Glass Half Full transcripts of interviews: Name: Jean
Age: 28 It's hard when you realise that you're not following the same life rhythm as your parents or most of society - study, jobs, houses, children... I feel that I can do most of these things at various times in my life, in various orders if I want to which makes it hard to decide what to plan for. But this is a very lucky problem to have in the scale of people's problems! The thing I find the most rewarding about socialist politics is simply how important I think it is. That is, I find it satisfying to be engaged in a project (no matter how far we are from realising its potential) that is about creating a world without poverty and famine, about genuine justice and freedom, and about a society where people (including me) can become infinitely more full because they are political in a real way, where creativities and passions can be explored and valued, where all the apparatuses that help people accept the lies - the education system, the TV, the ideologies that currently prevail in the unis and the media, when all these things are changed. To be striving to do something about these wrongs seems to be the most important thing I could be doing with my life, and trying to ignore this bigger picture and accept the current system is too much of a compromise for me to live with. Name: Jess Age:28 Name: Osama Age: 38 Since that time I started to get very involved. Also in Sudan, which is a Third World country, there was a lot of injustice. There was a dictatorship and there has been a lot of war, violence, famine and poverty. Women and minorities suffer a lot of oppression. The injustice around me inspired me to become an activist because I wanted to find meaning in my life through struggle. I have to do something and be an internationalist – that is the main reason I joined and got active. That is why my connection is democracy, democracy is very important to me, we have a different understanding of democracy than the left in Australia. We don’t enjoy a secure state, we don’t have basic human rights, so that is the difference of the struggle there. Human rights, for example is very important for us as communists, here it is not so important, you already have liberal democracy.. I got involved very strongly at university in the Sudanese Democratic Front it was a very big organisation, 200 at my uni alone, all together more than 2000 student members. Being an activist in Sudan was illegal, except between 1985 and 1989. In 1989 there was an Islamic coup and I went overseas to Bulgaria to study there with a Communist Party Scholarship then I came back to Sudan to study. I got involved in organising students as an underground activist. I was in the leadership body of the student organisation at uni, and it was easy for me to move around as I had been overseas and was unknown as an activist. But in 1995 we had a meeting in Khartoum and there was a leak, someone got bribed, inside the organisation and the police were informed and everyone got arrested. We were held and tortured for two weeks, all sorts of different torture – standing in the sun for very long time, beatings, no sleeping, no shower for two weeks, some of us were injured very badly, ribs broken with rifle butts and stuff like this. After that they took us to the prison. For the first after the arrest there was a huge protest organised by the students from all the universities. It was very organised, huge 30,000, protesting and destroying everything, after the protest the prison was full activists as they did a sweep of communist and progressive activists, they even arrested my father as he was on the blacklist and we were jailed together. We were in prison for four months, it was a strange experience, it had positive and negative aspects. Being in prison everyday, seeing people everyday, you learn the meaning of solidarity and shared knowledge. People fight colonisation, they talk about their experience. I made many friendships and it was very good, and I got stronger in myself, I learnt that prison doesn’t kill. In 1997 I was arrested again. One of the armies liberated one of the cities in the south and the regime got scared and they arrested people randomly. After being released I was harassed and tortured again in 1998 by a security officer because I was carrying a book about the history of the party. I got the feeling that I was being watched and I did not feel comfortable in my own country anymore. It was too much. I came to Australia in June 2000. I got refugee status in Egypt which was not very difficult as my case was very well documented. I decided to join and become an activist before I came to Australia. It wasn’t about Australia particularly but because I wanted to find meaning in my life, it wasn’t because I saw injustice here to begin with, but because I wanted to find meaning in my life through struggle. I have to be connected, I have to do something and be an internationalist – that is the main reason I joined and got active. Describe how committed to activism you are, for example how many organizing meetings or political events would you go to in a week, or did you go to, when you were most involved? In Sudan I was very, very active despite the repression and being underground, every day I went to a meeting. I was looking after organising different universities, this was my assignment. It was a lot of work, there was a lot of political violence, there were student elections, very big projects. Here in Australia I didn’t do a lot because of my lack of confidence in English, I did a little bit, but I was under-confident for the first year. Now I am good at English I can feel it. I joined a socialist organisation six months after getting to Australia, after about one year I started to get more active in refugee campaign and other actions. Then I became very active here in Australia, three meetings a week, but I was not an organiser because of my lack of confidence in English. Describe something you have done as an activist which you are proud of. By being active in the refugee campaign I feel that I am good at it. I am proud of linking the Australian political situation to the Sudanese community here in Australia from progressive point of view. What makes another world possible? The injustice, poverty and globalisation