I’ll miss rail travel.
The green fields looming up and falling behind,
the milky tea wobbling in a plastic cup,
the engine’s steady vibration.

This afternoon’s surprise is how many shades of red there are,
each one sitting in a room of its own, dense in meditation.
Each one a field of conflict, a medium of conciliation.

This evening’s surprise is not that the novel ends
in a desultory return to the working week –
loose ends trimmed and tucked out of sight –
but the ferocity of my recoil
at the author’s glib contrivance.

Midnight’s surprise is Lorca’s moon floating over Hackney
full-faced, round-eyed and speaking Spanish.

An obituary in the Guardian is here  and personal tributes from his colleagues and comrades on the British left are here, here, here, here and here. The Red Pepper Magazine has published these tributes. 

The American sports writer Dave Zirin has written this heartfelt tribute to Mike Marqusee. 

Largest protest in European history barely rates a mention in Australia

"This austerity is a never-ending story. We see no light at the end of the end of the tunnel, just more pain and difficulties. We have to protest, do something to stop it,"
 Lisbon pensioner Jose Marques.

On Wednesday fourteen million people across 23 European states participated in the largest strike and protest in European history in the  hope of staving off decades of corporate led austerity, precarity and unemployment.

Millions of workers walked off their jobs and marched on parliament buildings across the continent. Bloody street battles ensued Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Report from the streets can be seen here, here, here, here and here

The protests barely rated a mention here in Australia, other than a few reports here,and here.

Chris Hedges on Daniel Berrigan: 92 and still protesting

Just a wonderful inspiring piece by Chris Hedges on the legendary American political activist and Christian radical Revered Daniel Berrigan.

Those of us who grew up during the Vietnam War remember Daniel Berrigan and his brother Phillip Berrigan for leading some of the first protests against the Vietnam War. After Phillip Berrigan was jailed for 6 years for civil disobedience against the war Daniel Berrigan became more radical in his civil disobedience and political activism, with the result that became a fugitive on the run from the US authorities, before he was arrested and imprisoned for 3 years. At one stage Phillip and Daniel Berrigan were listed on the FBI's most wanted list because of their political activism.

In the 1980's Daniel Berrigan and his brother and other anti-nuclear activists  illegally entered a nuclear facility to protest against nuclear power.

As Hedges points out Daniel Berrigan is 92 and and his life stands as a potent reminder of how people can live a life of constant agitation, constant defiance and constant disobedience to systems of unjust power.

Hedges writes:

".. His embrace of what has been called “Christian anarchism,” because of its persistent alienation and hostility to all forms of power, is the most effective form of resistance. And it is the clearest expression of the Christian Gospel. Berrigan has been arrested numerous times—“I don’t waste time counting,” he told me—for also protesting American intervention in Central America and the first Gulf War, as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has demonstrated against the death penalty, in support of LGBT rights and against abortion. And even in his 90s he is not finished.

“.....I know that the prophetic vision is not popular today in some spiritual circles,” he goes on. “But our task is not to be popular or to be seen as having an impact, but to speak the deepest truths that we know. We need to live our lives in accord with the deepest truths we know, even if doing so does not produce immediate results in the world."

“But what of the price of peace?” Berrigan writes in his book “No Bars to Manhood.” “I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction of their comforts, their home, their security, their income, their future, their plans—that twenty-year plan of family growth and unity, that fifty-year plan of decent life and honorable natural demise. ‘Of course, let us have the peace,’ we cry, but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties. ”

Service users finding their protest voice: the new politics of resistance in the UK

All over the UK some of the most disadvantaged and marginalized people are mobilizing against the Cameron Government's austerity measures and cuts to benefits and entitlements. What is occurring in the UK is a remarkable "new politics of opposition and resistance" led by service users, user led groups and those who depend on public services and welfare entitlements who are demanding that banks, corporations and the financial and the corporate elite should be paying for the crises, not ordinary people.

The Cameron Government is pursuing the deepest cuts to public services and welfare entitlements in UK history. Protests, demonstrations, web based organizing, social media campaigns, leafleting, sit-ins and pickets are all being used to expose the cruelty of the Cameron Government's cuts.

