TOGATUS: END OF DAYS (#3, 2022)

Togatus is published by the TUSA State Council on behalf of the Tasmanian University Association (henceforth known as ‘the publishers’).

It is understood that all submissions to Togatus are the intellectual property of the contributor. However, the publishers receive the right to reproduce material on the Togatus website at togatus.com.au.

2022 Togatus Team:

Co-editors - Chelsea Menzie and Desmond Marcenko

Creative Director - Holly Clark-Milligan

Key contributors - Eva Hale

Included submissions by Eilish Bremner Wojtowicz, Joey Harper, Esther Touber, Beach Emu, Miles Kahles and Zac Sabapathy.

Togatus welcomes all your contributions. Please email your work and ideas to desmond.marcenko@gmail.com

The opinions expressed herein are not those of the editors, the publishers, the University of Tasmania, or the Tasmanian University Student Association. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Togatus articles are up to date and as accurate as possible at the time of publication, but no responsibility can be taken by Togatus for any errors or omissions.

Connect with Tog: Togatus is printed by Monotone Art Printers.

The Togatus editorial team pay our respects to the palawa/pakana people of lutruwita/ Tasmania and acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging. We pay respect to the muwinina, therrernotepanner, leterrermairrener, panniher, plairhekehillerplue and Gadigal/Wangal people, whose territory UTAS campuses occupy.

Our magazine is printed and distributed on stolen land. Sovereignty was never ceded.

As the student magazine for University of Tasmania students, we recognise that the university was built from the proceeds of war and genocide. Through its teaching of a sanitised version of Tasmanian history, the university has contributed devastatingly to an ongoing epistemic violence against the state’s Indigenous population that has denied them truth-telling and reconciliation. It has gatekept Indigenous forms of knowledge sharing that it has not deemed worthy. It has stolen Aboriginal artefacts and remains.

Our responsibility as students is to recognise the role that our institution played in the systematic oppression of Indigenous people on these lands. We must go beyond tokenistic gestures and educate ourselves to realise our own complicity in the white supremacist state, to make efforts towards lastly, the material improvement in the lives of our country’s Indigenous people. We must include and listen to Indigenous voices. Above all, we must support their plight towards self-determination.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre represents palawa/pakana people in their political and community development aspirations and has been federally funded since 1973. Visit their social media outlets or website to keep up to date with their campaigns, which include changing the date, preserving takayna and teaching palawa kani.

Djira is an Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisation based in naarm, that is dedicated to the prevention of family violence in Indigenous communities. It offers cultural and wellbeing workshops, safe spaces for Indigenous women and access to family violence legal support. You can donate to them at https://djirra.org.au/.

Happy Boxes is an organisation that supports the supply of basic toiletry products such as toothpaste, sanitary products and shampoo to Indigenous women in remote locations. Donate to them by visiting their website at happyboxesproject.com.au.

Pay the Rent is a grassroots Indigenous community group that seeks to address the inequalities of colonisation and stolen Indigenous land through monetary compensation. Allies can choose to make a one time, or monthly set donation which then is distributed accordingly across “land, law, kinship, ceremony or language” programs by an Indigenous advisory board made up of many different Indigenous nations and clans. Visit their website at https://paytherent.net.au/.

Desmond Marcenko

for Shireen Abu Akleh

Until Your Voice Is Hoarse

In May of this year, the Israeli Defense Force murdered Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in cold blood.

Employed by Al-Jazeera as a field correspondent for over 20 years, Abu Akleh became known as the voice of Palestine through her coverage of the Israeli occupation. Over her decades of journalism, Abu Akleh reported on such events as the Second Intifada and the battle of Jenin – becoming a household name.

On the day of her death, Abu Akleh was wearing a blue vest with the word ‘Press’ marked in clear bold letters. She was covering an IDF raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank. It was an Israeli sniper, who from some distance away, fired the shot the shot that killed Abu Akleh. The armour piercing bullet – standard issue for IDF troops, penetrated the journalist’s skull. She was pronounced dead at the Ibn Sina Hospital.

In a pathetic display of aggression from the occupying force, Israeli police raided Abu Akleh’s home amid a gathering of Palestinian mourners, confiscating any flags and preventing the playing of any ‘nationalist songs’. Weeks later, at Abu Akleh’s funeral – Israeli soliders beat mourners as they carried her coffin. Even in death, they could not let a freedom fighter know peace.

The murder of Shireen Abu Akleh was very simple. So why is it that so many pretend that it wasn’t?

In June, the New York Times published an op-ed article titled ‘Who Killed Shireen Abu Akleh?’. Its central argument was that the real culprit behind Abu Akleh’s murder remains in dispute. This is despite as the article itself references, key Israeli military spokesmen have gone on the record to suggest that the IDF may have been responsible. It quotes one who claims that journalists are legitimate military targets, for the crime of being ‘armed with cameras’.

The Times was just one of the many media outlets peddling poorly written apologia to muddy the waters in, what any sane person should immediately recognise as, a war crime of the highest order. The media establishment joined as one in an almighty chorus of passive voice, whatboutism and soft Israeli propaganda.

The reason behind this is that the normalisation of Israel and its war crimes is a project shared across the

halls of executive political power to the offices of media institutions like the Times. Israel remains a key strategic ally to the United States for its power projection into the Middle East – and elites of all kinds must share in the efforts to protect its legitimacy.

The instinct to let the endless tide of injustices against Palestinians wash over you is an understandable one. The constant headlines and news images of houses being bulldozed and bombed, become somehow commonplace. Caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of our own lives, we allow ourselves to slide into complacency. Sure – perhaps every couple of months something like the Sheikh Jarrah evictions of last year or Abu Akleh’s death will offer a glimpse into what genuine resistance against the apartheid state might look like, but quite soon after it’s back to the norm. The Palestinian plight becomes reduced once again to a numbing series of images on your television screen.

But that is what the apartheid state is banking on.

The truth that we must never let ourselves forget is that Abu Akleh – like every child starved by the Israeli blockade in Gaza, every peaceful protestor shot dead at the border – was murdered for the simple crime of being born Palestinian. The project of the modern Israeli state is built upon the genocide of the Palestinan people and it demands their blood to expand its colonial presence in the occupied territories.

We must continue see the terrible clarity of Israel’s apartheid against the Palestinian people. Crimes like continued illegal expansion, the stranglehold on Gaza, and the ruthless political killings of journalists, must spur us to act with unwavering dedication to the cause of Palestinian liberation.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Why you should plant a tree at the end of the world

TheAnthropocene has finally seen its realisation. We are slowly waking from the collective dream of a humanity that effortlessly extends into the future forever. We have made a great journey as a species from prey/predator to apex predator to great destroyer to witness of the consequences. The new world of catastrophe that has been shaped for us will be, for the most part, impossible to grasp for most of humanity. There is no button we can press to stop the floods or the fires, no way to instantly cool down Earth and suck all carbon out of the air. Our destiny is set, and it’s down to the kindness of fate (notoriously cruel) to let anyone survive with something approaching civilisation. So, what are us mortals to do to pass the little time we have left?

