Changemakers: Recent Episodes
Amanda Tattersall
ChangeMakers Podcast tells stories of people trying the change the world. Host Amanda Tattersall travels the globe, talking to the people involved in extraordinary campaigns, finding out what works - and what doesn’t. Hopes, fears and regrets are revealed. Story by story, the lessons of how to change the world are teased out. Series One in 2017 featured ten episodes, and Series 2 released in 2018 covers campaigns from the democracy movement in Hong Kong to the Marriage Equality movement in Australia, to the anti-Trump movement in the USA.
ChangeMakers shows change is possible.
What would it take for communities reliant on fossil fuels to be leaders in the climate transition? In this chat Elise Ganley, the National Lead Organiser for the Real Deal for Australia project explores how communities like Gladstone and Geelong are leading the way in designing policies that create an economic transition in ways that are shaped by their interests. Elise lives in Gladstone and grew up in regional South Australia, she tells the story of how these communities have used community organising and worked with the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney to create a community-led transition from the ground up.
For more on the Real Deal see here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/our-research/real-deal.html.
Host Amanda Tattersall is involved in this project and has written about it, including a discussion of the work in Gladstone and in Geelong.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
We are all different - but some of these differences are hard to see. That includes differences based on our neurodiversity or our mental health. This conversation is with Jacinta Dietrich the co-host of the Differently Brained podcast. She is autistic and has lived with the challenges of mental health. She co-created a podcast to make a space for people to share how they live differently.
Jacinta shares openly about her neurodivergence and the community she has created. We also have a lovely chat about changemaking - and the power that “small” change, like one to one conversations can bring to changing the world.
You can find out more about the Differently Brained podcast here: https://differentlybrainedpodcast.podbean.com/, where there are links to episodes. The podcast can be found on all the podcast apps.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
If you are in Australia you might have heard of GetUp, or if you are in the United States you probably know about MoveOn - but you might not be aware that these kinds of digital advocacy movements operate in 20 countries around the world. These groups are linked through a global network called OPEN (Online Progressive Engagement Network) and today we talk with Nina Hall who has written the book about how the network works!
We explore what makes these organisations similar and how their work differs across the world. We talk about a big debate inside the network - about having their campaigns between being led by member preferences and being stewarded by staff. This is a chat we at ChangeMakers particularly enjoyed as our host, Amanda Tattersall helped found GetUp in Australia.
If you have been getting emails from one of these organisations - come and have a listen to how they work!
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Making change is be invaluable, but without resources it is hard to do. This episode digs into the question of how to raise money to make changemaking happen. We talk with Martha McKenzie the Executive Director of the Civic Power Fund in the United Kingdom. The Civic Power Fund is dedicated to raising resources for community organising - providing seed grants and creating understanding amongst philanthropists of the particular power that organising can create. This Chat digs into how they have done this and some of the obstacles they have encountered. It is a tour de force about all things organising, and it demonstrates the power of using the principles of organising to ‘disorganise and reorganise’ philanthropy.
In the Chat Martha mentions a few ideas which you can find out more about here: Jane McAlevey - there is a ChangeMaker Chat with Jane that you can find here. Scale - the article that our host Amanda Tattersall wrote is here
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
It’s been one year since the Australian Federal Election that swooped an unprecedented number of community independents into the House of Representatives, and it’s been 10 years since that “Voices for” movement started. In celebration of Voices for Indi, we are sharing this Chat with Nick Haines - in case you missed it (ICYMI). Nick worked on Cathy McGowan’s campaign and his mum Helen Haines is the current member for Indi.
In this conversation he shares the long story of how community independents used community organising techniques like kitchen table conversations to build an independent electoral base in Australia.
The Voices for Indi group has just released a new book called The Indi Way - and you can find out more about it here - https://voicesforindi.com/.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
In the 2022 Australian Federal Election the Greens won an unprecedented number of seats in Queensland - producing what came to be known as the “Green Wave.” Max Chandler-Mather was at the centre of that movement - and is now the current Member for Griffith. In this conversation he shares how the Queensland Greens translated community organising techniques into an electoral force.He shares his unusal story into the Greens, as someone who was frustrated and disenchanted by traditional electoral politics. But gentrification and the Brisbane floods changed his perspective, and he was encouraged to try and use lessons from political parties like Podemos and social movements around the world in the electoral arena.Max goes into detail about how the Greens successfully organised, using door knocking, training programs and issue education sessions to create a space for political education and movement building. He talks openly about the challenges of electoral politics, and how important it is for candidates and parties to be held accountable to the people that elected them.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website -https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Australia is in the middle of a national conversation that could transform our relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But how much do you know about the long story that sits behind the Voice to Parliament referendum? Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, born on Larrakia country in Darwin. He shares with us his journey into union activism and Indigenous struggle. This chat explores what it was like to be part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the community movement following it. He talks about the power and importance of the Federal Labor Government’s commitment to a national referendum to change the Australian Constitution and create a Voice to Parliament in late 2023.Thomas has written five books, and you can find out about them here. His latest book released in May 2023 with Kerry O’Brien called “The Voice to Parliament Handbook” is available via all major book distributors (see here). Thomas is on tour talking about the book and the dates and tickets can be found here.There are lots of organisations campaigning for a yes vote, including:https://yes23.com.au/ (space to volunteer)https://togetheryes.com.au/ (supporting kitchen table conversations)https://ulurustatement.org/training/#/ - a learning platform about the voice and the Uluru Statement from the HeartThe Voice is a produce of a powerful collaborative process led by and for Indigenous Australians that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.You can find out more about ChangeMakers:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Few people have been as effective at agitating for a stronger climate and environment movement as Bill McKibben. He has consistently pushed new strategies and thinking in the battle to save our natural environment and our climate.In celebration of his agitator spirit, we are re-sharing this #InCaseYouMissedIt episode with Bill McKibben recorded in June 2022. In this chat Bill shares how he found change making through a love of the natural environment and writing - and the lessons he has taken from the kind of movements he has helped bring to life, like 350.org and Third Act.