Producer: Lucy De Kretser
Broadcast: Friday 27 March 2009

Slavery is both a social and economic relationship, which involves control exercised over a person with the aim of coercing them into working against their will for someone else’s profit. Slavery usually involves deception and actual or threatened physical or psychological violence, and refers to both sexual and labour exploitation, and debt-bondage.

Trafficking refers to the movement of a person into slavery. Because trafficking occurs covertly, with little documentation, and all too often with the assistance of authorities, research into the issue is difficult, and figures unreliable. However, it is estimated that over 27 million people are living in slavery-like conditions today.

As states open up to free trade markets, with weakened worker protections globally, the demand for cheap labour, products and services is intensifying, contributing to an environment that allows slavery, human trafficking and exploitation in many industries to flourish.

Since 2000, the International Labour Organisation has been working with research partners to develop a more accurate picture about the causes and consequences of human trafficking in South East Asia. While most anti-trafficking research focuses on the link to sexual exploitation, the ILO widens the scope.

Trafficking and slavery do not happen in a vacuum, but lie at one end of a continuum of worker exploitation. I spoke to Thetis Mangahas, Program Manager of the International Labour Organisation's Greater Mekong Sub-regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women.

The Community Law Centre at the University of Technology in Sydney has been providing direct assistance to trafficked and enslaved people since 2004 and now sponsors the Anti-Slavery Project.

The Anti-Slavery Project is dedicated to eliminating slavery in all its forms, through a range of service and advocacy programs. It promotes a whole of community approach in combating trafficking and slavery, and recently launched a set of new guidelines for NGOs working with trafficked people, in an effort to ensure that those on the ground who may come into contact with trafficked people know how to respond sensitively and effectively.

Jennifer Burn is a senior lecturer in Law at the University of Technology in Sydney, and Director of the Anti-Slavery Project. I spoke to her recently about trafficking in Australia.


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The Apology, One Year On
Producer: Jaye Hardy
Broadcast: Friday 20 March 2009

It has been over a year since the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the formal apology to Indigenous Australians about the Stolen Generations. On today’s show we look at the current position of Aboriginal Australians one year on, and specifically the impact of the ongoing NT Intervention.

We hear from Emma Murphy, who has worked in remote Indigenous communities and recently visited town camps and Aboriginal organisations in Central Australia to find out how the intervention, while posing as a solution to a number of problems, has actually undermined grassroots community solutions. We also hear from Pat Eatock, veteran Aboriginal activist and Kairie elder, who believes the assimilative and dispersive policies attached to quarantining welfare is destructive to Indigenous culture and community.


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Young People In Nursing Homes
Producer: Rachel O'Connell
Broadcast: Friday 13 March 2009

Every year in Australia, hundreds of young people with disabilities find themselves living in aged care facilities. In Victoria alone, 70 people under 50 are placed in aged care every year. So how has this situation come about and what is being done to address it?

Di Winkler is managing director of the Summer Foundation, and speaks about the Building Better Lives campaign which was launched this month, and aims to get young people out of nursing homes and into more suitable accomodation.

Michelle Newland is an ambassador of the Building Better Lives campaign. Michelle is a 26 year old woman from Victoria, who’s life was changed completely after a severe asthma attack when she was 19.

Also, Angela Barker is a young woman with an acquired brain injury, whose experiences in an aged care facility we hear about later in the program.

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Acid Violence In Bangladesh, and Canada's First Nations
Producer: Elanor McInerney
Broadcast: Friday 6 March 2009

We hear from three international activists who recently brought their message to Australia. Two First Nations women from Canada, Nahanni Fontaine and Leslie Spillet, talk about racial profiling, police abuse and the state of indigenous rights in Canada. And later in the program I speak to Fozilitun Nessa about being the victim of an acid attack almost a decade ago, and her work with the Bangladeshi Acid Survivors Foundation.

Canada is often looked to as an example of best practice in human rights and indigenous relations. It’s a reputation that rankles for our first two guests. Nahanni Fontaine is the Director of Justice for the Southern Chiefs Organisation, a political indigenous body representing 36 Southern First Nations in Manitoba. And Leslie Spillett is a long-time Winnipeg indigenous rights advocate, who serves on the board of Grassroots Women Manitoba. They spoke to 3CR’s Marisa Sposaro.

Acid violence is a particularly vicious and damaging form of violence in Bangladesh where acid is thrown in people’s faces. Nitric or sulphuric acid has a catastrophic effect on human flesh. It causes the skin tissue to melt, and when acid attacks the eyes, it damages them permanently. Last year in Bangladesh, 179 people survived acid attacks, and the overwhelming majority of victims are women.

In 2000, Fozilitun Nessa had just finished secondary school when a neighbour threw acid in her face for refusing his proposal of marriage. She now works with the Bangladeshi Acid Survivors Foundation, and has recently been in Australia as a guest of UNIFEM. For more information on acid violence, go to the Acid Survivors Foundation website, where you can also donate to support the work of the foundation.

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Race, Baby
Producer: Lucy De Kretser
Broadcast: Friday 27 February 2009

We hear about creative projects that intervene in dominant narratives about race, culture, gender and sexuality in our society.