People with disabilities and mental health problems, homeless people, welfare recipients, users of public services, students, parent groups, disability groups, anti-poverty groups and other user led groups are outraged that the Cameron Government is attacking those who had least to do with the financial crises whilst rewarding those who caused it.

Before the recent election, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promised to safeguard the vulnerable, but now they are among the primary targets of government austerity measures. Rather than hold the bankers, financiers and corporate elite responsible for the financial crises, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have given them tax breaks, whilst turning their sights on the most marginalized.

But if the Cameron Government thought people would not fight back they were wrong. What is taking place is a new politics of opposition by service users, welfare recipients and small civil society groups. As Peter Beresford points out service users are co-opting the Government's own rhetoric of "co-production" (where service recipients are involved in designing the services they receive) and the "Big Society" to oppose public policy that targets, excludes and stigmatizes them.

And what is significant is that the target for much of the anger is NGO's (who supposedly represent and provide services to disadvantaged people) who are seen to have abandoned and betrayed the people they claim to represent.

Another target is corporations and banks including those who pay little or no taxes, as well as those providing services to the marginalized. People on welfare benefits, people with disabilities and campaigning groups such as Disabled People against the Cuts, are targeting the Atos Healthcare corporation (and its parent company Atos Origin) because they carry out the controversial assessment of eligibility for out-of-work benefits and work capability tests on behalf of the UK Government. Disabled people and welfare recipients have complained for years about the flawed decision making and injustice of Atos processes, which effectively decide people's eligibility for benefits.

More and more civil society service user groups are mobilizing against the cuts, all of whom have a strong online presence.

Uncut UK coordinates, publicizes and facilitates protest and campaigns against the banks and financial institutions.

False Economy is a campaign and website to document the extent and types of cuts and to support action against the cuts. False Economy aims to provide evidence of the impact  of the cuts.

The agency Disabled People against Cuts (DPAC) which was formed by people with disabilities documents the impact of cuts on people with disabilities and mobilizes people to oppose the cuts. It also runs workshops to assist people build resistance to ATOS and the cuts. 

The Broken of Britain is a  group of people with disabilities who aim to provide a non-partisan representative voice for disabled people affected by the cuts and welfare reform. They also campaign against negative coverage of the disabled.

The Coalition of Resistance provides a clearinghouse and national focus for all the local campaigns being organized against the cuts.

One Million against the Cuts is an online campaign to organize one million people to promote the campaign against the spending cuts.

National Days of Protest against Benefit Cuts are being organized and a People's Convention to Build Resistance to Cuts and Austerity has recently taken place. 

Antony Martin Fernando: A truly great Australian

Australian Aboriginal activist and human rights campaigner Anthony Martin Fernando died unknown, penniless and forgotten in a London nursing home in 1949.  For thirty years Fernando had single handedly campaigned in Europe and the UK to publicize the cause of Aboriginal people and protest against Australian and British colonial domination of Aboriginal people.

I have written before about his remarkable life (here and here) which features in the touring exhibition about Aboriginal activism and Aboriginal activists From Little Things Big Things Grow which is currently touring the country (The exhibition will be in Perth later this year).

The ABC Radio National's social history program Hindsight had this program today (February 3rd) about the life and legacy of Antony Martin Fernando.

The story of the extraordinary international career of the Aboriginal rights activist Anthony Martin Fernando, who is slowly emerging from the shadows 60 years after his death.
He was an Aboriginal man who pinned toy skeletons to his overcoat and picketed Australia House in London in the 1920s. He tried to petition the Pope and was accused of being a German spy.

Fernando was born in Sydney in 1864, the son of an Aboriginal mother, his 'guiding star' from whom he was separated as a child. He claimed to have been brought up in the home of a white family who denied him an education and treated him like a pet. He complained bitterly about the mission system, describing its settlements as 'murderhouses' -- instead proposing that an Aboriginal state be established in Australia's north, free from British and Australian interference, under the mandate of a neutral power.

Even though Fernando is relatively unknown, he has a mythology. This program explores the documentary evidence of his random but constant political activity -- from letters he wrote, to newspaper reports and secret communiques between British and Australian authorities.

