Post by Wayne Hall on Feb 16, 2022 2:53:51 GMT -5
I am sending this e-mail (mainly) to an "elite", including distinguished scholars but also others with connections to Aegina, including a local Hollywood film star Aeginitissa who effected a remarkable transition from "Cosmopolitan magazine" to tough-minded political activism.
I hope communication isn't hindered by the all-too-frequent rivalries between eminent and academically recognized people, or political rivalries particularly around another controversial person with Aegina connections, namely Yanis Varoufakis. The experiences of the initial group of citizens in Aegina who joined Varoufakis' DiEM25 movement were anything but encouraging. Quite the opposite. The hopes raised by this first meeting were not realized. Years passed and it was a pleasant recent surprise when the publication of this study by Yanis' "think tank" "The Centre for Post Capitalist Civilization" metacpc.org/en/mwp10/ rekindled hopes that intellectually serious political analysis might start coming from this direction.
There is another strand to the problematic I want to outline, opened by the publication, in English and now in Greek of Mark Mazower's fine book on the Greek Revolution of 1821. Mark Mazower is another prominent intellectual with close links to Aegina and, I think, a person perspicacious enough to realize that a discourse focused on Australia is not necessarily provincial.
The huge demonstrations of last week in Canberra and the challenge addressed by Riccardo Bosi to Australia's governor-general halva.proboards.com/post/1718 may well soon be seen as being of world-historic significance. That will very possibly become clear before too many more days have passed.
Here is what I have sent out to activists of the World Freedom Alliance (link here to the WFA Australia webpage: worldfreedomalliance.org/au/) My message was primarily addressed to WFA activists NOT in Australia.
Here is what the Guardian newspaper said about the appointment of Sir David Hurley as Governor-General of Australia in 2018 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/16/david-hurley-to-be-named-next-governor-general-of-australia
Here is what I wrote: "Riccardo Bosi's stance towards the Governor-General of Australia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hurley should be seen in the light of the dismissal of the Labor government of Gough Whitlam in 1975 by the then governor general Sir John Kerr, a lawyer, not a retired general but like Sir David Hurley also of working-class origins. Australian governors general are appointed by the Prime Minister, i.e. Kerr was appointed by Whitlam. Last Saturday in Canberra Riccardo Bosi pointed out how the Whitlam government wanted to reduce the powers of the governor-general by making it easier for the Prime Minister to dismiss him/her. This may in part have been a reflexive Labor Party response to the dismissal of Whitlam in 1975 but the result of course would have been a strengthening of the already controversially strong powers of the Prime Minister (something we see today with Trudeau in Canada). The Australian electorate rejected this prospect in the 1999 referendum when it overwhelmingly chose to retain the existing constitution, including the role of the monarchy. I voted with the majority at that referendum despite my left-wing orientation. Not because I knew what Bosi now reveals (that the republican movement wanted to make it so easy for the Prime Minister to dismiss the Governor General) but because the media campaign for the abolition of the monarchy had been so repulsive and because the republicans had two conflicting proposed scenarios, of a presidential and of a parliamentary republic and if they had won there would have been years more of angry and futile wrangling over the constitution.
The leader of the republican movement in 1975, Malcolm Turnbull, later became Prime Minister. As a pure globalist he pursued globalist policies on climate, being opposed not only by the later (for him earlier) Prime Minister Tony Abbott but also by the traditional conservative elements in the Liberal Party including the present prime minister Scott Morrison (who of course appointed Sir David Hurley governor general). Hurley clearly represents a departure from the key countries recognizing Queen Elizabeth as head of state: the governors general of e.g. Canada and New Zealand are women, an Inuit and a Maori respectively. The Whitlam government had wanted to bypass mainstream Western financing and this was a key factor in "conservative" opposition to his government. Labor's overturn was managed under the supervision of the then leader of the Liberal Party opposition Malcolm Fraser. The Liberal/National opposition acquired a majority in the Senate and proceeded to block money supply. Whitlam tried to tough it out as the money ran out but the governor general Sir John Kerr intervened, dismissed Whitlam and called for a new election, which Fraser won.
Malcolm Fraser remained Prime Minister for eight years. He was never knighted by the Queen. Kerr became so controversial that he had to leave Australia. In his old age Fraser became a rebel: (quote from Wikipedia) "In December 2011, Fraser was highly critical of the Australian government's decision (also supported by the Liberal Party Opposition) to permit the export of uranium to India, relaxing the Fraser government's policy of banning sales of uranium to countries that are not signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.[47] In 2012, Fraser criticised the basing of US military forces in Australia.[48] In late 2012, Fraser wrote a foreword for the journal Jurisprudence where he openly criticised the current state of human rights in Australia and the Western World. "It is a sobering thought that in recent times, freedoms hard won through centuries of struggle, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have been whittled away. In Australia alone we have laws that allow the secret detention of the innocent. We have had a vast expansion of the power of intelligence agencies. In many cases the onus of proof has been reversed and the justice that once prevailed has been gravely diminished."[49]
It remains to be seen how Sir David Hurley will respond to Riccardo Bosi's challenge to dissolve the parliament. The experience of the Labor government in 1975 shows that the governor-general has the power to defy and indeed dismiss the prime minister and call for new elections.