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Australian of the Year Grace Tame talks with us about her journey into change making and the challenges she has encountered. She talks about the power of even small action, and the impact that petitions had in the #LetHerSpeak movement. She talks about how the pathway to making change can be uneven, made difficult by the experience of trauma. It is a wide ranging conversation where, with a full heart, Grace shares some of the qualities that have made her a fierce advocate for change.Grace’s book “Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: a memoir” is available here.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Today we talk with Claire O’Rouke - a former journalist, climate campaigner and author of Together We Can - about the diverse and creative grassroots movement of people around Australia taking action to respond to the threat of climate change. Together We Can canvassed over 70 stories of Australians who have developed novel community based responses to help our climate, defying the logic that you need to be a scientist or a politician to make a difference, We unpack how people have sought to overcome challenges like climate distress and what Claire has learnt about what goes into the most successful forms of change.For more information about Together We Can visit: https://claireorourke.com/new-book-together-we-can/For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
So what do former Fire Chief Greg Mullins and Australian Cricket Captain Pat Cummins have in common? They both want action on climate change and they have both worked with Amanda McKenzie, CEO of Australia’s Climate Council, to build their strategy. Amanda is a climate communicator who has worked to catalyse different communities of people affected by climate change so they can become powerful climate advocates. She talks with us about her approach to climate communications and how long term engaged work with a variety of affected communities has changed the public debate on climate in Australia.You can find out more about the climate council here - https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Karen Iles is long time social changemaker, lawyer and victim survivor of aggravated sexual assault when she was a child. As a young adult she went to the police to lodge a statement so they would investigate the crime, only to be stymied at every turn. After almost 20 years of police inaction, she has launched a campaign to create a duty for police to investigate allegations of serious crimes like child sexual assault. Today she shares her journey and the campaign she has launched. We discuss the power of personal experience in shaping political advocacy and her hopes for changing the legal system.For more on Karen’s campaign:Take action to support the campaign at MakePoliceInvetigate.orgWatch Karen on The ProjectRead Karen’s story in the Guardian and in News.com.auFor more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Modern society tells subtle but powerful stories that shape how we think about how we should live together, make decisions together and what we should value. Jon Alexander has identified three of these stories - the subject story of the tyrant strong man, the consumer story of the modern market and the citizen story, as alternative ways we can be. In this chat we identify how these stories impact how we make change. We look at how the dominant consumer story infects many change making strategies, and some of the ways in which groups have sought to challenge consumer logic with citizen practice. For more you can find out more about Jon’s book Citizens here. You can find out more about the New Citizenship Project here. For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
There is a powerful movement led for and by the trans and gender diverse community building in Australia - and today’s ChangeMaker Chat is with one of its founders. Jackie Turner is a trans woman and a long time social justice and climate organiser. This chat explores how organising in her community has given her a new lens on how and why we make change. She outlines the threats to the trans communities in the UK and USA, and what that means for trans people everywhere. She provides plenty of advice for cis allies about what can be done to support the trans community.You can provide financial support for Jackie’s Trans Justice Project here.You can follow Jackie on Insta www.instagram.com/jackiemaeturner/ or on Twitter @jackiemaeturner. All her writing can be found in her bio.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Today’s podcast looks at racism in the not for profit world. Aminata Conteh-Bigher has an extraordinary story; having developed powerful leadership qualities in Sierra Leonne civil war forced her to flee her home. In Australia she founded the Aminata Maternal Foundation to change the dangerous conditions that women face when giving birth in Sierra Leonne. Today she shares how this journey has placed her at the centre of the not-for-profit world in Australia, and the struggles around racism that she has encountered on that journey. This is a powerful and provocative conversation for changemakers that calls for us to change how we make change, if we truly want to live the values that so many of us preach.For more on Aminata you can read her book Rising Heart, and you can find more about the Aminata Maternal Foundation here.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Terri Janke is an Aboriginal and Torrest Strait Islander Lawyer who uses the law to protect and advance Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. As a Meriam and Wuthathi woman who grew up in Cairns in northern Queensland, for over 20 years she has crafted a set of legal instruments that allow for the protection of Indigenous Culture. From an Indigenous perspective, Culture is the embodiment of life, and it can be represented in anything from art to dance, from bones to research. She is well recognised across Australia for her work in protecting Indigenous Culture using a series of True Track protocols that enable Indigenous Culture to be recognised as intellectual property.
Here she explains her journey and how she found the law. She explores her ICIP principles and then applies them to the process of research, and in particular Country-based ‘placed-based’ research. This is a powerful conversation for non-Indigenous listeners as Terri generously shares an Indigenous perspective on Culture that is very different to white understandings of culture.
For more about Terri’s work you can visit her website - https://www.terrijanke.com.au/. Or read her book True Tracks, available from UNSW Press.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
In the US midterm elections, one of the extraordinary outcomes was how many young people turned their back on some of the more extreme candidates that denied the 2020 election result. Yet should it have been so surprising? Young people have been organising like their lives depended on it for a while - including through the March for Our Lives movement against gun violence.