It’s perfectly natural and OK to panic, that’s really the impulse when everything is going wrong. Take a moment to scream, cry, put a bag on your head, set something on fire, and curl up into a ball. The beauty of the end of the world is that we do have the time to freak out, or to wallow, so go for gold champion! Eventually, however, the shock is going to wear off, a calm will wash over you, and pyromania as a hobby is going to lose its appeal. For some of us this will take a moment, for some it will take years of struggle and nights in jail. There are only a few things you can do after a panic like this, and we can do them together. Let us deeply breathe out the last of our adrenaline, take stock of what is around us, and take whatever small steps we can to get some control over the situation.

Deep breath. Maybe we’re overreacting a bit. Who said it’s the end of the world? It’s true, a great deal of disaster is happening and a lot of life in all forms is going to be lost - in natural disaster, in wars for dwindling resources, in the slow killer of a habitat fading from existence. Odds are humanity

will starve and choke itself out of existence as the sixth great extinction draws to a close. But it’s our hubris to assume that the end of humanity is the end of all things. We are fools if we think we can destroy everything, life is far too clever, it can thrive in some of the strangest and most brutal corners of the universe. This extinction will end as every other extinction has ended - with the survivors scrambling to fill in the gaps.

So , what can we do with the time we have left? An adage says to plant trees whose shade you will never sit in, to nurture with no expectation of reward. I propose we take this a step further. In our last days we should plant trees that will shade no human. As a species, we’ve done so much irreversible damage, the least we can do as individuals is lay down the seeds and saplings that will begin a new generation of forest. As we fade away, our history books and hard drives will rot and corrode, names and language will become meaningless, and there will be no one left to remember the car manufacturers and billionaires and world shapers. But a tree will remember who planted it fondly, and as it ages, it will nestle in its branches and hollows a legacy of new lifehardy, adaptable, and thankful.

Earlier this year, former Peter Gutwein courted controversy again by announcing proposed cuts to land tax in lutruwita/Tasmania. While he claimed that the cuts would see savings passed onto tenants, the plans have been challenged as yet another handout from this government to the propertied class.

Announced in the lead up to this year’s State of the State address, the cuts would see land tax not paid on properties valued under $100,000, with the upper tax threshold being lifted to $500,000. The tax rate for properties between $100,000 to $500,000 would also be reduced from 0.55% to 0.45%. Government projections estimate that the changes will gift $220 million in tax relief to landowners over the next four years, with Gutwein asserting that this will provide downward pressure on rent prices.

Landlords Win Big In NewGovernmentHandout

The formers Premier’s claim, however, has been already disproven.

The new changes to land tax follow those made by the Liberals last year, which doubled the value at which tax must be paid on properties from $25,000 to $50,000, also raising the top tax threshold to $400,000. Since last year’s changes were implemented, far from providing relief for tenants, rent prices have skyrocketed by 9% in the south, 10% in northwest and 15% in the state’s north.

Gutwein’s handout comes amid lutruwita/Tasmania’s ongoing housing crisis. According to a recent report by SGS Economics and Planning, nipaluna/Hobart is far and away the least affordable capital city in Australia. It also found that nipaluna/Hobart is the only capital city in Australia where the average household is under rental stress, with the median resident paying more than 30% of their total income towards rent.

Opposition parties have slammed the government’s new changes to land tax. Labor’s Ella Haddad described the plan as a win for landlords, with no guarantee in place that savings will be passed onto tenants. Leader of the Greens Cassy O’Connor was equally critical, disputing the former Premier’s ‘ridiculous and dishonest’ claim that the changes would provide downward pressure on rent prices. O’Connor also pointed out that hundreds of millions in tax revenue would be lost that could otherwise have gone towards increasing the supply of affordable housing.

Activist groups also challenged the government’s plans. Sarah Charlotte is the Vice-President of the Housing Alliance lutruwita/Tasmania, a collective of renters, homeowners and displaced individuals that advocate for housing to be a human right. Charlotte described the move as a ‘suck-up to the property industry’, claiming it showed that ‘the Liberal Party only cares about the rich and [that] they don’t care about anyone who’s struggling’. The Housing Alliance has started a petition to lobby Tasmanian lawmakers to properly address the state’s housing a crisis, including by capping rent prices at 30% of weekly income.

As of last year, the average wait time for priority applicants on the public housing waiting list in lutruwita/Tasmania was 56 weeks.

I have called you back to me a thousand times. you never come home. I have described the river (the one where you hit your head so hard that the skin split open and breathed a deep red fog into the water – that scar in your hairline; central, inescapable, thick as twine) to anyone who stays long enough to listen.

I have left the light on outside. the beetles bloom on the porch as I wait for you how long have I waited for you?

I am asking you now to leave my bed. when you are not here to haunt me my mind reaches for answers –I try to remember but it’s all too much at once I was too young and not young enough: my therapist told me that if an infant undergoes trauma before it can recognize the details the memory burrows down into the nerve endings the space between the vertebrae the sound of your breathing the memory rummages through them like the third drawer of spatulas & miscellaneous it blows sand into the eyes tapes the mouth shut & makes them as small as ever.

I am turning off the light. leave me here in the dark.

Controversy

reigns as the University of Tasmania’s (‘Utas’) proposed move into the city continues to take shape and the 2022 local government elections in Hobart loom. A dividing line has been drawn between candidates who support Utas’ move and those who oppose it. Many candidates opposing the Utas move have been vocal on Save Utas Campus Supporters Facebook pages, accusing the Lord Mayor (‘LM’) Anna Reynolds and many of her Greens colleagues of collaborating with Utas and refusing to consult with the broader public on this issue. But how much of the city move progress is LM Reynolds’, and even Rufus Black’s, doing?

Understanding between HCC and Utas be strengthened and that ‘socio-economic analysis of the University’s possible move into the city’ (Hickey-Rathjen Letter 7/3/2017, p1) be undertaken.

This position was not officially adopted by Utas until August 2017, when a letter was sent from LM Hickey to then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull requesting his commitment to progressing a City Deal for nipaluna/Hobart, with the Utas STEM Precinct Proposal as its centrepiece (Supporting Information Council Meeting 30/5/2022, p526).

All of this suggests that LM Reynolds and VC Black have

city, is another question.

From my point of view, the dissatisfaction with Utas and its treatment of staff and students has been building well before the city move was unveiled. Utas, along with many other Australian universities, have been moving further and further away from focussing on educational outcomes for students as their foremost goal. What has replaced this is a strange neoliberal mindset which resembles that of a Frankenstein-esque corporation, focussing on securing financial independence from a government which has largely abandoned public funding for universities and ultimately aiming to run at a profit.

Rathjen, The City Move And The “Corporatisation” Of

The odd thing about Utas’ neoliberalism is that it does not quite contain the same mechanisms for safeguarding accountability, transparency and good financial practices that regular corporations are bound to observe. The recent renewal of VC Black’s contract on an indefinite basis demonstrates this, with no room for performance review or clear standards set for what is expected of him in return for his million-dollar salary. Utas’ purchase of property within the nipaluna/Hobart CBD for up to three times market value and exemption from paying rates to council are other examples.

desire to move away from its dependence on Utas for funding and begin agitating for positive change. This is a promising development, but its potential for success is dependent on a lot of interlocking factors. First and foremost is the mobilisation of the broader student body behind TUSA and its vision, which will go a long way to convincing Utas of the association’s legitimacy as the representative of student concerns.

