Upswell is an online magazine of radical politics and culture based in Australia. Comments which constitute personal attacks or abuse may also be deleted.
Upswell is an online magazine of radical politics and culture based in Australia, launching in mid 2014. We aim to publish a diversity of left-wing perspectives that challenge liberalism and capitalism in an accessible and engaging way. ONLINE SAFER SPACES POLICY
The Upswell editorial collective encourages vigorous, passionate and constructive debate around any material that we publish. However, w
e reserve the right to monitor and delete any comments which use sexist, racist, queerphobic and other oppressive language. [email protected]
"Have you seen how far we have come together, in such a short time? From complete novice to competent practitioner? Well, I have some bad news for you, buddy: You're trying to get to the moon by climbing a tree."
A fiction piece from Nick Kelly.
Your complete trust in me is very touching. You've appointed me as your teacher and I'm impressed by your dedication to this thing that you've decided to learn. You seem to intuitively know that this...
"When we talk about fear, we speak as if it’s a one-way thing: fear of police brutality, fear of eviction, fear of losing our job; fear, in other words, of the people who hold power over our lives. But fear cuts both ways: they, it seems, fear us."
"Fear Cuts Both Ways:" on Recovering Stolen Wages at Lunch Time
http://www.upswellmag.com/fear-cuts-both-ways--upswell-magazine
I don’t think, in my whole life, I’d ever seen anyone look quite as scared as this. It was just after midday. Lunchtime rush hour. There were eight of us, and we had the manager of the restaurant...
"Human Rights: a refrain that has almost become a byword for progressive activism. If, pace Jameson, post-modernism is the cultural logic of late-capitalism, human rights is the politics of the post-political era."
Jon Piccini on 'Human Rights & the Left'
http://www.upswellmag.com/human-rights-and-the-left--upswell-magazine
Human Rights: a refrain that has almost become a byword for progressive activism. If, pace Jameson, post-modernism is the cultural logic of late-capitalism, human rights is the politics of the...
"Who are you, to speak / As a child / A student with no degree / And dust collecting in your savings account / With nothing to be proud of from the perspective / Of middle class wankers "
Jasper Godden is a young aspiring writer from Tasmania currently working and performing poetry in his local area. Jasper is also active around LGBTIQ issues, education and rights, and is a founding member of Tranz Tasmania.
http://www.upswellmag.com/meek-boy--upswell-magazine
Meek - quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive. To be downtrodden Like while you want to speak Somebody turned the volume dial down To zero While your brain is Bubbling, boiling,...
"Idinthakerai is the fishing village living in the shadow of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The people of Idinthakerai and surrounding villages have opposed and protested the Plant throughout its construction for 20 years. "
Anti-nuclear activist Gem Romuld presents a photo essay of the daily lives and struggle of the people of Idinthakerai, Tamil Nadu.
Idinthakerai is the fishing village living in the shadow of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The people of Idinthakerai and surrounding villages have opposed and protested the Plant throughout its...
"We need to expand our understanding of progressive actions against History beyond a battle between truth and lies."
Hermann Ruiz thinks about history and the power of narrative with reference to Joshua Oppenheimer's film "The Act of Killing."
It is surprising how History, with a capital H, is so successful at keeping hold over us...
"There are strategic lessons which warn against using the concept of “human rights” in activist campaigns against the mandatory detention of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat. " Jasmina Brankovich, Walking Backwards Over Sand: Asylum Seekers, Human Rights and the Future of the "Refugee Rights" Movement in Australia
http://www.upswellmag.com/walking-backwards-over-sand--upswell-magazine
To flee is to produce the real, to create life, to find a weapon. ~ Gilles Deleuze If the view becomes entrenched around the world that it's easy to get into this country, we will have an enormous...