This episode is a re-release of the story of the March for Our Lives movement that arose out of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
The city of Barcelona has lived with an unprecedented housing crisis, and in its wake the city created a new kind of radical and successful political party. Former housing activist Ada Colou was elected as the city’s Mayor in 2015, and again in 2019. What led to her success? This story, a re-release of our very first episode back in 2017, shares the story and its lessons from the streets of Barcelona.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
One of the biggest challenges facing any change maker is how to enlist help from the state, especially when it comes to the fight for economic justice. Australian Labor Party Member of Parliament, Daniel Mulino, has written about the history and future of the welfare state, and in his recent book Safety Net proposes new (and old) ways for imagining the welfare state as a vehicle for managing personal and social risk. This ChangeMaker Chat explores how Daniel’s personal experiences and his time in local, state and federal politics have helped shape his approach to renewing the welfare state.
This conversation was recorded live at Gleebooks in Sydney, supported by Black Inc Press. You can follow Daniel Mulino @DanielMulinoMP.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Could there be a single lever in the global marketplace that could transform the stakes for climate change? Yes - the insurance industry. Over the past 5 years insurance has been turned upside down by a nimble network of climate campaigners that have set new rules to end insurance for fossil fuel projects. We are re-releasing this 2021 story of the Sunrise Project, the Insure our Future coalition, and the global and Australian distributed networks that have turned the world of insurance around. For more on ChangeMakers check us out: via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
How on earth did all those community independents win seats in the May 2022 Election?
This ChangeMaker Chat talks to Katerina Gaita the Field Organiser and Volunteer Coordinator for Zoe Daniel’s campaign in Goldstein. She unpacks the long march of the independents, starting with Cathy McGowan winning in Indi to the ‘Wave of Teal’ in 2022. As a community organiser and community builder she explains how she learnt to translate her skills as an activist to help her design a campaign that could win a majority of votes for climate and political integrity in a conservative electorate. In doing so she challenges us all to think about the place that elections can play in changemaking.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
While the world is striving to stop catastrophic climate change, there is plenty of conflict over how climate campaign goals are chosen and the language that is used to express them. A key fault line is between the Global North and Global South and whether campaigns about energy transition are imposed onto communities, or connected to solutions that create broader economic, social and cultural justice. Ruchira Talukdar, a climate activist in India and Australia has lived and studied these tensions. In this chat we explore what is going wrong, and how listening and embedding climate work in community empowerment - like we see in Indian anti-extractivist campaigns - could signal a way forward.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Lots of people say they co-design research and policy with communities, but how do you know when co-design is being done well (and when it isn’t)? We talk to one of the world’s leading autistic participatory researchers, Professor Liz Pellicano from University College London. She shares the elements of good co-design, such as the process of interdependence, the role of relationships and power in the co-design process, and important place of lived experience researchers. You can follow Liz @liz_pellicano.
For more about ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
This week we interview one of the world’s leading climate action warriors, Bill McKibben. Bill began as a writer, where his passion for the story and his love of nature drew him to write the first popular global book about climate change - The End of Nature. In the 2000s, dismayed at the lack of grassroots action to stop climate change he founded 350.org. Still fighting - his latest mission is to engage older people in climate action, a movement he has called the Third Act.
We talk about it all in this wide ranging conversation about life, politics, and what it means to live and fight when literally the fate of the world is in our hands.
To find out more about Bill’s latest book - The Flag, the Cross and the Station Wagon (an imprint of Henry Holt Books), go here. You can follow Bill on Twitter @billmckibben.
For more about ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Australian party politics can seriously lack diversity. This conversation is about how that can be changed. Osmond Chiu has been pushing to increase cultural diversity in the Australian Labor Party for a while. Today he shares some of the triumphs, tribulations and lessons about how change is possible - including some reflections on the highs and lows of the 2022 Australian Election. Osmond is a rank and file representative on the NSW Labor State Policy Forum and a Research Fellow at the Per Capita think tank. You can find him on Twitter at @redrabbleroz.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
In what ways are public servants ChangeMakers, and how can advocacy groups build more powerful relationships with them? This chat is with one of Australia’s most senior former public servants - Peter Shergold - who was a senior official in both the Hawke Labor Government and the Howard conservative Liberal Government. He shares stories about what it is like to work in the public service, and the challenges and limitations that it brings. He gives us an insight into what public servants are doing right now as they prepare to support a new Federal Government in Australia, on the issue of climate change.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Nick Haines - ChangeMaker Chats - Independents and Elections
The 2022 Australian Election is all about the Independent ‘Teal’ Candidates - but where did this Independent movement come from? Today we talk with Nick Haines, Voices for Indi activist, and son of Helen Haines, Member for Indi, about how it all began. He shares his family’s story and how he helped support Cathy McGowan, the first of the Independent Candidates, to win the seat of Indi from Sophie Mirabella back in 2013. This is a conversation about how community organising has helped community leaders create a different kind of political representation all across Australia.