Paula Abood is a community worker, academic and activist based in Sydney. She has worked with immigrant and refugee communities for over two decades, and in 2007 completed a PhD on race, gender, and representation of Arabs in Australian popular culture. Recently, she has set up a blog, Race and the City, dedicated to talking about race. The name of the blog parodies the popular television series ‘Sex and the City’ - the suggestion being that we have been talking about sex for a very long time now. It’s time to talk about race. In her last essay to appear on the blog, Paula has responded to Mick Dodson’s call for a national conversation about the appropriateness of celebrating Australia Day on the 26th of January. She also discusses how the spectacle of racism is played out in the city and downplayed in the media. I spoke to Paula about her motivations in setting up the blog, responses to it, and about race, power and representation in Australian culture.

Lia Incognita and Raina Devi-Sundaram are two thirds of the Ladies of Colour Agency, or LOCA. They’ve crafted a cabaret out of their personal experiences, dealing with issues of racism, queer-phobia, gender-stereotyping, and exoticisation. With this project, they too aim to stimulate discussion and therefore create dialogue around issues of race and gender. In their performances, they utilise spoken word, drag, striptease, comedy, and parody, demonstrating that their personal experiences are intimately affected by racial stereotyping, and that their bodies are inscripted with this experience.

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Renew Newcastle
Producer: Jaye Hardy
Broadcast: Friday 20 February 2009

Israelis Challenging Militarism
Producer: Rachel O'Connell
Broadcast: Friday 13 February 2009

Law and War: Civilians and Reporters in Gaza
Producer: Elanor McInerney
Broadcast: Friday 6 February 2009

We reflect on the situation for non-combatants in the recent Israeli assault on Gaza, particularly the international standards of protection that should apply to civilians and journalists.

Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C discusses violations of international law, and Soazig Dollet of Reporters Sans Frontières reports back on her monitoring visit to Israel and Palestine during the conflict.

Phyllis Bennis is a Middle East fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C, and author of many books including Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. She has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli assault on Gaza and its stated justifications. I asked Phyllis at what point international law came into play in the recent attack on Gaza.

Reporters Sans Frontières is a Paris-based NGO that advocates freedom of press. Soazig Dollet is RSF’s reporter for North Africa and the Middle East, and recently returned to Paris from Israel and Palestine, where RSF was monitoring access for foreign journalists to Gaza, and the safety of Palestinian journalists inside Gaza. Soazig Dollet spoke with 3CR’s Jess Letch.

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Perspectives on the Bush Legacy
Producer: Elanor McInerney
Broadcast: Friday 23 January 2009

This week, we reflect on the presidency of George W. Bush. Barack Obama was sworn in as America’s 44th President on January 20 in Washington DC, and today’s Women On The Line is marking the occasion by getting perspectives on Bush’s legacy, and what opportunities for hope and change Obama might bring in the wake of it.

We’ll hear from Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, an independent grass-roots daily news program broadcasting perspectives and voices rarely heard otherwise in the United States. Her latest book, co-written with her brother David, is Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. She was in Washington DC for the inauguration festivities, and I spoke to her on the last day of George W. Bush’s presidency.

Also, the nuclear launch codes have been transferred, but what was Bush’s contribution to the international effort to get rid of nuclear weapons? And will Obama’s presidency lead to a new direction for the US and the world? 3CR’s Rachel O’Connell spoke to Jessica Morrison, the Australian Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

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Summer Broadcast #3: Remaking Rwanda
Producer: Rachel O'Connell
Broadcast: Friday 16 January 2009

This is a summer re-broadcast of a Women On The Line program first broadcast on 24 October 2008.
Rwanda’s recent history has been of bloodshed and war. But today, Rwanda is undergoing a remarkable reconstruction - politically, economically and socially. And it is Rwandan women, for the first time in its history, who are taking the lead. Recent elections in Rwanda have returned the world’s first female-dominated government.

We’ll hear from Dr Shirley Randell, Senior Adviser in Gender, Governance and Education with the Rwandan-based Dutch Development Organisation. And Annie Kairaba, director of the Rwandan Initiative for Sustainable Development, and a leading advocate for women’s rights, will talk about the new Rwandan society she is helping to build, having returned to her country following the genocide.

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Summer Broadcast #2: Drag King Culture
Producer: Elanor McInerney
Broadcast: Friday 9 January 2009

This is a summer re-broadcast of a Women On The Line program first broadcast on 18 July 2008.
On today’s program, girls will be boys. We take a look at Melbourne’s Drag King culture. Since 1978 the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives has been collecting and preserving Australia’s queer history. This year, its annual Homosexual Histories Conference was held in Melbourne, where Roberta Foster and Bree Taber presented papers on Melbourne’s Drag King culture, which since June 2000 has centred around a club night called King Victoria. Also in the program, I speak to Selina Jenkins, who has regularly performed at King Victoria as cocky young homeboy Braydon, and sensitive country boy, Beau Heartbreaker.

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Summer Broadcast #1: Guam, Japan and U.S Military Bases
Producer: Elanor McInerney
Broadcast: Friday 2 January 2009

This is a summer re-broadcast of a Women On The Line program first broadcast on 27 June 2008.
Activists from Okinawa and Guam are united in their opposition to the presence of U.S. military bases on their lands. Maki Yonaha was born in Okinawa and now lives in Australia, where she is a member of the group Japanese For Peace. And Dr. Lisa Natividad is a professor at the University of Guam, and an activist for her people, the indigenous Chamoru. Both women were speakers at an activist workshop in Melbourne, “Militarisation: Guam and the Pacific”.

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