that we face. Globalisation and imperialism can bring many bad things such as poverty and exploitation, but they also bring people together against the common enemy. Globalisation allows us to communicate by the internet, we see that international struggles are also our struggles. We can organise together to change the world. How strong would you describe your commitment to activism in relation to your other goals in life (for example career, relationships, family)? Has this changed over time? What do you feel are the rewards (moral, social, material or otherwise) for being an activist? What are the costs? That is a really hard question. Especially when I am 38 years old man… being a migrant/refugee, far away from your own country, we have an extended family system in Sudan and you have to support your family that makes it harder. When I first came here I acted like a progressive aussie – I just wanted to get active and study and read about Marxism and do politics. I was so active and into it. After a while I started to realise something was missing, that I have a family. That I have to do something for my family which is why my activism is a little bit less as I am trying to work and help my family. Now helping my family gives me meaning in life. But I am still connected and involved, it’s not all about money or anything. Have you ever given up hope? Sometimes yeah. I am telling you the truth. The revolution is not going to happen in Australia. It is a first world country, it is an imperialist country, even the working class here are rich and benefit from this situation. Workers own a car, buy a house, that’s strange for me, that a worker would buy a house. The main issues for me, the war, refugees, are internationalist issues. In Sudan it was all local issues. But I want to be involved here because when we were in Sudan and we saw people in Australia protesting about the war it made us so happy, that people cared. That is why I am involved here, for internationalist issues. I believe, however, very deeply that revolution will happen in Third World countries. It’s such a huge gap between here and there. When I get down here its not because Howard wins the election it is more personal, when I am not doing well in work or love, or career etc then I feel like what is this shit? But I get up again for sure… In your experience do the “ends justify the means”? It is quite a Machiavellian question. Not all the time. The end does not always justify the means. If it damages the struggle, then the means are not justified. Morality for communists reflects the class struggle and class conflict in society and as Che Guevara said, the love of humanity. We are living in capitalism, we are trying to get rid of it inside ourselves but we are very affected by it, in everything we do, the way we dress, even our ideas about beauty are affected by capitalism. Even inside the communist party there are splits etc which are connected to class consciousness, its connected to what is happening in society, its not just about inside the party. If you could write one slogan up on a wall, what would it say? I like this question. My slogan is from a song by Peter Tosh: I do not want peace, I want justice. Name: Rjurik Age: 33 Is the glass half full or half empty? Intellectually the glass is half full, emotionally it is half empty. Describe what inspired you to become an activist. It's a complex thing, coming into activity. There's always the underlying cause - the radical insufficiency of the present, the fact that the world in filled with unnecessary cruelties, stupidities and destruction. As a teenager I felt this very strongly. I felt the world to be almost unbearable in its injustices. I found the images of starvation and violence of the television difficult to comprehend, and always the question arose in my head: "why?" One of the rules of capitalism is that you're not allowed to ask "why?" Being around children - those primordial little theorists - always amazes me, because they tend to ask unsettling questions that grown-ups have long learned to forget. Like “why is there war?” It’s not a good career choice, that. Asking "why?" is one of the paths to activism. Describe how committed to activism you are, for example how many organizing meetings or political events do you go to in a week? Commitment is often confused with “time spent” doing something. Commitment has to be assessed over time, and, if that’s the criterion, having been an activist for 15 years or so, I guess I’m pretty committed. I can’t seem to rid myself of the belief that you have to take a stand somewhere, even if it costs you. In his book The Contract of Mutual Indifference Norman Geras describes people being taken away by the Nazis in Germany while their neighbours water their roses next door. Is that so far from the attitude many have to detained refugees in Australia? Commitment comes from trying to keep the reality of the world constantly in mind, and refusing to live in a world of mutual indifference. Since I'm no longer a member of a socialist organisation, my activity has declined substantially, though this is not due to any loss of commitment. After all, the more things there are to do, the easier it is to be involved. The current state of activity in general means there's a lot less to participate in, but it would be rare for me to go a month without attending something, and most likely I'd go to something on average every fortnight. At my most active, however, it was 12-16 hours a day with countless meetings. Describe something you have done as an activist that made you feel the most proud. There’s nothing like the feeling of solidarity you have when you’re on a really committed or militant demonstration – the way there suddenly emerges a counter-community to the false communities of capitalism. I remember looking around on the “night of the barricades” down at Swanston Dock during the MUA dispute, and seeing people from everywhere, arm in arm as lines of police moved forward in intimidating formation. People didn’t know each other, but they were there to take a stand for the future, for people they didn’t know. What makes another world possible? It’d be predictable to say something about will, or utopian desire, or working together. All these are part of it. But if there’s one thing