Nick has been part of a team of authors writing a book about this movement called - “The People are Interested in Politics” Use the discount code ‘ChangeMakers’ to order an advance copy here: https://lanewaypress.com.au/product/the-people-are-interested-in-politics/
For more about ChangeMakers Podcast check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
This is the first of two episodes about people power in election campaigns. Today we feature a campaign by the Australian digital campaign group GetUp. This independent community movement worked to change the electoral outcome in the Tasmanian seat of Bass in 2016. The story shares lessons about how people can work in elections to have their needs and issues heard, and the role that local relationships and issues play in this work.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Across the world statues and symbols dedicated to slave owners and colonialists are being removed. But before that movement started in the United States and the United Kingdom, it began in Cape Town. The is the story of #RhodesMust Fall and the South African #FeesMustFall movement that sought to not only remove the symbols of colonialism but demanded that the education system be changed in substance as well.
What would it take for the goodies of the world to have a growing, exponential set of resources to finance how we make change? Josh Ross explores the idea of venture philanthropy and his not-for-profit ticketing organisation Humanitix. His company is disrupting event ticketing while also raising an exponential sum for charitable causes. Seed funding created a different kind of charity, where the business model raises more money than donations ever could. We talk about how he got started, what this means for philanthropy and the role of technology in social change.
For more on Humanitix - https://www.humanitix.com/.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Resistance to the war in Ukraine is strong, in Ukraine and also in Russia. This episode is about a housing campaign by Russian dissidents recorded in 2017. These families came together to defend urban forests - large parklands that serve as backyards for tens of thousands of Mosovites. This story documents the political pressure they faced as they sought to defend their homes from the over-development brought on by oligarchs and the kleptocratic state.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
The Disability Movement famously argues ‘nothing about us without us.’ Wenn Lawson lives this creed as a world leading autistic advocate and researcher who has helped change how we understand autism and neurodivergence. He shares his journey, including how he shook the house of academia so it would listen to the lives of autistic people. He reflects on the power of co-produced research, identity and difference in how we build knowledge together.
For more about Wenn’s research and books, go to http://www.buildsomethingpositive.com/wenn/
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Australia locks up asylum seekers if they attempt to get here by boat. But the refugees that have been subject to indefinite detention on Manus Island and in Australian hotels have resisted. Mostafa Azimitabar, Moz, has led refugee resistance from the inside using the change making skills that he developed as a Kurdish freedom fighter. Here he shares his story and his approach to change making, lessons learnt in his struggle against the Iranian and Australian governments. You can find Moz on Twitter @AzimiMoz and on Instagram @mostafaazimitabar.
Logline - Examining the tough relationships between mainstream progressive parties and movements in Australia, host Amanda Tattersall looks back at her own experience. She tells the story of the 2001-2004 refugee movement’s attempt to shift the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and examines what worked, and what was learnt. Lessons are drawn for the climate movement today. This piece was also published by Fabian Review in February 2022.
You can find the original article online at Australian Fabian Review here.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Four years ago on Invasion Day 2018 Tarneen Onus-Williams was relentlessly and violently trolled on Twitter for a speech she gave at a protest. Social media abuse tries to shut people down. It is frighteningly common for women, for Indigenous women and women of colour. This is the story of how Amnesty crowdsourced thousands of volunteers to patrol twitter and see if they could stop it
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
The Hong Kong 2019 protests were some of the largest protests ever seen in the world, and they didn’t come from nowhere. This episode explains some of the history behind the social movements in Hong Kong - from Tiananmen Square to local democracy struggles - Hong Kongers have long used and developed powerful protest strategies.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
The war on drugs has been a failed battle for decades. But what could we be doing differently? And what is a church doing running a facility where illegal drugs can be used openly? And why?
For more on the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre go here. For more on the Fair Treatment campaign go here.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
No matter what your beliefs, the moral of the Bethlehem story is that when people are in need they need compassion. While Australia’s refugee policies have infrequently followed this, Australian people have. This is the story of Baby Asha - an injured baby who was medivaced to a hospital in Brisbane and the community of people who rose up to keep that child in a space of safety away from a desert prison on the Pacific Island of Nauru.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
How can we hold together big ambition for social change on issues like climate alongside the small work required to build powerful connections across our diversity and difference? This piece explores the tensions of scale between big and small, fast and slow through stories and reflections across a life of organising. Our host Amanda Tattersall reads a memoir that she wrote for the Griffith Review in their August edition entitled Hey Utopia.
You can find the Griffith Review here: https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/hey-utopia/.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
Could there be a single lever in the global marketplace that could transform the stakes for climate change? Yes - the insurance industry. Over the past 5 years insurance has been turned upside down by a nimble network of climate campaigners that have set new rules to end insurance for fossil fuel projects. This is the story of the Sunrise Project, the Insure our Future coalition, and the global and Australian distributed networks that have turned the world of insurance around.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
If Glasgow tells us anything - the people of the world will need to keep coming together if the politicians of the world are to ever stop climate change. But that begs the question - what does it take for people to come together powerfully? Especially people who are really different.
Building unusual alliances is both an art and a science and those who have succeeded and failed before have a lot to teach us today. This is a special episode from our archive, recorded in 2017, featuring two very different coalitions. Together they share a series of important lessons about building alliances. We love coalition building at ChangeMakers - our host Amanda Tattersall wrote the go to book ‘Power in Coalition’ and these stories bring many of these ideas to life.
For more on ChangeMakers visit our website - https://changemakerspodcast.org/
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Across her career Meena has led large-scale technological changemaking networks in the Global South. She has developed the resources that have allowed communities to work with each other to respond to crisis and disaster - from floods to Covid. In this episode we learn from how she has created scaled change, focused on listening, valuing people, working with communities and providing spaces for neighbours to help neighbours.