Issue Two: Fear has been published! We asked for contributions which addressed the theme of fear, and we were answered with contributions which illuminate fear of many kinds. These contributions push the theme in interesting directions, they provoke reflection and prompt pertinent questions. The Upswell Editorial Collective hopes you enjoy!
http://www.upswellmag.com/current-issue--may-2015.html
Fear is pervasive in our contemporary political landscape, and it's easy to feel powerless when it confronts us. Fear can immobilise; but it can also facilitate action and inspire courage... READ...
The Upswell Editorial Collective is very excited to announce our second issue, 'Fear', featuring photography by Gem Romuld, to be released in the following days! Watch this space!
"The particular and urgent challenge we face now is to find ways to unite labour and environmental movements, to move beyond jobs in mining and indeed, beyond lives defined by waged work."
A thought-provoking piece from the very excellent Rascal and Claire Parfitt.
The ways we know each other and ourselves are transformed through collective struggles. Sometimes we manage to exceed and push beyond what is anticipated. In this piece, Claire and I ask how might ...
Jess Minshall visits NSW's first community law centre - Redfern Legal Centre, in this radio piece on the limits of the justice system.
Posted February 21st 2015 #1507 Legal Walls Play NowPlayTweetShareSave Access to the law is something it’s easy to take for granted – if there’s an injustice, if you are wronged, we’re taught to believe that the law has the ability to make that wrong right again. In 1977, the lack of affordable lega…
Tracing Movements is a collaborative audio-visual project, documenting political resistance against a Europe which tirelessly attempts to stop, filter, select and control the movement of people across and within its borders. Their videos include first-hand accounts of the brutality of Europe's border regime and people's struggle against it.
Although students in Sydney were pepper-sprayed yesterday while protesting a lecture by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, heavy-handed police tactics won't deter the fight against the government's deregulation agenda.
Here Fern Thompsett explains why increasing student debt might suck more than you think.
dysphoria (n): A state of unease or generalised dissatisfaction with life. It might be time to stock up on the Mee Goreng. Standing out from the crowd of cuts proposed by the Abbott government’s...
Our new edition is going to feature an interview with the folk from ARMED, a new intersectional, anti-racist media collective based in Australia.
ARMED is an intersectional, anti-racist media collective based in Australia. Composed of individuals marked by racial supremacy, ARMED seeks to subvert, dismantle and transform the mainstream...
What's up with loving relationships between couples and their snack foods? Check out the latest from our friend Nick Southall.
https://revoltsnow.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/lovin-the-super-bowl-2015-ads/
A year ago I wrote a post on advertising during the American Super Bowl and the commodification of love. Yesterday I watched some of the Super Bowl 2015 ads to see how prominent love was this year....
Check out what our excellent political cartoonist friend Sam Wallman has been up to.
The free market won’t save the planet, but its failure is inspiring the people who will
Only 2 days until the final submission deadline for our FEAR edition. Send us your words, your pictures, your ideas!
[email protected] // [email protected]
Preparations for Edition 2 are well underway, in the mean time we have a new blog post from Tim Frewer on Australia's refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia.
"The point of this is that the refugee resettlement scheme brings to the surface an underlying yet fundamental divide between Australian life and surplus life. Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop have made visible what was formerly concealed – that Australian life and Cambodian/surplus/asylum seeker life are simply not valued equally."
http://www.upswellmag.com/australia-refugees-and-the-containment-of-surplus-life
Australia and Cambodia have finally closed the deal on refugees. Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong unexpectedly announced in April that Julie Bishop, during a meeting on “strengthening...
***DEADLINE OF FEAR EDITION OF UPSWELL EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY 15***
Still time to put pen to paper. We've had perspectives on fear coming from all different angles, we're excited about piecing it all together!
Contributions to the next edition of Upswell Magazine are due in just two weeks time. The theme is fear. We're already getting shivers.
Read the full call for contributions here> http://www.upswellmag.com/call-for-contributions-edition-two.html
At 2:36, a placard from the ongoing protests in Mexico: "Nos tienen miedo porque no tenemos miedo / They fear us because we have no fear." Shared with us by a Mexican comrade.
We'll be looking at the many faces of fear for our second edition, share your stories with us by December 18.
