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Author: Amanda Tattersall

We’ve all been in this together. Now let’s get out of it together.

We’ve all been in this together. Now let’s get out of it together.

As the pandemic descended on Australia we were told that we were ‘all in this together.’ For a time, politicians lived up to that. Political leaders reached across partisan divides on policy. In March, there was even unity between Gladys Berijiklian and Daniel Andrews. The new National Cabinet process emphasised consensus over division. Old ideological habits dropped away too, with the parties cohering around a plan to protect lives and livelihoods and then to build back better after the pandemic….

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Articles about the 2019 Hong Kong Protests by our Host

Articles about the 2019 Hong Kong Protests by our Host

In the second half of 2019, our Host Amanda Tattersall was commissioned by the Conversation to write a series of pieces about the Hong Kong Protests and its developing strategy. The links to these are here:   The Hong Kong protesters have turned militant and more strategic – and this unnerves Beijing – 2 August 2019 – HERE The past few weeks has seen a drastic escalation in violence on the streets of Hong Kong. On Tuesday night, a police officer aimed…

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Hong Kong Webinar – news from the front line: a ChangeMakers Face to Face event

Hong Kong Webinar – news from the front line: a ChangeMakers Face to Face event

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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Jack Mundey and how he made social change

Jack Mundey and how he made social change

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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Organising relationally – a guide to relational meetings

Organising relationally – a guide to relational meetings

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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When everything changes, can everything change?

When everything changes, can everything change?

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.

Bushfire Survivor Fiona Lee – ChangeMaker Chat

Bushfire Survivor Fiona Lee – ChangeMaker Chat

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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The Hong Kong protesters have turned more militant and more strategic and this is unnerving Beijing

The Hong Kong protesters have turned more militant and more strategic and this is unnerving Beijing

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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World first narrative podcast series on Hong Kong – releases Tues 4 Sept

World first narrative podcast series on Hong Kong – releases Tues 4 Sept

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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Now no one is safe – Hong Kong’s descent into state led violence

Now no one is safe – Hong Kong’s descent into state led violence

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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