How to conclude this long, rambling behemoth of a piece?

I would say that it is important to keep context in mind when scrutinising Utas, Rufus Black and their actions and decision-making. The city move has long been in the works, for at least the last 5 or so years, and has involved a whole array of proponents, from Sue Hickey and Peter Rathjen to present-day leaders Anna Reynolds and Rufus Black. The proposal and the lack of meaningful public consultation associated with it is symbolic of Utas’ broader shift away from democratic principles towards principles fitting the mould of a corporation. It will be difficult to have an influence as students on this shift, which is ultimately leading to poorer educational outcomes for students and working conditions for lecturers and staff but there is no harm in trying.

Letters between former Vice Chancellor (‘VC’) of Utas Peter Rathjen and former LM Sue Hickey have been released which suggest Utas’ move to the city might have been envisioned by those in power as early as 2015. In late 2016, VC Rathjen invited members of the Hobart City Council (‘HCC’) to attend the University Cities Conference in Budapest, as well as visit the university cities of Freiburg and Cambridge. This trip, which went ahead and cost approximately $14 000, was intended as research to support what is cited in the report as Utas’ ‘clear desire to move into the inner city’ (Supporting Information Council Meeting 30/5/2022, p421).

Following the trip, LM Hickey wrote back to Rathjen assuring him that the HCC was ‘committed to and absolutely share[d] Utas’s aspirations to move into the inner city.’ She mentioned the report provided by Aldermen Burnet, Briscoe and the General Manager on their trip to Budapest, Freiburg and Cambridge and their enthusiasm. Hickey concluded the letter by recommending that the Memorandum of

not been as instrumental in Utas’ proposed city move as initially thought, instead merely implementing the visions of their predecessors. It also can be noted that Utas has largely failed to maintain or upgrade many of its lecture theatres, classrooms and infrastructure on the Sandy Bay campus for decades, leaving many buildings no longer fit for use without costly repairs and renovation.

The disclosed information provides an insight into the potential mind-states of those who initially kick-started Utas’ move into the city. The proposal was certainly not viewed with the controversy that it is marred with today, and a lot of optimism was present in discussions about its potential to develop nipaluna/Hobart as a city.

However, at some point post-COVID a new, negative attitude has settled towards the city move held by many students and staff at Utas. Whether this reflects a broader discontent towards Utas and the direction it is taking, or actually based on the merits of the idea of moving into the

At the same time, Utas and other modern universities no longer represent the democratic institutions they once were in the 20th century, where meaningful student and staff consultation was pursued and information such as contracts of high-ranking officials was freely disclosed. Students, now stuck somewhere in the grey area between shareholders and constituents, are paying the price for this shift.

The upcoming Tasmanian University Student Association (‘TUSA’) State Council elections and its topical focus on the city move and whether TUSA has truly represented student concerns on this matter highlight the complexities of the relationship that now exists between student and university. In the past, TUSA’s independence and ability to voice student concerns has been diminished by the fragile position in which it finds itself, dependent on its allocation of Student Services and Amenities Fees (‘SSAF’) – roughly 17% of SSAF income – and therefore on an element of goodwill on the part of Utas.

Now TUSA and many of its candidates have expressed a

Although I personally have my doubts about many candidates for local council currently running on anti-Utas city move platforms and where their true interests lie, perhaps this broader movement can be harnessed to achieve something good for students. In many ways we as students are the customers of Utas, so maybe it is us that can have the biggest say with good old-fashioned consumer power.

Since mid-2021 the debate around Utas’ city move has been infiltrated by a large number of parties with different interests, all uniting to oppose the so-called “corporate behemoth’s” planned expansion into real estate and away from educational outcomes for students. While all of this may be true, the way in which many council candidates have tacked on “antiUtas” labels to their campaigns is largely uncritical and may be a reactionary move to attract votes in upcoming elections.

All of this begs the question whether a large portion of the group claiming to “defend” educational outcomes, adequate facilities and in-person learning for students would be doing so with the same vigour if not for their interests being affected. Maybe a little more nuance is needed in this particular debate so as to ensure Utas is made perfectly aware that their proposal threatens more than just the property values of neighbouring Sandy Bay properties?

CW: Violence against Indigenous people

Following a string of high-profile scandals, Tasmanian cops have proved themselves more corrupt than ever. But in a moment where media scrutiny of the police is at an all-time high in lutruwita/ Tasmania, why has the Liberal government just invested them with unprecedented power?

A Supreme Court decision handed down in late August of this year found that Tasmanians cops violated lawyer/client confidentiality at Risdon Prison by secretly recording conversations in a meeting room for a span of 60 days.

The room was initially bugged in June of 2017 while police attempted to construct a case against Jeffrey Ian Thompson, the lawyer of convicted murderer Susan Neil-Fraser. Thompson was being investigated by police over concerns that he was trying to unduly influence a Mr Stephen Gleeson to make a false identification during examination. To gain evidence of this, police applied to the magistrate for a 90 day warrant to place two listening devices in the meeting room.

Concerns have now been raised however, that the listening devices were used to record conversations between other lawyers and inmates.

Despite having full understanding that the room was to be used by others during the 90-day life of the warrant, Tasmania Police recorded all conversations that took place in it during a two-month span. 5 officers in the investigation team had access to the recordings and others could do so upon request.

Police have given the excuse that both devices were kept running in case of any ‘technical issues’ that meant police did not have enough time to access the room before a meeting between Mr Thompson and Mr Gleeson. This is despite the fact that police had full control over when Mr Gleeson could make use of the room.

Police Commissioner Darren Hine downplayed the agency’s actions, describing them as only a ‘technical breach’ in legislation. Hine also announced that Tasmania Police would be commissioning an independent review headed by former Solicitor-General Michael O’Farrell.

Advocacy groups such as the Australian Lawyers Alliance and the Prisoners Legal Service have spoken out against the new findings, decrying them as gross violations of the legal rights between clients and counsel. Politicians such as Kristie Johnston and Meg Webb have also joined

the chorus of criticism, with both questioning the integrity of a review commissioned by the organisation that has been implicated in wrongdoing.

Tasmanian police have been in the media spotlight too over recent revelations concerning their access to private data. A report recently tabled in parliament highlighted that Tasmania Police have systemically failed to keep updated records of warrants to request phone data – meaning cops have had cartblanche access to your private information with no evidence to show that its seizure was lawful.

On the back of this month of scandal, lutruwita/Tasmania’s Liberal Government has just passed new legislation to further increase the power of cops. New anti-protest laws allow police to issue exorbitant on the spot fines for protest deemed to interrupt the normal operation of lawful businesses – chillingly cracking down on Tasmanians’ fundamental democratic rights.

This begs the question – why is it that the government has given the police unprecedented powers amid a news cycle that has proven them more corrupt and unaccountable than ever?