As far as historians can ascertain, Fernando was driven into self-imposed exile in the early 1900s, after being excluded from giving evidence in the trial of white men accused of the murder of Aboriginal people. He believed the only way to secure justice for his people was to go to Europe. There he believed he might confront the British, whom he accused -- through the Australian Government -- of 'systematically exterminating' Indigenous people.

A religious man who could quote tracts of the Bible, he believed that God had entrusted him with a mission to save Aboriginal people from the colonial system that oppressed them.

The Liberal press and Arundhati Roy

  Photograph: Tom Pietrasik courtesy of the Guardian

"The nation state is such a cunning instrument in the hands of capitalism now. You have a democracy that strengthens the idea of the nation as a marketplace."
Arundhati Roy

The Guardian has this typically "liberal press" piece on the Indian writer, activist and radical Arundhati Roy which supposedly celebrates her political radicalism, but actually patronizes and trivializes her.

Why do journalists who write for "liberal newspapers" find it so difficult to engage with those who propose radical ideas and who shine the light on the brutality of imperial war and/or the excesses of corporate and political elites.

Instead of engaging seriously with the issues, liberal journalists too often display their mistrust and suspicion of radical thinkers and their ideas by falling back on all the rhetorical devices of supposedly objective journalism.

Here's Chris Hedges from his book The Death of the Liberal Class.

"The liberal class's disposal of its most independent and courageous members has long been part of its pathology"

In memory of Pete Postlethwaite (1946-2011) and Giuseppe Conlon (1924-1980)

The early death of British actor Pete Postlethwaite has robbed the world of a fine actor and committed political activist. Postlethwaite was always willing to take a stand against injustice. He protested against the war in Iraq, participated in anti-poverty campaigns, advocated for environmental and social justice issues and threatened to hand back his OBE after the British Government approved the Kingsnorth coal mine.

Here in Australia Postlethwaite played an important role in highlighting injustice against Aboriginal Australians. In 2006 he was performing in a play in Perth when he learned of the story of a young Aboriginal man Louis St John Johnson who had been bashed to death on a Perth suburban street in 1992. Accompanied by Aboriginal musician Archie Roach and Aboriginal leader and activist Pat Dodson, Posthelwaite embarked on a physical and spiritual journey into the dark heart of this country searching for justice for the killing of Louis St John Johnson.

The resulting documentary Liyarn Ngarn features Postlethwaite, Archie Roach and Pat Dodson journeying through Western Australia to explore the story of Louis St John Johnson and the Aboriginal history of dispossession in Western Australia. Archie Roach's remarkable 2007 album Journey was inspired by and based on themes that emerged during the making of the documentary 

Posthelwaite's fight against injustice extended into his film roles, most notably, his role as Giusseppi Conlon in the film In The Name of the Father, the true story of the 1976 wrongful conviction of the Guildford Four and McGuire Seven by the British Government. Postlethwaite received an Oscar nomination for his dignified and haunting performance as the Irish father whose son is wrongly accused and falsely imprisoned by the British government for supposedly carrying out an IRA bombing in the UK. 

Postlethwaite's character travels to London from Belfast to to find a lawyer to assist his son, but is himself wrongly accused by the British authorities of being involved in the bombing and is imprisoned indefinitely with his son. Father and son are imprisoned together in 1976 but continued to protest their innocence.

Giuseppe Conlon died in prison in 1980 before he could clear his name. He died imprisoned for a crime despite his innocence. Eventually all those charged were vindicated and released in 1989 and received compensation from the British authorities for their wrongful imprisonment.

In memory of Pete Postlethwaite and Giuseppe Conlon I have been playing Christy Moore's remarkable tribute song for Giuseppe Conlon from his CD King Puck.

