On Friday 22 May, Beijing officials circulated a radical new law that would allow mainland forces jurisdiction in Hong Kong. Surprising local democracy protests and even Beijing aligned politicians, this legislation represents a dramatic over-reach of mainland forces – threatening, if not effectively ending the “One Country, Two Systems” policy that the Peoples’ Republic of China agreed to in 1997. To help us outside of Hong Kong understand what that means, and what we could do to act in solidarity…

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by Amanda Tattersall I remember when I first heard of Jack Mundey. It wasn’t at school, although it should have been, and it wasn’t from reading a sign on a big bold plaque in the Rocks or Centennial Park. It was from my friend at university. At the time I was in the student movement, and my friend Zoe Taylor told me this extraordinary story that frankly sounded a little out of this world. It was a tale of a…

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Relational meetings are a staple of community organising, where the focus is on building the capacity of leaders and connections between people to build strongly networked groups of diverse people. Nothing beats undertaking a training in relational meetings to understand how they work. We have a video of a relational meeting training delivered for the ‘Organising in a Pandemic’ Series that can be viewed here (after 27 April). The slides can be viewed here. Meanwhile, there are some useful readings….

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In our second session of the Organising in a Pandemic series we looked at how we can make change arising out of the crisis created by COVID. We considered the history of economic crises, and then a series of community organising concepts that might be useful for developing issues and claims arising out of this time. Key concepts included listening, cutting the issue and multi-issue claims. The video of the session can be viewed here, and the slides here.

When the 2019 Bushfires burnt her home, 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…

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By Amanda Tattersall. This was first published in the Conversation on 2 August 2019 The past few weeks has seen a drastic escalation in violence on the streets of Hong Kong. On Tuesday night, a police officer aimed a shotgun at protesters who had gathered outside a police station, while a car launched fireworks into the crowd. Days earlier, the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters trying to reach the Chinese government’s office. And the week before, following a protest of 430,000…

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For 13 weeks in the steamy summer humidity of Hong Kong there have been protests.  And they’re still ongoing.  More than a million people- old and young- have marched peacefully in mass rallies. And students and young professionals have engaged in more direct action on the streets and closed down one of the world’s busiest airports.  They are fighting for democracy and against the power of Beijing who in 2047 will have total control over the city. So how did…

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By Amanda Tattersall, Friday 30 August 2019 On Thursday 29 August Jimmy Sham Choo – the head of Hong Kong’s Civil Human Rights Front was having lunch in a restaurant in Kowloon when he was attacked by two people holding a baseball bat and a knife. The next day a series of democracy activists were arrested – including Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, and a protest permit was denied for the CHRF for a mass protest this Saturday. A crackdown…

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On Sunday 18 August 2019, the same day that 1.7 million Hong Kongers marched for democracy solidarity marches occurred around the world. One was in Sydney, and ChangeMakers host Amanda Tattersall spoke: My name is Amanda Tattersall. I work at the University of Sydney as an academic. I research social movements. Four weeks ago I was in Hong Kong – visiting the protest movement interviewing leaders and going on democracy protests. For 20 years I have studied and been part…

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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. Listen by clicking play above, or listen via an app on Apple, PodcastOne or Stitcher – or on most other podcast apps by searching “ChangeMakers.” Or use our RSS feed.