The answer to that lies in examining the very role of the police itself.

The police, as the armed protectors of the state, uphold capitalism and white supremacy through violence.

The history of the Australian labour movement proves this in droves. During the Queensland rail strike of 1949, the federal Labor government declared a state of emergency resulting in police crackdowns on picket lines in order to break the spirit of those protesting for better wages and conditions. More recently in the late 1990s, police joined hands with balaclava clad private security to enact John Howard’s crypto-fascist agenda of driving unionised dockworkers out of their workplaces after passing the Workplace Relations Act, amid ongoing efforts to destroy the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

Police – more often than not incompetently, also largely take the remit of addressing individual crimes. In this way, the Australian

TASSIE COPS ARE INCOMPETENT AND CORRUPT

DESMOND MARCENKO

justice system as a whole favours big businesses that commit white collar crimes such as corporate espionage and wage theft. A far cry from CEOs being taken out in handcuffs, corporations are merely slapped on the wrist for their crimes with fines or cautions.

As urgently, police also serve to uphold the white colonial state by inflicting violence against our Indigenous population. The most cursory glance at nipaluna/ Tasmania’s history is evidence writ large of this, with colonial police complicit in the devastating massacres that took place during the Black War. Little has changed across the country today, with rates of Indigenous deaths in custody an international blight.

The events of this month in lutruwita/Tasmania prove the corruption of the police will remain unchallenged under capitalism – with their powers continually strengthened to preserve the existence of the capitalist colonial state. The fight for socialism is one inextricably linked with the fight for a reimagined justice system that places accountability and rehabilitation at the forefront.

QUEENS WALK

RESIDENTS ARE READY FOR AN “UPRISING” AGAINST POOR MANAGEMENT AND POOR TREATMENT, BUT WILL THE PUBLIC LISTEN?

The Queens Walk apartment complex, formerly known as Stainforth Court, in nipaluna/Hobart’s northern suburb of Cornelian Bay is the proposed site of a new 23.7 million dollar renovation. The development will provide roughly 65 new housing units in partnership with Housing Choices Tasmania, who currently oversee the site. The roll out of a Queens Walk expansion is a part of the Rockcliff government’s wider ‘Greater Hobart Plan’ which it has been spruiking as “future-proofing” housing, transport and employment targets for the general nipaluna/Hobart area, which they say has an estimated populous growth of some 60,000 people in the next thirty years. Although various groups are cautious about the new proposed Queens Walk plan given ‘integration’ concerns and residents themselves who say they feel “ignored”.

The complex which was shut and reopened in 2013 after a widely reported murder investigation in 2011 has had a tumultuous past and a bad rap (likely unfairly) in local nipaluna/Hobart mythology. In recent years post the 2013 renovations, Queens Walk has been praised for its diversity and its “state of the art” community approach to housing. However, residents at the complex have cited concerns to Togatus about a lack of community consultation and accountability from Housing Choices throughout their management of the building as well as in the process of informing residents on the proposed renovations to the site.

One resident, ‘John’, has told Togatus that conditions vary widely amongst those living in the apartments. He alleges that there has been a “notable change in management” over the years whereby Queens Walk has “slipped from its status as being new and shiny, and straight into disrepair. No longer with any funding for maintenance”. He says there are potholes and broken lights, faulty front door locks, dilapidated pathways, flooding problems, graffiti, asbestos, mould issues, rubbish dumping, anti-social behaviour and squatters in many of the empty apartments that go knowingly unaddressed by Housing Choices. He also pointed out a continuing problem with disability access, which he says will leave him no choice but to try and seek other, unaffordable, accommodation if it continues to be unsolved due to a degenerative disability he struggles with. Among the growing list of concerns, residents have also complained that the once bustling community room that hosted tutoring, games nights and dinners now sits empty and that community gardens are not permitted to be used.

“We have these facilities that were put in to encourage the sense of community, yet there are no allocations for using them anymore” the general feeling of the community is now one of “uprising” rather than togetherness. With residents “feeling abandoned and neglected by Housing Choices” or others who John says “say nothing out of fear and undoubtedly the trauma they have experienced by authorities previously”.

He believes that while mostly accessible systems are in place for reporting maintenance, Housing Choices as they operate today often purposely ignore residents once complaints are made. He says in one instance he was told that he should fix black mould that existed before he moved in with bleach and a mop, even though the poor design of ventilation in the apartments is what creates the issue in the first place. John has contacted the Rental Tenants Union, Housing Choices Australia, CBOS, and the City of Hobart for further help, but he says his options are minimal as he continues to be bounced around from one organisation to the other with little accountability to residents and minimal legal options to be explored.

Renovations to Queens Walk then could not come sooner, although residents like John say they worry about the renovations too.

“Until their properties are in a liveable standard and maintaining the requirements under the law, there should not be any approvals for planning, permits, or otherwise”. Others have also pointed out the additional 500 properties in the North West that have recently been acquired by Housing Choices, which they claim will continue to see management resources and accountability processes worsened at the current Queens Walk site by nature of expansion.

“Queens Walk is already neglected and every day it is turning closer to the property it was before 2013 with regular antisocial behaviours like drinking, drug use, and large gatherings of men all occurring in the common areas and especially at night. It may not be a slum now, but chuck in 65 more apartments full of residents to neglect just 3 years after renovations and it is on the fast track” says John.

He says he worries about the small minority of those who behave anti-socially, as he believes it will worsen stigma about the area and increase discrimination that he already unduly faces.

“Outside of the social stigma, I’ve had difficulties getting taxis, Ubers, mail and package deliveries, and even groceries here. I commonly

am asked about the murder that occurred in 2011.”

On top of this, John claims that he found out about this particular iteration of renovation plans via a Facebook post by The Mercury. Later he says he received “a nonpostmarked letter in his letterbox from City of Hobart, dated 1st of September (received in the afternoon on the 5th September) mentioning the plan number and a website to access it.” There is no tangible copy of the plan on site and many of the residents are unable to access the internet and often speak languages other than English primarily at home. John says it leaves many unable to be accurately informed on what the proposed changes will mean for them. He asserts that many residents he knows have learning disabilities, vision problems, intellectual disabilities, and other reasons as to why “they can’t feasibly read a technical 200+ page document found online”. Calling it “unfair” that the onus is placed on residents to investigate the changes, citing a lack of communication from Housing Choices on the matter.

Dr Kathleen Flanagan is a Lecturer in Social Problems and Policy at the University of Tasmania with a specialty in public housing. She believes “that the scale of the housing crisis is such that we need to be initially targeting our efforts at those people most in need of support and at the area of the housing system where the most strain is being felt.” She believes that Queens Walk fits that brief.

“Queens Walk is a well-located site, close to jobs and services, where there is ample land available for the development.”

She believes that some community calls for more ‘integrated’ models of social housing are largely founded on misconceptions about who social housing tenants are. “They are in fact pretty much like any other group

of people, but have experienced greater disadvantage, marginalisation and injustice than most. Social housing communities in Tasmania are highly functional and often operate more like the traditional white-picket-fence idea of a community than many wealthy areas.” She says that she “worries” about the consequences of discourse around the disadvantages of sites chosen for social housing development. “Sometimes it seems that nowhere is good enough for social housing tenants. But if nowhere is good enough for social housing tenants, then social housing tenants just end up nowhere.”