Video documental de la marcha que se llevo acabo el día en la Ciudad de México ---------------------- https://www.facebook.com/thoracisrubens https://twitter.com/THORACISRUBENS
A bit of weekend reading: J. Tiptree reports back from the chalkface.
We'd love to hear from teachers, students, anyone, about their experiences with education. Contribute to our [Un]schooled: Radical Education Blog Series!
"Don't you think school would work better," he says, slowly, the thoughts visibly developing as he voices them, "if we were allowed to learn the things we wanted to learn? If we could work on things...
What's the Brisbane G20 agenda really about? According to Upswell contributor Dave Eden, it's not about Austerity.
Is the G20 the Austerity Summit? No actually….. Recently the following press release was put out by the BrisCAN (BrisCAN being one of the spaces organising against the G20). This press release fram...
“Read Quentin Crisp, if you want to learn how to be a lone dissenter with decency and honesty, and watch The life of Brian.”
Warning: This article contains a word which readers may find upsetting, offensive and/or hurtful.
We would like to give a warning that the 't-word' will be used in the following article. The word itself and recent community debates about its use have a particular place in Norrie’s history of struggle, but we would like to emphasise that this is one individual's perspective. It is a highly controversial term and its publication here is not intended to give people ‘permission’ to use it. Please also take the time to read other perspectives on the term. Some links are listed here to begin with, this is by no means a comprehensive list, and please be mindful that some of these links are personal accounts of experience.
http://blakecroissant.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/why-you-shouldnt-use-the-word-tranny-part-2/
http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/a-personal-history-of-t-word-and-some.html
http://katebornstein.typepad.com/kate_bornsteins_blog/2009/07/who-you-calling-a-tranny.html
When sharing this article, please be mindful of these concerns and pass on this warning.
Warning: This article contains a word which readers may find upsetting, offensive and/or hurtful We would like to give a warning that the 't-word' will be used in the following article. The word...
Only two days since our call for contributions went up and the articles are already streaming in. Keep it coming everyone! And remember - art, interviews and creative pieces are welcome. Check out this beautiful photography series from the last issue of Upswell.
This is the debut photography series by two Tasmanian artists, Luke Wren Reid & Claire Johnston, who collaborate as 'The Frida & Leon Affair.' A project about creating political art, these...
Contribute to the next edition of Upswell!
We would like to invite contributions for the second edition of Upswell Magazine. Download the Call for Contributions We find ourselves in a time of escalating conflict, political...
Our latest blog post: A look at the repressive legislation put in place in Brisbane in preparation for the G20 summit.
At a cost of over $450 million, a massive security operation is being coordinated by the Commonwealth Government Taskforce (G20 Taskforce), together with the Queensland Police Service and other Commonwealth, State and Local government security ...
Go home. Shut up! That's the message being sent to women experiencing domestic violence in New South Wales, as specialist services across the state face imminent closure.
In July No Shelter: A collective against gendered violence brought workers from the sector together to discuss resistance to the reforms.
A public forum on the closure of women's only, youth and Aboriginal services in NSW.
Looking back at the history of student organising in Sydney, Tim Briedis with another interview, this time discussing the fourteen day occupation at Bankstown at the University of Western Sydney in 1999 with Pru Wirth, Michael Thorn and Mari Vagg.
In the light of the resurgence of student organising this year, Tim Briedis spoke to three former student activists – Pru Wirth, Michael Thorn and Mari Vagg. They were involved in activism on...
"I’ve never been involved in a protest like that since I’ve been at uni!" - Brigitte Garozzo
Yesterday we published Tim Briedis's interview with Brigitte Garozzo. Stay tuned for the next contribution to '[Un]Schooled' our new radical education blog series. If you have something rad to contribute to the topic, please email us at [email protected]
http://www.upswellmag.com/unschooled-radical-education-blog-series.html
Monday 13th October 2014 'Liberal scum, here we come!' The stu dent movement today TIM BRIEDIS
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Upswell Magazine posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Upswell Magazine:
Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?