For more on ChangeMakers Podcast - check us out at https://changemakerspodcast.org/, or on Twitter at @changemakers99 or @amandatatts.
Covid has changed the world - not just the pandemic - but equally the challenges and changes to our human systems - how we relate and work together. We recorded this episode back in May 2020 at the beginning of the crisis. It explores three stories where change and hope were making a difference. We looked at healthcare, mutual aid and the Green New Deal - and saw how people were seeking (and are continuing to build) hope out of difficult times.
Jane McAlevey is a fierce advocate for winning social change through organising. Her organising method, grounded in decades of experience, mentorship and the battles of many movements across US history, is that workers and people need to lead their own change. She specialises in teaching how you can support people to do this.
For unionists, her work is well known - and this episode is a joyous journey into how she came to this approach, and how that approach works. For others in the climate movement or racial justice movements - this is a useful introduction to what Jane means by organising, how it is different to mobilising and some of its crucial features.
If you are interested in Jane’s work, she has published three books and a free online book of case studies that can all be downloaded here - https://janemcalevey.com/. You can find Jane on Twitter at @rsgexp.
She also runs a global training program called Workers Rising - the most recent session is described here and future sessions will be advertised on Jane’s website (you can sign up for updates).
For more on ChangeMakers - check us out at https://changemakerspodcast.org/, or Twitter at @changemakers99 or @amandatatts.
This week we explore what it would take to build a movement for nature. Sam Rye is a manager at the Conservation Volunteers Australia. He has been involved in a lifetime of work around regeneration and in networks involving decentralised leadership. He is bringing those two passions together to imagine how people can reimagine their relationship with the earth.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
We talk to one of the biggest names in US community organising, Ernie Cortes. We chat about the history of organising, exploring how it has changed and how it has created a powerful network of organisers that spans the globe. Ernie reflects on the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) under Saul Alinksy, his work building the IAF after Alinsky’s death, and some of the practices the IAF uses to develop powerful organisers.
Across the conversation Ernie mentions dozens of important references and readings that will be food for any existing and want-to-be change maker. We have put that list on our website too, for those who weren’t quick enough to grab a pen - https://changemakerspodcast.org/ernie-cortes-changemaker-chat/.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out: Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts
As Afghanistan falls again to the rule of the Taiban, we want to share a lesser known story of hope - the work of Insaan and the Kabul Peace House. During the 2000s in the mountains of central Afghanistan, soon after the US invasion, a remarkable but unlikely peace movement began. Led by a man called Insaan, they committed to a process of building peace between people. Over decades they created understanding and connection between ethnic groups and genders in ways that invasion and ideology couldn’t.
This story was written and recorded by our reporter Mark Isaacs on location in Afghanistan, and first released in 2020. Life in Afghanistan is far more complex than how it is portrayed in the daily Western news, celebrating the Afghani community leaders who continue to work for a better place.
You can find out more about this story in the book about Kabule Peace House, by Mark Isaacs - https://markjisaacs.com/product/the-kabul-peace-house/
Find out more about ChangeMakers on our website - https://changemakerspodcast.org/
You can follow us on Twitter @changemakers99 or our host Amanda Tattersall @amandatatts. Or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
In 2018 we interviewed Hahrie Han one of the United State’s prominent researchers on community organising, community leadership and social change. This episode explores her research on civic engagement and some of the cut through theorising she has done contrasting ‘mobilising’ and ‘organising strategies. For anyone interested in how people can work together to make powerful change to advance their values and solve their problems - then this is for you! We release this now as Hahrie has just released a co-authored book called Prisms for the People - the next instalment of powerful thinking in this space.
For more on ChangeMakers - go to https://changemakerspodcast.org/
For more on Hahrie’s books - https://www.hahriehan.com/books
Follow us on Twitter - @changemaker99 or on Facebook!
When can political parties be real change makers and produce big change? Ed Miliband, former Opposition Leader for the UK Labour Party shares some of the lesser known stories that have shaped his political identity and his ambitions for a politics that can go big. We discuss the role of labour and social democratic parties in the change making space. We reconsider the idea that ‘politics is the art of the possible’ and Ed shares some of his insight into the kind of politics that is needed for these challenging times.
We have some follow up resources for this episode:
In the episode Ed makes reference to Arnie Graf . For a ChangeMaker Chat with Arnie go to here - https://changemakerspodcast.org/arnie-graf-community-organiser-changemaker-chats/
Ed also mentions Citizens UK. For a podcast with Jonathan Cox Citizen UK's co-director go to - https://changemakerspodcast.org/jonathan-cox-scale-and-organising-changemaker-chat/
Ed mentioned BREXIT, for a ChangeMaker story about how the campaign worked go to - https://changemakerspodcast.org/episode-2-win/
For more information about ChangeMakers you can find us at https://changemakerspodcast.org/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ and on Twitter at @ChangeMakers99
On 14 February 2018 a lone gunman entered Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida and killed 17 people. In the days following, a group of students from the school built a campaign to change gun laws in America. Everyday students like Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg became household names as a social movement called March for Our Lives staged a national conversation around gun violence. This episode tells their story featuring teachers, students and parents who were there that day and part of the movement that grew. We released this story in 2020. It is part of a three-part series about March for Our LIves. Episode two is about art and politics after Parkland, and episode three is about identity.