She also says that accountability in the renovation and possible relocation process during works carried out is something that across the board needs to be improved upon in the public housing space. “Around Australia, tenant relocation to make way for social housing redevelopment has been very badly handled.”

“Sometimes the construction side of social housing policy gets lost in talk of ‘assets’ but we need to remember that we are talking about people and homes. We are building our base of knowledge about what constitutes ‘good’ practice in relocation, but there is often a wide gulf between that good practice and what actually happens.”

She says that anecdotal stories like John’s are something she hears about often, especially in regards to consultation and communication in large housing projects. Arguing that often a government’s “need to control the media narrative” is treated as “more important than the tenants’ right to know what’s happening to their homes and communities.”

“In my view, tenants should be told first. if that means the news leaks and the narrative slips from government control, then so be it.”

She also agrees that “a lot of the stigma attached to places like Queens Walk or other areas known to be social housing arises from prejudice.” She notes that the things residents like John described “are frankly unacceptable discrimination.”

“Many people would say they aren’t prejudiced—it’s just because they’ve had ‘bad experiences’, but if I have a bad experience with someone in a wealthy, privileged suburb, I don’t immediately decide I will forever avoid all wealthy, privileged suburbs, so why should it operate differently when the suburb or development is disadvantaged? Why does fault lie with the individual when it’s a prestigious suburb, but with the place when it isn’t?”

it’s been weeks now like this: recalling the strangest of details. everyday a realisation that I can’t quite grasp: remembering the feel of the sheets on my mother’s bed and the sounds the roof made in sum mer storms. the texture of blistering varnish and the smell of dampened smoke in the air and overchewed bubblegum and I can’t make it stop it won’t stop I need it to stop. what do I do with all the pieces of me where do I keep all these hauntings without having them resurface?

I don’t remember who I am just where I’ve been.

is this an end or a beginning or just a lull in the dullness I am asleep again but staying up at night. where do these parts of us go when we no longer want to carry

Hale

1. Dead cat with needless teeth Eyes bulging: too-late terror. Lifeless, she secretes A juvenile jubilation. Curiosity killed her Or more likely hope. You’ll dig yourself a grave, Lay yourself to rest (A silly little poem Will sit above your head). Can’t tell the cat From the conversation. Either way, at the end of the day One of us comes out rotting But for now she lies Casually in our laughter. Death is time suspended So happily I’ll hear of her.

Love and Companionship as Fiction

Eilish Bremner Wojtowicz

2. The writer in his room

3. Bright blue, It turns over in my mind. It’s an imposition Of my own design A relic and a ruiner. She lights up my screen: you must love each other very much And I want to reply yes! you are late to the party but love at least, has stayed on. Instead I’m pinning Goodbyes onto the wall As my trust dribbles down Thick and acrid. Never a saint but Still asking How? No use The cat is dead, and I’m The writer’s villain. I could press on every key And it would still be broken.

With the curtains shut Misses the keys in the dark. To sit on the cracks The peeling paint, is that not The beauty that songs Are made of? I hope one day You will share it And the notes that float In the afternoon sun Will be source of your Miracle tears. The gate swings The latch clicks And the writer buries His head in the sound.

4. This is irony And it leans so comfortably At the bar Shoulder to shoulder With denial. What a spectacle To know their mind Before they do, and eventually Wring it out of them. There one day, gone the next That was never love. How often is the Prophet Called a madman? From up here you can still see The dull rotation Of the world; There’s nothing quite like The impact of the expected.

5. Out at night We pool our joy Hips swinging, ungainly. This place is ugly Full of sweat and resentment. It hates me And I it. It is in memoriam: Birthplace and carnal hell And I’m dancing in the hope That I exist.

6. This fall from grace Has landed me back On a streetlit pavement Crawling with ants. Refuge turned refusal I am rolling in the memory Of reciprocity, bruising In its wake and drowning In the fruitless hope of it. Moments are material And fill the heart with proof. I lost my voice What perfect timing; An art of sound in time Is poor substitute For fun.

7. It is cheap now. Its carcass floats downstream Quick to deny The softness of two hands Holding tight. Despised, discarded And never mourned; Love is lost In a dead thing.

SNOWFLAKE:

HOW INTERNALISED BIPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA SHAPED ME

When I first heard the word ‘gay’, it was in a sex education class in my all-girls school in Grade 8. Not gay women, mind, but just the fact that gay men existed and sometimes had sex. God forbid lesbians even exist in a religious all-girl school. In that moment, I wrinkled up my face in disgust. Momentarily homophobic before quickly being stifled into internalised queer-phobia when I realised that I had a crush on my best friend. Words like ‘lesbian’, ‘dyke’ and just ‘gay’ were tossed around the playground and classroom with little consideration, so much that they lost any sort of meaning and became the Insult of the Week. It became the subject of gossip concerning my friends, all of which were young, closeted queer women and genderqueer people. We do flock together after all. I heard my fair share of slurs hurdled in my direction, behind my back, and when I finally cut my hair short to alleviate my gender dysphoria, shouted out of car windows by strangers. In the pivotal years of my adolescence, I had to seclude myself in the fear that my teacher mum would see. No matter where I was, I had her there to bear witness to my gender experimentation.

JOEY HARPER (THEY/THEM)

I had this weaponised against me when a teacher noticed me holding hands with my friend during morning roll call. There were concerns that my friend, a queer child, was being predatory, and I was outed to my mum at the age of 14 before I had carved out an identity or label for myself, all because she worked at the very school I was attending. I am still mending the distrust I have with

authority figures, including my own mother because of this injustice that was placed upon me. Due to the lack of autonomy I had with this part of my identity and expression.

This was exacerbated when 2 years later, when asking if I could wear a suit instead of a dress to the Year 10 gala, my mother replied with:

“People will think you’re a dyke.”

And there was that word again. Utilised against me by someone who was supposed to support me. The idea that appearances were far more important than my comfort. I attended the gala in a black dress, tugging at the sides of it, all too figure-hugging on my skin. Feeling as if I was a parodying caricature of myself.

Several years later, I was a young adult tentatively living a double life of being out and proud with friends but having to be constantly deadnamed at home. I began to doubt what my identity truly meant for me, and, upon stumbling on trans-medicalist ideology online from binary transgender individuals, I began hating myself again. Not only did I witness the flack online from the far-right extremists calling people like me “snowflakes”, most notably when celebrities such as Demi Lovato and Sam Smith came out as non-binary, but I was receiving a similar rhetoric within the very community I was hoping

to fit into. Apparently, being non-binary was impeding on the progress that trans individuals had made from the days of Stonewall by not accepting cisgendered and binary notions of gender. It was these notions that prompted me to believe I was a cisgendered woman merely battling internalised sexism and misogyny. Yet again, I was a victim of my circumstances.