Giuseppe
by Christy Moore and Jimmy Faulkner

Everytime I go to London
I think of Giuseppe Conlon
Who left his home in Belfast
and travelled over to his son
As he said goodbye to Sarah
And took the boat to Heysham
Little did Giuseppe know
He'd never see that place again

Giuseppe was an ailing man
And every breath he drew
Into his tired lungs
He used to maintain his innocence
Behind those walls
Behind those bars
For everyday remaining in his life
Maintaining his innocence
Giuseppe Conlon, Giuseppe

The remarkable story of Antony Martin Fernando

The travelling exhibition From Little Things Big Things Grow about Aboriginal activists who fought for Indigenous rights between 1920-1970 is heading westwards and will be in Perth between July and September 2011.
I wrote a piece early in 2010 about the remarkable story of Anthony Martin Fernando one of the activists featured in the exhibition Fom Little Things Big Things Grow and reprint part of it below

Recently a friend of mine introduced me to the remarkable story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal activist who stood outside Australia House in London in the 1920's protesting against Australia's treatment of Aboriginal people. Pinned to his coat were small toy skeletons which he handed out and a placard that proclaimed "This is all Australia has left of my people".

From the early 1900's, when he left Australia disgusted with its treatment of Aboriginal people, until his death in an Essex nursing home in 1949, Fernando tirelessly and singlehandedly publicized the cause of Aboriginal people internationally and campaigned against colonial domination.

Fernando was born in NSW in 1864 and was removed from his family at an early age. He grew up in a white family who he claimed treated him like a pet. In 1904 he came to Western Australia where he tried to hold the Chief Protector accountable for the treatment of Aboriginal people and made complaints about the New Norcia mission and police threats.

It appears that Fernando left Australia after being excluded from giving evidence in a trial of white men accused and acquitted of the murder of Aboriginal people. Fernando had witnessed the murder. Convinced that God had entrusted him with a mission to save Aboriginal people from an oppressive colonial system he believed that justice could only be pursued through international pressure. He lived in Austria for a while, where he was interned during WWI, in Switzerland and Italy where he was imprisoned by Mussolini because he was considered "an enemy of an ally of fascist Italy". He tried to obtain an audience with the Pope, wrote articles critical of Australia throughout Europe and appealed to the League of Nations and other national governments.

He returned to England in the 1920's and continued to campaign against the British authorities and the Australian government. He took to the streets of London carrying placards and handing out pamphlets highlighting the ill treatment of Aboriginal people. He picketed Australia House and the Australian authorities tried to silence him.

Fernando was a man of immense courage and strength. He was arrested and imprisoned many times and in the UK efforts were made to have him admitted to a mental asylum. He was charged for pulling a gun on a man who racially abused him.

Fernando's struggle and courage are inspirational. For decades he pursued a one man campaign of unrelenting protest to bring to the world's attention the appalling treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia. Despite the setbacks and struggle he never relented.

Judith Wright on the champing jaws of the political and corporate elite

Judith Wright's poem At a Public Dinner laments an Australian political and corporate elite interested in personal gain, power, status and profit.  As we enter a new year Wright's poem is more relevant than ever before.

At A Public Dinner
Judith Wright

No, I'm not eating. I'll watch the champing jaws,
solemnly eating and drinking my country's honor,
my country's flesh. The gravy's dripping red,
a nourishing stew for business. She's a goner-
crucified in fat speeches, toasted in wines
the colour of blood. And wounded past recall.
Let this occasion be her memorial.
It was all there in the first step onto land,
the flag raised, the guns fired.
No one but Harpur called here the land of equals,
the new Utopia...Go away, we're tired;

we're tired of being asked about tomorrow.
Today the profit. Today the hideous old,
the rising price of uranium, beef and gold.
Today, for the dreamers, the totally useless sorrow.

Wendell Berry and "radicalism"

In an interview in the US Progressive Magazine Wendell Berry, the acclaimed poet, novelist, author, farmer, ecologists and activist talks about why he is more radical the older he gets.

" The term “radical” has the same meaning in politics as it does in mathematics or in the word “radish.” It simply means “root.” So a radical would be a person who wants to address the root causes of a particular problem. In the proper sense of the term, I think I’ve probably become more radical."

Ernest Cole: Photography as radical act

Ernest Cole was a colored South African who chronicled the lives of his fellow black South Africans living under apartheid. He believed in the power of photographs to show the world the horror of apartheid. His photos showed the daily brutality and hardship endured by black South Africans. The stark black and white photos he took were so powerful that his work was banned and he was forced into exile.

Cole published a book of his photographs in the US but died of cancer in 1990 in New York, just days after Nelson Mandela was released. He was 46 years old, and was penniless, destitute and homeless.