For more on ChangeMakers visit our website - https://changemakerspodcast.org/. You can find us on Facebook or on Twitter at @changemakers99
One of President Biden’s first acts was to stop the Keystone Pipeline. It was a victory that arose out of a long battle. First Nations leaders from Standing Rock, in coalition with Indigneous leaders from around the world, initiated this campaign in 2016 to protect their land and water from destruction. But for hundreds of years before this, the Sioux Nations have defended their land and fought for sovereignty. This story features the voices of some of these leaders. The story was first released in 2017, years before the pipeline was stopped.
For more about ChangeMakers visit - https://changemakerspodcast.org/. You can find us on Facebook or on Twitter at @changemakers99
What does it take to build powerful coalitions between different groups with different interests and passions? The idea of working together sounds nice, but what makes a coalition work when the rubber hits the road. This is an episode of two very different but equally successful coalitions. The first talks to organisers in the coalition that delivered the BREXIT deal in the United Kingdom. The second tells the story of the grassroots leaders who build a coalition to stop gas fields being built across the Northern Rivers of NSW in Australia. Each story draws out crucial, transferable lessons about coalition building, drawn in part from our Host Amanda Tattersall’s book Power in Coalition (2010). There are further links to writing and training about coalition building on our website - www.changemakerspodcast.org (via story page).
Scale is a buzzword in social change circles, but what does it actually mean to scale social change? Community organiser and Deputy Director of Citizens UK Jonathan Cox unpacks the idea of scale. We discuss the importance of one to one relationships, organisation and networks as resources that help social change ideas move from the small to the big and from place to place.
Dany’s latest book Summertime documents her experience inside the 2019 Bushfires. Today we talk about her journey and how she has learnt to speak about crisis. We also discuss the power she has drawn from bearing witness. Dany identifies strategies for how change makers can walk with crisis, and harness the power of story-telling in how they make change.
Tyson Yunkaporta belongs to Apalech clan of North Queensland. He wrote Sandtalk and is an iconoclast - helping us to see things differently in a modern world of crisis and chaos. Join us on a chat that explores a different understanding of power, change and being.
Do you need a charismatic leader to make change in the world? Arnie Graf’s life’s work shows the answer is ‘no.’ He’s spent 45 years working with people like you and me to build movements that collectively lead change. This episode talks about how he got there and what he learnt. He shares how he was trained by Saul Alinsky the grandfather of community organising, and he reflects on his book Lessons Learned.
Following the 2021 coup by the Burmese military, the Burmese community have built an extraordinary civil disobedience movement to call for the return of democracy. Today we speak to Myint Cho a long time Burmese pro-democracy activist, active in the student movement in 1988, and then based at the Thai-Burma border for 12 years. He shares the long history of the struggle and explains what is happening today.
There is a sexual assault crisis in Australia right now. Today we have a special episode - a re-recorded speech that was delivered by host Amanda Tattersall to 500 year 9 and 10 female and male high school students at a public high school in Sydney’s inner West Sydney for its International Women’s Day Assembly.
What does it take for a teenager to turn into a planet defender? Jean Hinchliffe is a climate campaigner and a new author of activist handbook Lead the Way. Today she talks about her activist journey and the lessons she has learnt about making powerful change.
During the 2000s, in the mountains of central Afghanistan, a remarkable but unlikely peace movement began. How did they even define peace in a place beset by war, and how did they organise themselves to work towards this audacious goal?
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Steve Killelea is one of Australia’s most successful businessmen and a self-described peace maker! In this Chat we talk about why he combined these two passions. We explore how his peace work developed from an idea hatched while working in Africa, to creating the largest index for peace in the world!
Mike Gecan is a 45 year veteran organiser based in the United States. He is the former National Co-Director of the first, largest and oldest community organising network in the world - the Industrial Areas Foundation. He talks to us about what organising is, and what it is not. He shares stories about how he learnt about power, and explores some of the differences between social change traditions like mobilising and organising. He also gives us a fresh take on the upcoming Trump v Biden 2020 US Presidential Election.
Go to our website link for additional reading, materials and links referred to in the podcast. https://changemakerspodcast.org/mike-gecan-changemaker-chat/
Samuel Chu is a long time community organiser and the founder of the Hong Kong Democracy Council in the United States. In this Chat we explore how he has connected his identities as an organiser and a Hong Konger to create a radically different form of international solidarity in the US. His approach translated the energy of protest into politics, securing bipartisan support for multiple pieces of legislation in support of Hong Kong. We also consider how his work provides lessons for how we might push back against rising authoritarianism in other places across the world.
The Movement for Black Lives is realigning political life in the US in 2020. Maurice Mitchell has been a leader in this movement since Ferguson. This conversation moves from his own traumatic experiences of racism that shaped his early life, to his work as an organiser and his reflections on the kinds of political strategy required to win justice. We zero in on the protests that exploded following the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and unpack the lesser known but vital strategies that have underpinned their success.
Have you been enjoying Fight for Planet A - the show all about climate change? Then come and hear our ChangeMaker Chat with host Craig Reucassel where we go behind the scenes to find out about his story, and explore what he is trying to achieve in doing the show.
For more on ChangeMakers head to https://changemakerspodcast.org/. Follow us on Twitter @Changemakers99, or host Amanda Tattersall @amandatatts.
In all of Australia, Batemans Bay and the South Coast was one of the worst affected. With devastation everywhere, formal government services and charities weren’t able to cope. This is the story of the little known community initiative that saw the breach and stepped in to fill the gap.
In the summer of 2019, Australia had the worst bushfires on record. Everyone knows the story of the official fires services. This is the story of the not-so-official fire fighting squad.