Retrospectively, now 22-going-on-23, new name with matching replacement birth certificate on its way, I often mourn what was stolen from me with the microaggressions that were directed towards me. I think of little 9-year-old Joey creating a male version of themselves in English class, who called themselves a “tomboy”, and wish I had the language at the time to articulate my experiences. At the same time, I’m proud of the journey I have been on, despite the drawbacks. I’m proud of how far society has come in terms of the adoption of pronouns. I must acknowledge, now, that just because I have reached the end of an era - me being closeted and living as a girl - does not mean that there cannot be the birth of a new, more fulfilling one.

Esther Touber

ARTIST FEATURE

If I think back to the middle of my fine arts degree through UTAS, I can remember how I worried I felt about graduating. Where would I even go from here? What opportunities are there? Will I ever be mature enough? I remember the questions that made me doubt my practice and my abilities. This lack in confidence made me want to continue my degree for as long as I could.

Now I am about to leave. Now I make work for whatever my imagination needs to share. I believe in my presence as an artist and in this moment of time, I feel secure in my place. The images I share with this magazine are part of a collection of works that I recently exhibited in a solo show.

The show is named Jewellery for Merfolk and was my first solo exhibition. This show was made up of 9 - 12 B&W photographs of jewellery - both elements created by myself. With handcrafted jewellery, this series aims to create a collection that establishes a more organic relationship with nature. The jewellery are more unconviental pieces, to boast the beauty of natural items from the coastlines of lutruwita/Tasmania. These pieces are pictured with various models by the coastline, to meld human and nature.

The ocean has always been important to us, more than I believe many take notice of. Within the combination of jewellery and photography, I wish to highlight the power and beauty of our oceans - and all of its inhabitants. We can hold this admiration and strength through jewellery. This exhibition was shown at the Moon Cave, which is located at 91 Springfield, West Moonah. This was a one night event, on October 13th.

JEWELRY FOR MERFOLK

The Queen is Dead,

Australia and the world has been

gripped by an obsession with the monarchy with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Naturally this has prompted debate about Australia’s future with the monarchy. Australia and the Commonwealth of Nations have seen a massive outpouring of mourning and a surge of monarchist support. There is no justification for this outpouring. The mourning for the greatest statespeople in the world pales in comparison to what we have seen for the Queen. The mourning for the Queen might be justified if she had actually had done something to change the world for the better such as someone like Nelson Mandela. But the common response to why we are mourning the Queen is that she lived a long time or that she was such a nice lady. Many people meet that description and do not get that level of mourning.

There is not one thing that the Queen has done to deserve that level of mourning.

Having dealt with the lack of any benefit that the Queen has provided, the costs of the monarchy must be addressed. The Queen represented a racist institution, plain and simple. The monarchy is built on the conquest and dispossession of people of colour across the world. These peoples suffered the burden of the ‘empire on which the sun never sets’. The empire that the British built was designed to extract as much out of its conquered peoples as possible. There are many symbols that represent this extraction. The Kohinoor is an extravagant 500 million dollar diamond that was taken by the British East India Company and given to the monarchy. The Great Star of Africa is a massive 500 carat diamond taken by the South African colonisers and given to the monarchy. These symbols represent an institution that invades the lands of people of colour and establishes systematic exploitation and extraction of the wealth of the conquered people.

The symbols represent darker realites. While the British ruled in India, the monarch was styled Emperor or Empress of India. While in India the monarchy presided over multiple famines. These famines could have been avoided but the empire set up a system where Indians were forced to grow cotton rather than agricultural crops. British inaction and the increase of taxation as a response to the crisis exacerbated the suffering, resulting in millions dead. The monarchy presided over this mass death, enjoying the benefits of the system that enriched them while their subjects starved.

It is important not to forget that the first Queen Elizabeth established the slave trade, provided vessels for slavers and reaped the economic rewards of the practice.

In Australia, the monarchy presided over the mass colonisation, genocide and disspossesion of Australia’s Indigenous population. The native population were replaced with colonists who enriched the treasury of the empire and by extension the monarchy. The monarchy has directly benefited from this racist dispossession and wealth extraction and is sitting on a pile of stolen wealth.

In light of this institutionalised racism in the monarchy it should come as no surprise that the attitudes of the royals still embody this colonial mindset. People of colour were banned from working in Buckingham palace up until at least the late 1960s and the Queen received a personal exemption from racial discrimination legislation. A small selection of Prince Phillip’s famous remarks include calling Chinese people ‘slitty eyed’, insulting Ethiopian art, and asking if Indigenous Australians were still ‘chucking spears at each other’. The fact that we are being asked to mourn the representative of this institution that produces this vitriol is insulting at best and discrimination at worst.

Women are also subjected to unconscionable discrimination by the monarchy. Up until very, recently women could not inherit the throne unless there

were no male heirs. The previously discussed personal exemption prevented women working at Buckingham Palace from complaining that they had been discriminated against. Royal procedure enforces that the spouses of male royals must walk in the shadow of their husbands. This is a perfect representation of the monarchy’s attitude towards women.

If unconscionable racism and sexism do not displace the monarchy from its hold over Australia then the interests of national security should. It does not make sense to have a nation’s head of state be an inherited position limited to a citizen of a country on the other side of the world. Britain has proven that it will use Australia for its own security interests at the expense of Australia’s. This was perfectly exemplified in the second world war. With the Empire of Japan on the rise in South-East Asia, threatening all countries in the region with invasion, Britain left Australia to its fate when it bungled the defence of Singapore and then left the region completely. Australia was left completely abandoned, if America had not stepped in, Japan could have invaded Australia if they wanted to. The Australian experience in World War Two prompts the question, why should we pledge allegiance to an empire that only looks after themselves in our time of need? What makes this much harder to swallow is the fact that Australia was sent into the meatgrinder of the trenches of the western front and Gallipoli by the British Empire in World War One. These campaigns decimated the adult population of Australia for no gain. These examples show the costs of having a head of state who bears allegiance to another country on the other side of the world. Australia can only be completely secure when we have a head of state who is an Australian.

Monarchy is an anachronism of the medieval era that has no place in modern, enlightened times. So often we are told that if you work hard you will be rewarded. Monarchy spits in the face of the idea of a society based on merit. Massive

inherited wealth and power is completely incompatible with a society that tells itself that all you need to do to be successful is work harder. The result of this is that the people conferred with this wealth and power are not the most deserving. Instead we get rampant racists like Prince Phillip, deeply troubling people like Prince Andrew and spoiled cheating brats like King Charles. It is a product of monarchy that we are forced to look up to these people. In a society based on merit, these problematic individuals would not be forced upon us as our overlords.

These are the people we are meant to bow to and to address as ‘your royal highness’ or ‘majesty’. These forms of address nail down the idea that somehow these people are better than us, higher than us and that we owe them our allegiance. The state imposes these titles and institutions through pledges of loyalty and vesting ultimate power in the crown.

It is important to address the misconceptions that are floated about republicanism. Often people say that a republic will turn our political system into the dumpster fire that is America. A republic does not equal the unification of a head of state and a head of government. There are many republics around the world that have an elected president and a prime minister. Germany is an example of a model that works. They have a ceremonial elected president who carries out many of the functions that our current governor general carries out and an elected chancellor who is their equivalent of our prime minister. Ireland, a country with more than its fair share of monarchist brutality, also has established a president and a prime minister, without devolving into an American style political system.