A retrospective of Cole's chilling and haunting photographs is occuring currently in South Africa. Younger South Africans are not only appreciating his remarkable work, but also learning about the inhumaity of the apartheid regime.

Ernest Cole's work is a reminder of the political power of a photograph.

A selection of his photos is here. In 2006 a documentary was made about his life and work.

Articles on Ernest Cole can be read here, here, here and here.

Public protest as a vehicle for ethical and moral action

Public protest is one outlet for citizens to express deeply held moral and ethical commitments. Protest actions provide people with a way to address critical moral and social questions and confront the injustices, small and big, that they see around them. Protest actions are are a vehicle for ethical visions and creative ideas for a better future.

All over Western Australia this week ordinary citizens participated in public protest actions.

The photo on the left is from one of these protest actions, a rally organized by the Human Rights Alliance in the Perth CBD to protest against Government law and order policies and the misuse of tasers and force against Aboriginal people in custody

On Tuesday this week environmental groups, Aboriginal groups, unions and civil society groups protested outside BHP's Perth Annual General Meeting  against BHP and the Barnett Government's plans to make WA a major nuclear mining

In the Kimberley a small group of protesters blockaded access roads to prevent Woodside rig contractors from drilling drill on the site of the proposed James Price Point gas plant. A large protest rally against the industrialization of the Kimberley will take place in Cottesloe on the 28th November.

As a reminder of the importance of public protests, big and small, the UK Guardian has run a series of photographs of important protest events in world history. I was particularly taken with this photo taken during the 1968 Prague Spring

Wikileaks and the new radical citizen activistswho challenge state and corporate power

Wikileaks has once again exposed the lies, brutality and pointlessness of the Coalition's supposed war to bring freedom and democracy to Afghanistan.

In publishing 90,00 classified US documents about the war in Afghanistan Wikileaks has shed light not only on the brutality and pointlessness of the war, but also the appalling failure of the corporate and mainstream media to do its job and tell the truth about this war.

Wikileaks demonstrates the power of civil society and committed individuals to challenge and expose injustice and confront power. A small group of dedicated computer experts and volunteers operating completely outside the traditional power structures has not only broken a number of extraordinary stories , it is now considered a dangerous threat to the interests of the US Government and its allies and corporate interests.

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the 1960's, (the Papers were instrumental in changing public opinion about the Vietnam War) believes that Wikileaks is perceived by the US Government as such a serious threat that it may well attempt to silence Assage and Wikileaks by any means, including assassination.

There are few civil society groups doing such important work as Wikileaks, and few under such direct threat because of it. Do all you can to support Wikileaks.

Read this interview with Wikileaks founder Australian Julian Assange in SPIEGEL where he says this:

"Reform can only come about when injustice is exposed. To oppose an unjust plan before it reaches implementation is to stop injustice".

"We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have, and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying. That is my temperament. I enjoy creating systems on a grand scale, and I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work."

Art that honors dissent and the spirit of social justice

painting of Paul Robeson by Robert Shetterly

I really like what American painter Robert Shetterly has done to fulfill what he describes as the societal and political obligation of the artist.

Despairing in the wake of the war militancy and the narratives of retribution and domination that gripped his country after the events of September 11 2001, Shetterly gave up his artistic career to identify and understand radicals and truth tellers who in dark times resisted imperialism, war, injustice and domination.

Shetterly decided to honor people who struggled for peace, justice and human and civil rights by painting their portraits.

The result is an exhibition "150 Americans who Tell the Truth" which comprises 150 "portraits of courage"- paintings of everyday and prominent Americans who acted with courage in dark times.

Shetterly has painted people who oppose slavery and war, people who challenged corporate and political power, people who fought to protect the environment, people who struggled against economic injustice, racism and discrimination and people who fought for the rights of the marginalized and impoverished. There are also portraits of artists, musicians and writers who used their creative abilities to fight for social and political change.

The Streets of Forbes and the Australian radical tradition

image of the Streets of Forbes

Following yesterdays post (on Australia's radical traditions and Tony Moore's new book) I've been listening to the Australian traditional tune Streets of Forbes, a folk song in the radical Australian tradition about the death of bushranger Ben Hall.

