field notes

defiance

‘The Activist’, they called it. Recruit half a dozen social justice campaigners and save the planet–type people and make them compete against each other in a reality TV format for US media conglomerate CBS.

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julian assange banner

the end game

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is slowly dying in a UK prison, as the US maintains its fight to have him die in theirs – but there is hope.

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bullant camp, wattle forest 1998

the road to wattle

A couple of friends are admiring a two-foot section of steel pipe with an odd reverence; encrusted with welded spikes of rebar and scrap metal, it clearly has an important part to play in whatever is being done here.

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national strike in san jose, costa rica

strike wave

A concept so old it comes to us in a dead language: divide et impera. The original phrase is attributed to Philip II of Macedon as he played Greek city-states off against one another in the fourth century BC. In ancient Greek, διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε; in English, divide and rule. A favoured tactic of emperors and dictators from Caesar to Bonaparte to Mao, it is also a staple of the modern workplace.

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rally in tokyo

the world that comes next

First published at Green Magazine. We may not have heard much from Scott Ludlam since his sudden departure from the Senate in 2017, but he’s been busy – writing a book, no less. Ahead of the May release of the highly anticipated Full Circle, Scott speaks to us about what he’s been up to, what he’s learnt about the world that comes next, and what we have to do to get there. Interview by Joana Partyka For many politicians, the first few years out of Parliament involve taking up a lobbying position or publishing a memoir.Scott Ludlam has done neither. For a one-time representative of a party explicitly calling to close the revolving door between government and industry, the former was never going to happen. The latter, too, was highly

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