With a republic we could choose our head of state, someone to represent all Australians. We could have a figurehead, someone to represent the ideal of the ‘Australian fair go’. Someone who has worked hard and earnt their way to the top, not inherited and been forced upon the people.

This is why we should say ‘The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Republic’

Long Live the Republic

there’s so much I’ve wanted to tell you.

so many things I’ve wanted to ask & be asked & take for granted. I want to be able to take you for granted & not be cryptic or melancholic when strangers ask about you. there’s so much I’ve wanted to tell you but I just don’t think you’d listen - even if we still talked even if you still called me your liebling & asked me to stay & never tried to kill us. even now; in the midst of all this carnage & ending & unuttered howling.

I remember when we used to ride in the car & I would try to talk to you I would try to tell you things but you never wanted to hear them you hated how much I spoke (I always had so much to say; I still do & still nobody wants to hear me it’s agony it’s so hard to hold it all in) & when I had convinced myself I had forgotten to say it aloud & I said it again you would tell me to just let you drive in peace just one moment of peace there was never any peace with me.

Hale

DESMOND MARCENKO

While the new Premier has been lauded by pundits for his moderate gestures, austerity, corruption and the erosion of our democracy remain at the top of the order for the Tasmanian Liberals.

Jeremy Rockliff, much like his predecessor, has enjoyed a reputation as a willing moderate on a number of social issues. The Liberal Premier has come out in favour of changing the date of Australia Day to one more inclusive and has thrown his support behind a referendum based on the Uluru Statement from the Heart, one of the new federal Labor government’s marquee policies. Rockliff has also recently committed to restoring the Tasmanian House of Assembly back to its original size of 35 seats, a move Labor and the Greens have been championing since it was reduced to 25 in 1998.

Though welcome concessions – socialists must fight the narrative that Rockliff and the Tasmanian Liberals are somehow less morally bankrupt and corrupt than their federal counterparts. Their track record this year alone is enough to prove the very opposite.

Rockliff began the year by announcing his government’s first budget, characterised by real wage cuts and a complete failure to address the housing crisis.

The budget offered only a meagre 2.5% wage increase for workers in the public sector – which taking into account inflation, is a sizeable real wage cut. While devastating for all public sector employees, the Rockliff-Ferguson budget was a particular blow to health care workers, with the state historically suffering to retain and attract workers in that industry due to low wages. While the Liberals praised frontline health workers during nipaluna/Tasmania’s initial coronavirus wave, their only thanks has been slashing their wages during the most extreme cost of living crisis in recent memory.

The budget also failed to address lutruwita/Tasmania’s ever worsening housing crisis. While the Tasmanian Liberals have pledged 1.1 billion to create 10,000 new homes by 2030, the 2022-23 state budget allocates only 3.3% of this – casting their target into doubt.

The Liberals have also been rocked by integrity expert Geoffrey Watson’s recent findings on a controversial grant fund established during the 2021 state election. The ‘Local Communities Facility Fund’ allowed members of the party to determine which organisations were entitled to grants from a budget of nearly $15 million sourced from taxpayers.

The ABC revealed this year that current Sports Minister Nic Street used the fund to grant $50,000 to a branch of the Country Woman’s Association where a member of his family was the treasurer. The fund was also used to grant $165,000 to the charity St Vincent de Paul, of which Liberal hopeful Lara Alexander was the Tasmanian chief executive. As the grants were considered election promises, they never received external scrutiny by the Communities Department.

The explosive findings came just weeks after it was found that Liberal MHA Madeleine Ogilvie had announced a $150,000 taxpayer funded grant for the rowing club that her daughter is a member of in 2021.

The Liberals’ passing anti-protest legislation under Rockliff’s tenure will perhaps be the Premier’s most enduring legacy. These changes to the Police Offences Act would find anyone who disrupts a business in the course of protest facing a $8650 fine, or up to 12 months in prison. Repeat offenders would face fines up to a maximum of $21,625 or a whopping maximum two and a half year prison sentence. The Liberals’ legislation would also see changes to public nuisance laws that would impose harsher penalties for those blocking vehicles or pedestrians in the street.

While the government has argued that the laws have been introduced to protect workers, unions have joined a chorus of dissent alongside civil society groups and environmental collectives, arguing that they are an affront to Tasmanians’ democratic rights. These unnecessary, draconian laws serve only to benefit the major parties’ corporate donors, while stifling any genuine direct action that could lead to positive political change.

Defeating this government’s brand of Toryism requires shifting the narrative from Rockliff as willing moderate to casting the Premier in his true light –that of a corruption enabling, austerity driven autocrat. Perhaps as importantly – it also requires the emergence of legitimate opposition to the Liberals in the form of a socialist workers party.

Rockcliff is not a moderate

Last year, Sally Rooney was publicly slandered as an anti-semite by the British commentariat as a result of her principled decision to not allow her new book Beautiful World, Where are you? to be translated into Hebrew by Modan Publishing House. While Rooney’s decision was motivated solely by the publisher’s ties to the Israeli defence ministry, her accusers pretended it meant that she was boycotting the language of Hebrew itself. Rooney has frequently cited her support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a non-violent means of protesting the mistreatment of Palestinians in Israel and in the occupied West-Bank and Gaza.

Supporters of BDS being scurrilously labelled anti-semites is nothing new and is a routine tactic of those who seek to minimise the scale of Israeli human right abuses. What was so different about the treatment of Rooney was the willingness of many self professed “liberal” commentators to explicitly resurrect anti-irish tropes in service of their deliberate misinterpretation of Rooney’s decision. For example, Michael Shurkin, the director of 14 North Strategies a think tank centred around “developing bespoke solutions to succeeding in Africa”, commented in a now deleted tweet that Rooney’s stance was due to “some PreVatican II anti-judaism lurking in Irish Culture.”

Meanwhile Ben Judah, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council who instigated the pile-on of Rooney, stated that Ireland’s distinctive opposition to Israeli Apartheid is due to “Irish Nationalist anti-imperialism associated with Sinn Fein.”

The idea that Sinn Fein are the puppet-masters of Irish opposition to Israeli human rights abuses as Ben Judah has suggested is absurd. Sinn Fein are antiimperialist and do believe in the reunification of Ireland but so is the majority of the Irish people independent of any relationship with Sinn Fein as a party. Like the Palestinian people, the Irish too were violently dispossessed of their land, whether it was through the Ulster Plantation or Oliver Crowell’s genocidal “to hell or Connacht campaign in Ireland’’. Irish solidarity for the Palestinian cause stems from the obvious parrallel between Irish and Palestinian persecution, this is especially true in Northern Ireland where the Irish population has been historically disenfranchised in a similar way to Palestinians living under the thumb of Israeli occupation.