One of the hardest things to do when making change is raising money to support your work. Today we host a panel to discuss the art of organising money with Colleen Loper from Way to Win (US) and Stefan Baskerville from New Economics Foundation (UK). We discuss the different ways you can raise money and the pros and cons of these strategies. We explore why it is so hard to raise money, what makes it successful and how we can understand if not overcome some of these challenges.
What happens to the communities that suffer from toxic pollution? Too often nothing. But not if they partner with Pure Earth, the world’s only global NGO working on toxics. Today we talk with it’s founder Richard Fuller - engineer turned toxics crusader who has helped lead an intervention that has cleaned up over 120 places. We find out how he got into it, and how Pure Earth works with communities to create lasting change.
Social service organisations like food banks, charities, and nonprofits are being squeezed at both ends by the pandemic - their resource base has collapsed while they now have much greater demand for their services. Joan Garry talks us through these challenges based on her decades of experience as an advocate, nonprofit CEO and mentor to thousands of nonprofit leaders across North America.
What are the psychological features of the climate disaster? How does fear cause some people to step back, and others to step forward and make change. Margaret Klein Salamon is a psychoanalyst who has transitioned into a climate change warrior. Today she talks about her journey, and how we can understand emergency and fear to build a powerful movement for change.
COVID-19 has shaken the foundations of life as we know it. There is fear, but is there hope as well? This episode features three stories, about healthcare, mutual aid and green stimulus, that show people making something better out of this difficult time.
This is the long story behind one of the United Kingdom’s most high profile left wing figures. In this Chat we learn about Owen Jones’s journey into political life, how extra-parliamentary activism shaped him, but also why the British Labour Party matters.
Bonnie Honig is one of the world’s top democratic theorists and is based at Brown University. A scholar and commentator in the United States, Bonnie is the author of numerous books, including Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair, published in 2017. She runs us through her approach to democracy and critical thinking, showing us how it can help us interpret and respond to the crises and shocks that we are experiencing now.
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers gives us the lowdown on what she’s learned about changemaking after more than 25 years at the chalkface of teacher’s unionism in the United States.
Curious about the remarkable rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and policies like the Green New Deal? We talk to Andres Bernal about both.
In the US, gun violence affects black communities far more than any other. How did the March for Our Lives movement work with these communities? What do powerful intersectional movements look like?
In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland people began using art as a means to express their grief and to connect their plea for gun reform to others. How did this art reach people in ways that moved beyond just words?
On 14 February 2018, 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. That same day, student survivors began to build a movement against senseless gun violence and lax gun laws. This is the first episode in a multi-part series that shares how they organised for change. This episode looks at how important their voices were in breaking through the sense of despair in America’s gun debate.
Today’s chat is with autism advocate Robyn Steward. We learn about her journey as an autistic woman, and about the power of building understanding between neurotypical and neurodivergent people. Curious about autism - this one is for you!
GetUp is one of Australia’s most impactful and influential community organisations, and Paul Oosting is their national director. We discuss what GetUp learnt from the 2019 Federal Election campaign. We find out Paul’s insights about what it’s like to operate under the pressure of media and political attack.
When the 2019 Bushfires burnt her house, Fiona Lee did what most would find hard - she became an advocate for climate change. Three days after her house burnt down, Fiona and her family stood at NSW Parliament House calling for serious action on climate change as creating the context for these catastrophic fires. What is her story? How did she do this? And what did she learn about the power of her own voice in this moment. This episode was recorded the day after she spoke at Parliament House.
Antony Dapiran is the author of City of Protest - A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong. He is a long-time Hong Kong resident, lawyer, and commentator on Chinese business and legal matters.
Joel Solomon is the co-author of The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose and Capitalism. He is one of the world’s early innovators in how to use large scale money for good and chair and co-founder of Renewal Funds, Canada’s largest mission venture capital firm.
The 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong was a defeat, but it also generated key insights. We explore how it has guided the 2019 Hong Kong Protest movement.
From Tiananmen Square onwards, Hong Kong protesters have developed sophisticated protest strategies. We explore the long story behind Hong Kong’s protest life that has produced the 2019 movement.
Jennifer Dillon is the communications director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. We talk about her work seeking recognition, dignity, respect and basic labour protections for millions of domestic workers in the United States.
Dave Sweeney is a long time prominent anti-nuclear campaigner, co-founding the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winning global organisation, ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Jeremy Heimans is a digital social movement entrepreneur and the key figure behind cutting edge social change organisations like GetUp, Avaaz and Purpose. We talk about his journey, and themes from his new book with Henry Timms, called New Power - How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World - and How to Make it Work for You.
Hahrie Han is one of the world’s top researchers studying ways of strengthening civic engagement. We explore the different strategies you can use to build people power and the journey she took to become one of the world’s top researchers in this space.
Imagine trying to make change in an authoritarian state? Jolovan Wham works in Singapore with migrant domestic workers. Why does he do it and what does the state do to make his change making so hard?
In Australia it’s hard for newly arrived refugees to find a new job. In 2011, Settlement Services International found a way for refugees to create businesses for themselves - by using the marketplace as a changemaker.
Social media abuse tries to shut people down, and is frighteningly common for women and people of colour. This is the story of how Amnesty crowdsourced thousands of volunteers to patrol twitter and see if they could stop it.
In Australia it’s hard for newly arrived refugees to find a new job. In 2011, Settlement Services International found a way for refugees to create businesses for themselves - by using the marketplace as a changemaker.