Australian singer songwriters Mick Thomas and Paul Kelly have recorded a new version (on Mick Thomas new CD) and English folksinger June Tabor recorded a stunning version sometime ago. The traditional Australian band The Bushwackers recorded a different version here.

Streets of Forbes tells of the death of the bushranger Ben Hall who was shot (some say murdered) by police in 1865. Hall like many bush rangers of the time (1860-1880) reflected a tradition of rebelliousness and resistance to the authority of the rural ruling class (which included squatters who controlled most of the land and a corrupt police force and magistrates who were seen to act in the interests of the squatters).

Hall, who was the son of convicts transported to Van Diemens Land, was a small farmer, part of a group known as selectors, who were constantly in dispute with the powerful squatters who controlled most of the land. Hall took up bushranging aged 22, after a series of wrongful arrests and the trauma of losing his wife who ran off with a policeman, taking his young son. After the wrongful arrests Hall was forced to sell his small landholding to pay a large legal bill.

Hall's exploits became legendary and he became a folk hero to many, partly because of a "Robin Hood" style approach of taking from the rich, and partly because he challenged what many saw as an unjust rural power structure.

Ben Hall

lyrics traditional

Come all you Lachlan men and a sorrowful tale I'll tell,

The story of a decent man who through misfortune fell,

His name it was Ben Hall, a man of high renown,

Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down.

Three years he roamed the roads, and he showed the traps some fun,

One thousand pounds was on his head, with Gilbert and John Dunn.

Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree,

To give away bushranging and to cross the briny sea.

Ben went to Goobang Creek, and that was his downfall

For riddled like a sieve was the valiant Ben Hall,

'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May

That the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep they lay.

Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead,

The troopers then fired madly and they filled him full of lead,

They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad

And they led him through the streets of Forbes, to show the prize they had.

Reclaiming Australia's radical traditions

"It is wrong to think that freedom, democracy and self-government were handed to the Australian colonies by an enlightened mother country without struggle. These rights had to be fought for by true believers making a stand throughout the empire, many of whom had to fight again as political prisoners in the Australian colonies to keep their causes alive before the world.'

Tony Moore, Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868.

In Australia the radical spirit has a long, (but forgotten) history. Radicalism in this country fuelled struggles against injustice or oppression, and has been a vital force in movements for human dignity, political freedom and social and economic justice. Radical ideas shaped Australia during the 19th and 2oth century and helped make Australia one of the most advanced democracies in the world.

Australians owe a huge debt to radical traditions. Many of our democratic rights and the social and civil rights that Australians take for granted, such as the eight hour working day and five day working week, universal suffrage, universal health care and public education, welfare state, workers rights, decent wages, Aboriginal civil and land rights, were the direct result of radical ideas and radical struggles.

However, not only has Australia's radical tradition been forgotten and trivialized, it has been appropriated to serve conservative and corporate interests.

So it is heartening to see Tony Moore's new book Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868 reclaiming on important aspect of Australia's radical tradition.

Moore's book explores the little known history of radicals and political prisoners transported to the Australian colonies by the British. Between 1788 and 1868 some 3600 political rebels, radicals, dissenters and protesters who were considered enemies of the British empire were sent to Australia as political prisoners. These were unionists, freedom fighters, democrats, reformers, intellectuals, writers, preachers, journalists, dissenters and rebels, many of whom were heroes and martyrs in their own country.

Moore describes the Australian colonies as the "Guantanamo Bay" of the British Empire. These radicals and rebels were banished to the far ends of the earth because they challenged the power of the British authorities.

Moore points out that the attempts by the British to suppress their dissent and radicalism failed. In Australia their radicalism continued and they played a key role in struggles for freedom, justice and democracy in the early years of the colonies. Many were prominent in colonial life and politics, including fermenting rebellions and uprisings against corruption, the establishment of trade unionism and the beginnings of political democracy in Australia.

As Moore documents the memory of these exiled radicals has dimmed, as has awareness of their contribution to creating the nation.

An interview with Tony Moore on his book (from ABC Radio National's Late Night Live) can be heard here.