Further, Sinn Fein in 2022 are a mainstream political party, having just become the largest party in Northern Ireland. Whatever you think of Sinn Fein or the Provisional IRA, they were central to the construction of the peace-process in Northern Ireland, without Sinn Fein/PIRA participation in the talks, the Good Friday Agreement would have gone the same way as the Sunningdale agreement or other doomed “shared-rule”

projects. There is also no possibility that the Provisional IRA would have been decommissioned without this participation. Since 2007 Sinn Fein have been the main nationalist party in the Northern Ireland executive and have largely conformed to political norms, such as implementing austerity after the Global Financial Crisis or choosing to publicly endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) despite evidence of the continued problems of sectarianism within the force. The simple fact is that modern Sinn Fein is not the same radical republican organisation that existed during the Troubles. To attempt to de-legitimise the political party by portraying it as the same physical force republicans as they were during that era ignores all the evidence to the contrary. It is also dangerous when it is highly likely that, in the very near future, they will be the largest Party in both Northern Ireland and the South.

It is also hard to see how Sinn Fein relates to Rooney. Rooney describes herself as a Marxist but has not been particularly vocal on the constitutional position on Northern Ireland. It is also fair to assume that as a Marxist, Rooney may foster some criticisms of Sinn Fein, especially the radical posture they take in the South while in opposition compared to the austere economic orthodoxy they have practiced in the North while in government.

Rome-Rule” has been hung around the necks of Irish people since Daniel O’Connell synthesised the causes of Irish self-governance and Catholic emancipation and it has dogged leaders from James Connolly to John F Kennedy. The history of the interrelationship between the awakening of an Irish political consciousness and Catholic identity is far more complex than the sloganeering of opponents of Irish self-determination have made out.

More importantly though, it is completely irrelevant to Sally Rooney, who like many Irish women campaigned to repeal the eighth amendment (the constitutional ban on abortion) - the most strident example of Church overreach and control over women’s lives. To conflate Irish thought, especially the thought of a progressive Irish woman, with a zealous obedience to Papal authority is not only wrong, but it erases the struggles of Irish women against the overbearing power of the Church.

The most dangerous thing about this scenario is the comfortability that these commentators feel exercising old anti-Irish tropes. To attribute all Irish support of the Palestinian people to a process of hypnotism by Sinn Fein or some baked in obedience to the Church is deeply offensive to Irish people and our identity. Further, this episode demonstrates the continued campaign to conflate solidarity with Palestinians with anti-semitism, which is dangerous to not only the reputations of public figures, but anyone who wants to see justice in the region.

Secondly, to attribute Irish people’s views to obedience to Catholic orthodoxy and the Vatican is one of the oldest and pernicious anti-Irish tropes. “Home-Rule means THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION OF SALLY ROONEY

KEVIN TOMAN

Hi for the last time friend,

In this edition we’re meeting you at the end. It’s a nice way to encapsulate the idea of goodbyes, a hopeful ‘end of days’ homage to our readership, the magazine and to whichever sucker(s) take over next year. It’s hard to say goodbye but it’s an exercise that’s not only necessary (unless we instate indefinite contracts like our fearless leader Rufus) to allow change and growth, to help imagine new possibilities and worlds.

This year at Togatus has been a dream. Sometimes a really good one where I get to meet amazing people and tell stories that I cherish. Sometimes a kind of self-induced nightmare where I wake up in a sweat because I have real problems with time management and probably an undiagnosed mental health problem. It’s kind of like the poet Beyoncé once said... It can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare.

At the risk of sounding vulnerable, I’ve always identified with being a bit of a jaded, unlucky, grump. But I feel so lucky and not at all grumpy to have been a part of so many things we did this year. Lucky to be a part of the small groundswell of community around our scrappy magazine. Undoubtedly though I feel most lucky to have met those that work with me behind the scenes. Thanks to my socialist king and Co-Editor Des for his vision and commitment to the magazine. To Holly, our Creative Director for her creativity and dedication. To Eva, our Key Contributor for her brave writing and impeccable Zoom attendance. You all have been the loveliest counterparts to share this with.

I really feel honoured to contribute to a space where people are comfortable to tell their stories, to speak truth to power. This chapter in UTas’ history is a challenging one. Staff allege wage theft, insecure contracts, bullying and harassment. Students are adapting to lonely and difficult online learning, wide scale course cuts, raises to study costs and are begrudging recipients of UTas’ spin. The world in general is fucking burning. It’s easy to be miserable about it all. Here at Togatus we’re a cynical bunch, but it takes cynicism and anger to dream of whatever comes next. I hope anger can translate to a radical reorientation toward the collective and whatever world we choose to build together. Ideally, one where everyone is included regardless of class, disability, sexuality, gender, religion or race and excluded only if they talk about “bitcoin” and “the stock market” at social events.

Thanks to our readership, contributors and TUSA who as always make Togatus possible.

“Hope” is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soulAnd sings the tune without the wordsAnd never stops - at all –-Emily Dickinson (lesbian icon)

Solidarity forever, Chelsea Menzie

So we meet on the final page, comrades.

Thank you all for your support of Togatus this yearwhether you’ve contributed, followed our social media, or just picked up a copy at your campus’ news stand. It’s been a hell of a journey this year and without you, none of it would have been possible. For the first year in the magazine’s existence, we fully democratised our editorial team providing equal pay to all, returned Tog to its roots as a campus socialist mag, slagged off Utas’ neoliberalism at the ABC, raised our yearly editions to 3 and got threatened with a lawsuit by Louise Elliot.

Slay.

I want to thank Chelsea for being such a stellar co-editor. She has been such a crucial part of this project and I am inspired by her writing style, willingness to chase down a story and fiercely staunch values. I was so excited to work with her on the back of her work on her other publication ‘Feral Letter’ and she has well and truly brought that magic to Togatus this year. Our creative director Holly was an equally vital part of bringing Togatus to life in 2022. Without her stunning artwork and eye for composition, we would not have been able to bring to you the three gorgeous editions that we have this year. Evayour poetry and prose, amazing energy and willingness to show us your bunny rabbit on Zoom calls has made you an absolute pleasure to have aboard our close knit team.

This year - we’ve covered a lot to do with Utas’ fuck ups and why in many ways, it’s shit to be a student right now. Whether it’s cuts to courses, poor conditions for teaching staff, or a lack of appropriate facilities at the new

proposed CBD campus - we can give a name to the root cause of these things: capitalism.

We all instinctively feel that our education should be about much more than just gaining a degree, that it should be a time to enrich ourselves through learning and grow as people. But like so much under capitalism, the university experience has continued to be chipped away in the name of austerity and the market economy. A better world - not just for students, but for all - is possible under socialism.

I’d like to leave you as your co-editor for this year by quoting the immortal words of Bertolt Brecht’s In Praise of Communism.

“It is reasonable. You can grasp it. It’s simple. You’re no exploiter, so you’ll understand. It is good for you. Look into it.

Stupid men call it stupid, and the dirty call it dirty. It is against dirt and against stupidity. The exploiters call it a crime. But we know: It is the end of all crime. It is not madness but The end of madness. It is not chaos, But order. It is the simple thing That’s hard to do”

Solidarity, Desmond Marcenko

farewell FROM OUR EDITORS