In late 2018 thousands of people from across Central America walked North to the border of the USA and into the political maelstrom of the midterm elections. How did they organise themselves and what did they achieve?
ChangeMakers is a podcast telling stories of people changing the world. https://changemakerspodcast.org https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
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We have radical challenges like climate change and inequality but not many radical political leaders. What does it take to find and elect leaders like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who has transformed political debate around climate change and taxation in only a few months? Becky Bond, Field Director for the Bernie Sanders campaign shares her experience of combining radical agendas and political parties.
Do you wish politicians would spill the beans on how politics actually works? Then this chat is for you. Topics range from Your Rights at Work, the ALP and the Adani mine. https://changemakerspodcast.org/
Can universities be change makers? Marc Stears has not only been a Professor at Oxford but a leading figure in the UK Labour Party under Ed Miliband. He shares what he has learnt about transitioning across the university-practitioner divide in the pursuit of social impact, and his new role as Director of Sydney Policy Lab.
How do we overcome chronic long term homeless? On this episode we look at one campaign which decided to set an absurdly ambitious goal to try and solve the homeless problem.
Can squatters ever hope to become land owners? An inspiring story from Thailand shows what it takes for poor people to rebuild the city around them.
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What is a church doing running a facility where illegal drugs can be used openly? And why?
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The road to marriage equality in Australia was filled with dirty tricks and homophobia. How did the LGBTI community build a movement strong enough to overcome it all?
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In Cape Town, apartheid pushed black residents to the edge of the city. Reclaim the city is a movement pushing back, desegregating the city through strategic long term occupations.
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This is the origin story of the largest anti-Trump organisation in America and how it built a mass based local movement to save affordable healthcare.
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In 2014 Hong Kong hundreds of thousands of citizens staged a mass street occupation demanding the vote. Why did it happen? And what led to tensions building inside the movement overtime?
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What can we learn when a Hollywood TV show gets into ChangeMaking? Comedy show Brooklyn 99 took on police racism. How did they do it in a way that people didn’t turn off?
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In many parts of the world politicians are increasingly scapegoating refugees, and in the process denying them their human rights. But there is one country that’s decided to treat refugees with basic human decency. Uganda doesn't lock up its refugees. Instead, they live in settlements with freedom of movement, access to land and education. What can the rest of the world learn from Uganda?
Have you ever clicked on an online petition and wondered whether it worked? In 2016, GetUp - an Australian digital campaign organisation best known for its online petitions and email campaigns - decided to go offline. They came up a strategy to remove extreme conservative politicians from the Australian parliament. One of the places they went to was the seat of Bass in Northern Tasmania - a seat not known for being welcoming to out-of-towners. What did they do, and how did they do it? GetUp has been condemned by many for the campaign they ran. Here they talk openly about its strengths - and weaknesses.
What does it take to improve the lives of millions of people? The late Fred Hollows knew. He was known across the globe for his groundbreaking work in disrupting the global medical establishment, and his legacy lives on among the doctors he inspired. His most famous student, Dr Sanduk Ruit, has helped bring sight to over 125 000 people and trained thousands more doctors. In the process, he has directly improved the lives of millions of people. But what does it take to achieve transformation at this kind of scale?
What would you do if someone wanted to bulldoze an oil pipeline through your country, threatening not just your land, but your water and air? And what if the nation backing them had a history of playing dirty? That’s the situation the people in today’s episode found themselves in. The battle over building an oil pipeline in Standing Rock in South Dakota, USA. Should they take the high road? Or respond in kind?
What would you do if someone wanted to illegally concrete over your local park, and build an apartment block on it? And what would you do if the authorities supported the illegal construction? Today episode looks at how to organise genuine opposition in a place where the one thing they hate is genuine opposition. How a small protest against destruction of a local park turned into a mass movement that’s sweeping Russia.
This is the second part of an exploration into how anger can be channelled into powerful actions. Part two comes from Brisbane, Australia where a simple vigil outside a hospital turned into a national flashpoint that overturned a decade of political consensus on Australia’s refugee policy. Remarkably, when they began the organisers of the vigil didn’t know what they were even aiming to achieve.
Placing yourself in harm’s way is powerful but scary. Often it is fueled by the white-hot anger of knowing that you’re on the side of justice, and yet failing to make the change you need. This is a two part about times when direct action was used to confront an overwhelming force. Part one looks at the remarkable #FeesMustFall student movement in South Africa, that all started when someone threw poo at a statue.
Sometimes it’s a strength to not know too much about how something is usually done. In both of today’s stories, we see women who had very little experience, entering male-dominated spaces and smashing it. By disrupting the business-as-usual approach, their innovations have had lasting impact. The first story is about mothers who are standing up to the gun lobby in the USA, and the second is about the women on the frontline of terrorism in Kenya.
When the largest rally in human history in 2003 didn’t stop the Iraq War it makes you wonder what does it take for a coalition to win? In the second episode of ChangeMakers podcast we look at Brexit and examine how the types of coalitions used by each side influenced the outcome of the referendum. Then we go to the Northern Rivers in regional Australia look at how a different kind of alliance against Coal Seam Gas sought to organise across the entire community.
You might think it’d be easier to ask for something achievable in a campaign, rather than demand the impossible. But sometimes the opposite is true. In the first episode of ChangeMakers podcast, we look at the famous Fight for 15 campaign in the United States, which is radically changing the way low-wage workers fight for better conditions. Then we look at the roots of the radical politics that is sweeping Barcelona - and examine their attempts to “empower the street”.