Because reading it yourself will put your brain cells at risk, here’s Bettina Arndt’s latest rant in eight easy dot points:
- It’s fine for Julia Gillard to live with Tim Mathieson, but she’s setting a bad example for most women, who are too stupid to make life decisions.
- Unmarried women “slide into it” accidentally when their lease runs out. They’re whores who screw a series of blokes in lieu of rent.
- Don’t “waste precious breeding time”. Get hitched to the first man who shows a passing interest, or you’ll die rejected and alone.
- Many women get pregnant to trap their partners into staying. These women are stupid and the men will leave anyway.
- De facto partners are just “playing house”. It’s not a real home until you’re married and making the most of your precious breeding time.
- It’s fine for Germaine Greer to have a baby without a husband, but she’s setting a bad example for most women, who are too stupid to make life decisions.
- Pat Rafter is not married, therefore he doesn’t love his children.
- Gee, I miss John Howard. Life was so much easier with a man at the top telling women what to do.
¶ As a matter of fact, Pat Rafter married the mother of his son in 2004 — as if further proof were required that Bettina Arndt is living in the past.
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At dawn this morning the SHAC crew was evicted. The campaign has been successful in terms of raising awareness of Melbourne’s rental crisis, and the squatters have vowed to keep fighting for a student housing co-op.
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A lot of the younger men in the Movement lived in Unemployed Sungle Men’s Groups; they lived communally, squatted in terraces around the inner suburbs. They resisted evictions and protected speakers. They were daredevils, political bushrangers…
The SHAC squatters are facing eviction today. Some have gone, but others are staying to continue campaigning for a permanent student housing collective. They have called for help to resist eviction; Trades Hall has pledged support.
I recently read Iain McIntyre’s Lock Out the Landlords!, a partial chronology of anti-eviction actions undertaken around Australia during the Great Depression. I thought it would be worth sharing a few of the stories.
August 1931, Kurri Kurri. A mass meeting of local coal miners in the Hunter Valley, NSW[,] threatens to go on strike if planned evictions go ahead.
September 1931, Melbourne. Demonstrations and protests see the Federal Government turn over the Broadmeadows Military Camp to the homeless after large numbers of unemployed men are evicted from empty railcars in Jolimont. The camp’s military discipline however sees the men walk out and squat a row of terraces in Brunswick. The owner is later forced to rent the terraces cheaply to the men who use them as a base for anti eviction and other campaigns.
April 1932, Launceston. The Launceston UWM [Unemployed Workers Movement] declares a new policy of “commandeering” empty houses for the homeless[,] rehousing one family of evictees and assisting another to reoccupy their home.
May 1932, Launceston. Police evict people from squatted houses laying charges of “unlawful possession” against some of them. All of the cases were later thrown out in court. In the meantime the UWM mounts a major campaign against one eviction. The house is picketed, the red flag flown from its roof on Anzac Day and the local area chalked and placarded. With large crowds squaring off against the police the eviction of the property is prevented for a number of weeks.
The pamphlet’s publisher, Homebrew Books, is based at Melbourne University.
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An update on the SHAC squat: Melbourne University backed down on an initial eviction threat and even began negotiations for a permanent housing co-op, but then imposed unreasonable deadlines and went to the Supreme Court. The squatters were this morning ordered to leave; their struggle continues.
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The Student Housing Action Cooperative recently moved in to four disused townhouses owned by Melbourne University, installing smoke detectors and repairing damage to make them inhabitable. The group has put forward a proposal to convert the buildings into affordable housing for up to forty students. They’ve been asked to leave, but won’t be going anywhere without a fight.
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