that’s missing, one thing that the radical left has failed to produce, it’s strategy. Strategy, more than anything, at the moment, makes another world possible. To say this, then, is to implore activists to take strategic thought, and at a more general level political theory and history, more seriously. How strong would you describe your commitment to activism in relation to your other goals in life (for example career, relationships, family)? Has this changed over time? See above. But also – activism is not like a career. The two work on different registers. For example, one can be an activist and have any kind of career as well. Activism is not something you choose between, like careers. What do you feel are the rewards (moral, social, material or otherwise) for being an activist? What are the costs? Rewards? It’s about trying to live a life that’s more authentic, that’s about increasing the levels of intimacy between people and yourself, about facing up to the truth. Living a life without activism would be to deny or repress a whole side of the world – the reality of it – and to say “I don’t care.” Saying you don’t care is ultimately an evisceration of oneself. It’s a lie. Costs? Time. Money. Career (for some). The threat of state repression. Dealing with annoying people (some on the left). That last one, especially. Have you ever given up hope? Not for everyone. Just for some people. In your experience does the “ends justify the means”? Theoretically: the ends do justify the means. But the ends also rule out certain means, so you need to start with certain ends and work out the best means of getting there. This, incidentally, is why terrorism is such an ineffective strategy whereas inclusive and participatory democracy in any movement is an effective one. If you could write one slogan up on a wall, what would it say? Not really one for slogans. I did like a lot of the ones from May-June ’68, like “under the pavement lies the beach.” There was a good one at the S11 protests at the Crown Casino: “make Crown a prison, the criminals are already inside.” Name: Kim Age: 40 years Is the glass half full or half empty? Definitely half full. Describe what inspired you to become an activist: The catalyst which finally moved me into activism was the rise of Pauline Hanson and the election of the Howard Coalition government in 1996. I was living in Canberra at the time and was appalled by the racist views of Hanson that were gaining a huge hearing through the media and the lack of action to counter them by the Howard government. Hanson’s blatantly racist attacks on Indigenous Australians, as well as refugees and Howard’s subtle adoption of her policies sickened me immensely. I attended my first political rally when Pauline Hanson spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra and brought my first copy of Green Left Weekly at the rally. However, I did not truly get active until about 4 or 5 months later when I helped set up a Reconciliation on Campus group on the University of Canberra. I began working with activists from the Democratic Socialist Party and found I had a lot of agreement with their views. I joined the DSP, about 2 months later and became heavily involved in the Jabiluka Action Group which was campaigning to stop the building of an uranium mine on Aboriginal land in Kakadu National Park. Describe how committed to activism you are, for example how many organising meetings or political events do you go to in a week? I have been an activist for 8.5 years. For most of that time, I have been an activist with the Democratic Socialist Party. Being politically active is very important to me. It takes up most of my time, outside of paid work. I do it not only because I believe in it but because I also enjoy it. Currently, I attend between 4 -6 meetings/political events a week. Some of these are meetings for the political organisation I belong to, some are movement meetings and others are political events (such as film showings, forums, public meetings, discussions etc). What are some of the things you have done as an activist that you feel the most proud of? There are two things I suppose that stand out which I can say that I feel most proud off. The first is being part of the No Reconciliation without Justice action against Prime Minister John Howard in 2000 at the Sydney Opera House. At the time I was a member of the Indigenous Student Network and I was the activist chosen to stage the protest inside the Opera House while Howard was making his speech. I was in the first row (in the media pit) and I jumped up during his speech and unfurled a flag with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags on it and began chanting slogans. Howard was momentarily flustered and the image was beemed around the world showing that Aboriginals had actively opposed his racism and had not bought into his whitewashing of Australian history. The second thing I am most proud of is being able to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as part of the on-the-ground resistance to the illegal Israeli occupation. In 2004, I spent three months living and working in Palestine Occupied Territories with the International Women’s Peace Service. IWPS is an amazing group of women from all over the world who are based in the West Bank village of Haris and who work with the Palestinian civilian population and use non-violent direct action to oppose the illegal Israeli occupation and the building of the apartheid wall. Working in Palestine was a very profound and life changing experience. The Palestinian people are an incredibly welcoming, friendly, open and dignified people and I was inspired by their strength and refusal to give in, in face of overwhelming odds against them. The illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine is all encompassing. It is totally and utterly oppressive and invades absolutely every aspect of the lives of the Palestinian people. The occupation and the apartheid wall are the most ugliest things you can imagine, not just physically but because of the apartheid politics they represent. Many of the South African activists I meet and worked with in Palestine and who campaigned against apartheid in their own country, all told me that what is happening now in Palestine is far worse then what happened in South Africa. At times it was a harrowing, difficult and surreal experience but it was also one, which at times was filled with joy. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with so many incredible people, including some amazing Palestinian women and men, as well as other international and Israeli peace activists. What makes another world possible? The belief, commitment and actions of activists and people who believe in change make another world possible. Without these beliefs and commitment to change, then change can not happen. How strong would you describe your commitment to activism in relation to your other goals in life (for example career, relationships, family)? Has this changed over time? What do you feel are the rewards (moral, social, material or otherwise) for being an activist? What are the costs? Because I came to activism at a later age (31 years), I had already done many of things that are expected of you in capitalist society – I had gone to university, I had worked in quite a few jobs and I had no illusions about what it was expected of me. While I have had some concerns about my security later in life, in general, I have made a conscious choice to do what I am do and I am very happy with that decision. I don’t want to die, at say age 92, with all the material wealth in the world but regret I did nothing to help others and that I had done nothing to fight for a better world. I don’t want to regret that I did not do everything I could. In your experience do the “ends justify the means”? No, the ends does not always justify the means because it depends not only on what ends you are fighting for, but if the means actually justify the ends you are fighting for. Leon Trotsky once said, "the ends may justify the means only if there is something that justifies the ends". For communists and Marxists, the two are inextricably linked. For communists like myself morality is based on and guided by the class struggle and the struggle for human liberation. The means are only justified if they contribute to that. Some means are not justifiable (for example, individual terrorism) because they do not contribute to this end. If you could write one slogan up on a wall what would it say? It would be something that Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese resistance leader once said: WE RESIST TO WIN! Name: Kate Age: 28 Is the glass half full or half empty? It is both. Describe the factors which inspired you to become an activist. I went to a very religious and conservative school, so I think initially I was searching for an alternative to that very restrictive world view. Once I started university I guess I was very keen to get more involved in politics although I didn’t really know what this would mean or how to go about it. In around second year I started to get involved in student politics slowly until it reached the point that this was the only real reason I went to university as my studies were pretty much non-existent. I was much more enthusiastic about getting involved in campaigns and working closely with other people on a project we believed in. To me university was a very poor second to this. I became pretty much a fulltime activist for several years after this. Describe how committed to activism you are, for example how many organizing meetings or political events do you go to in a week? When I was most involved possibly 10 events a week. Obviously some of these would have been small things like a collective meeting or handing out flyers etc. Describe something you have done as an activist which you are proud of. I am probably more proud of what I did as an activist in Brisbane which is where I started off. We did lots of good stuff, establishing a queer room, organising around VSU back in 1998/99. Griffith University also had a food co-op and is set up in a national park so the atmosphere is pretty communal and positive. Also around this time we seemed to have a really close group of people who were just starting out as activists. I think it was a bit of a honeymoon phase. In Sydney things were a lot more solidly factionalised. Also I joined a communist organisation which even at the time I had a fair bit of trouble fitting into, so that made things more negative. What makes another world possible? I guess my views on this have changed a fair bit overtime. I actually think now that organising together is what makes another world possible. Forging links between people that aren’t just about being political allies but friends. Building a community which is about closeness and intimacy, finding new ways of relating and being and I guess just realising that you can break out of living an alienated and lonely life. I guess the personal revolution from feeling isolated and underconfident to feeling a valued and important part of a community is what I now believe is such an important aspect of any effort to change the world - it is also about changing yourself, the ways you have learned to ‘be’. Etc. How strong would you describe your commitment to activism in relation to your other goals in life (for example career, relationships, family)? Has this changed over time? What do you feel are the rewards (moral, social, material or otherwise) for being an activist? What are the costs? My actual time commitment to activism is very minimal now. I think my ideological commitment is still strong. Nowadays I would prioritise my friendships and relationships more I guess. Also as I get older I get more worried about surviving financially in the world. I think when you are younger these things are obviously far less important and activism is a terrific adventure into new ideas, new ways of living and new people. For these reasons I think the rewards can be enormous. I guess I just think they are also transitory, as financially and eventually more broadly it becomes more and more difficult for those who fail to integrate at all into capitalism. I’m not saying it is impossible but I think there needs to be a stronger infrastructure than exists here in Australia if that is to be a real option for a broad range of people. So I guess those are the costs. As an activist you get left behind in the race to find a decent job or establish a career also the mainstream world doesn’t really value what you are doing and this can lead to