Let us see what happens.
Best wishes,
Wayne Hall Aegina
I hope communication isn't hindered by the all-too-frequent rivalries between eminent and academically recognized people, or political rivalries particularly around another controversial person with Aegina connections, namely Yanis Varoufakis. The experiences of the initial group of citizens in Aegina who joined Varoufakis' DiEM25 movement were anything but encouraging. Quite the opposite. The hopes raised by this first meeting were not realized. Years passed and it was a pleasant recent surprise when the publication of this study by Yanis' "think tank" "The Centre for Post Capitalist Civilization" metacpc.org/en/mwp10/ rekindled hopes that intellectually serious political analysis might start coming from this direction.
There is another strand to the problematic I want to outline, opened by the publication, in English and now in Greek of Mark Mazower's fine book on the Greek Revolution of 1821. Mark Mazower is another prominent intellectual with close links to Aegina and, I think, a person perspicacious enough to realize that a discourse focused on Australia is not necessarily provincial.
The huge demonstrations of last week in Canberra and the challenge addressed by Riccardo Bosi to Australia's governor-general halva.proboards.com/post/1718 may well soon be seen as being of world-historic significance. That will very possibly become clear before too many more days have passed.
Here is what I have sent out to activists of the World Freedom Alliance (link here to the WFA Australia webpage: worldfreedomalliance.org/au/) My message was primarily addressed to WFA activists NOT in Australia.
Here is what the Guardian newspaper said about the appointment of Sir David Hurley as Governor-General of Australia in 2018 www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/16/david-hurley-to-be-named-next-governor-general-of-australia
Here is what I wrote: "Riccardo Bosi's stance towards the Governor-General of Australia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hurley should be seen in the light of the dismissal of the Labor government of Gough Whitlam in 1975 by the then governor general Sir John Kerr, a lawyer, not a retired general but like Sir David Hurley also of working-class origins. Australian governors general are appointed by the Prime Minister, i.e. Kerr was appointed by Whitlam. Last Saturday in Canberra Riccardo Bosi pointed out how the Whitlam government wanted to reduce the powers of the governor-general by making it easier for the Prime Minister to dismiss him/her. This may in part have been a reflexive Labor Party response to the dismissal of Whitlam in 1975 but the result of course would have been a strengthening of the already controversially strong powers of the Prime Minister (something we see today with Trudeau in Canada). The Australian electorate rejected this prospect in the 1999 referendum when it overwhelmingly chose to retain the existing constitution, including the role of the monarchy. I voted with the majority at that referendum despite my left-wing orientation. Not because I knew what Bosi now reveals (that the republican movement wanted to make it so easy for the Prime Minister to dismiss the Governor General) but because the media campaign for the abolition of the monarchy had been so repulsive and because the republicans had two conflicting proposed scenarios, of a presidential and of a parliamentary republic and if they had won there would have been years more of angry and futile wrangling over the constitution.
The leader of the republican movement in 1975, Malcolm Turnbull, later became Prime Minister. As a pure globalist he pursued globalist policies on climate, being opposed not only by the later (for him earlier) Prime Minister Tony Abbott but also by the traditional conservative elements in the Liberal Party including the present prime minister Scott Morrison (who of course appointed Sir David Hurley governor general). Hurley clearly represents a departure from the key countries recognizing Queen Elizabeth as head of state: the governors general of e.g. Canada and New Zealand are women, an Inuit and a Maori respectively. The Whitlam government had wanted to bypass mainstream Western financing and this was a key factor in "conservative" opposition to his government. Labor's overturn was managed under the supervision of the then leader of the Liberal Party opposition Malcolm Fraser. The Liberal/National opposition acquired a majority in the Senate and proceeded to block money supply. Whitlam tried to tough it out as the money ran out but the governor general Sir John Kerr intervened, dismissed Whitlam and called for a new election, which Fraser won.
Malcolm Fraser remained Prime Minister for eight years. He was never knighted by the Queen. Kerr became so controversial that he had to leave Australia. In his old age Fraser became a rebel: (quote from Wikipedia) "In December 2011, Fraser was highly critical of the Australian government's decision (also supported by the Liberal Party Opposition) to permit the export of uranium to India, relaxing the Fraser government's policy of banning sales of uranium to countries that are not signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.[47] In 2012, Fraser criticised the basing of US military forces in Australia.[48] In late 2012, Fraser wrote a foreword for the journal Jurisprudence where he openly criticised the current state of human rights in Australia and the Western World. "It is a sobering thought that in recent times, freedoms hard won through centuries of struggle, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have been whittled away. In Australia alone we have laws that allow the secret detention of the innocent. We have had a vast expansion of the power of intelligence agencies. In many cases the onus of proof has been reversed and the justice that once prevailed has been gravely diminished."[49]
It remains to be seen how Sir David Hurley will respond to Riccardo Bosi's challenge to dissolve the parliament. The experience of the Labor government in 1975 shows that the governor-general has the power to defy and indeed dismiss the prime minister and call for new elections.
Let us see what happens.
Best wishes,
Wayne Hall Aegina