feelings of isolation or bitterness. I mean when I was really active how many subjects you failed and how poor you were was a badge of how committed you were and this type of attitude really leads to a lot of burnout and even mental problems that I have seen activists grapple with as they realise their lifestyle can’t last forever and also they are not sure what else they can or want to do with their lives. Have you ever given up hope? Yes I have given up hope before. In your experience do the “ends justify the means”? I strongly disagree with this. I think this was a huge part of the problem with the political organisation I joined when I moved to Sydney. I think the means profoundly influence the ends. If you are not always conscious of building new ways of relating and living through struggle then what is the point. I didn’t become an activist because I wanted to work longer hours in a more alienated atmosphere than I would if I was working fulltime in some corporation - which is what I think in some spheres activism became – a new type of work but with just a little joy. I don’t think this type of attitude builds anything new, it just replicates capitalistic ways of thinking inside an activist framework. I don’t think, as I’ve seen happen, that crushing new movements because they do not subscribe to a particular version of communism builds anything. This is the type of political activity which led me to lose hope. If you could write one slogan up on a wall, what would it say? I’m not sure if I would write a slogan anymore. I don’t really believe in them in general – if they were part of a specific campaign at the time then maybe. Actually if I had to pick one now I would write: save the whales. I fucking love whales. Name: Marina Age: 31 Is the glass half empty or half full? Definitely half full. Describe the factors which inspired you to become an activist. My family comes from South Africa and my mother was involved in the anti-Apartheid movement when we moved to Australia. My mother considered herself a Marxist. We moved in circles where doing something to change the world was valued and respected. I got involved in activism at university. There was a revival in feminism at universities in the early 1990s and that had a great influence on me. I read a lot and was inspired by the analysis provided by socialist writers, and by socialists who had been successful in social movements and revolutions in many different countries. While a lot of my views on activism (and my practice) have changed over the years, my basic belief in socialism and change is pretty much the same. Describe how committed to activism you are, for example how many organizing meetings or political events would you go to in a week? I used to go to meetings almost every night of the week. But I guess I have a broader view of what constitutes activism these days. I think it is more than meetings and events; it is about making change in whatever way one can. I have chosen a different way of contributing as I have grown older. I spent over a decade in a certain left crowd and in recent years I have wanted to do something different. I think the left in Australia, and particularly in Sydney, can be very turned in on itself and get very sucked up in its own messages. They are all important messages but you have to think about how to get things across in a way that really reaches out to others. I guess I have also found that it is possible to have a proper paying job where I can do some good. I am lucky in that respect. What makes another world possible? People. It never ceases to amaze me that while people can do such horrible things to each other, there is also such potential for basic human solidarity. I take heart from all the little things I see each day – just people caring for each other. But also I can see that where things are bad, there will be people who step up to the mark in so many different ways. I work in HIV, which could be very depressing. But the people that I meet in different countries and the work that they do every day is so amazing that I find it impossible not to be inspired. How strong would you describe your commitment to activism in relation to your other goals in life (for example career, relationships, family)? Has this changed over time? What do you feel are the rewards (moral, social, material or otherwise) for being an activist? What are the costs? My commitment to activism and change was my life for a really long time. And I think it ate me up in many ways. Coming from my background I felt guilty for having an OK life and living in such a privileged country. I had to make a decision at a certain point to pull back from an unhealthy martyrdom and build a life for myself. I could have chosen to stop contributing entirely – but that just wouldn’t have been me. So I had to find a way to keep contributing but to keep enough of myself aside for me, to do things on my own terms rather than being dictated by the needs of the struggle/the world. I still find it hard to set limits and say no. But it is better to help people and contribute purely as a gift, rather than needing it to feel good about yourself. I think this means I don’t force things on people as much. Have you ever given up hope? I have certainly given up hope on certain people and organizations that I have come across or been part of. I have felt particularly angry and disappointed with those who feel that their way is the only true socialist way. But while I have often felt discouraged I don’t think I have ever given up hope. In your experience does the “ends justify the means”? Not really sure what you mean here ... I used to fully believe that the end justifies the means. I now think that if one is serious about a better future then one has to build a better now as well. Otherwise it can become a bit like suffering on earth because eventually one will get to heaven. I think lots of horrible and things are done to people in activist and left circles in the name of what is "right" for the struggle when in reality and in the long-term it really doesn't matter that much. If you could write one slogan up on a wall, what would it say? Live. Love. And struggle. In that order A copy of this zine is available: email zanny.b[at]gmail.com. |
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