R.I.P. Alistair Hulett

January 29, 2010 -- Alistair Hulett died at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010. Alistair's partner Fatima thanks all those who wrote in with messages of support in the past week since news of Alistair's illness became public. The response was overwhelming, and shows just how many people cared about Alistair and his music.

* * *

Alistair, a truly great singer, songwriter, activist and socialist, will be greatly missed by us all.

Alistair Hulett was born in Glasgow and discovered traditional music in his early teens. In 1968 he and his family moved to New Zealand where he established a reputation on the folk circuit with his large repertoire of songs and his interpretation of the big narrative ballads.

In 1971, at the age of eighteen, Alistair moved over to Australia. For a couple of years he sang his way around Australia's festivals and clubs before "going bush" for several years. During this time he began to write his own songs and, following a two-year stint on the "hippy trail" in India, he returned to Australia in 1979 to find the punk movement in full swing. He joined in with the garage ethos in a band called The Furious Chrome Dolls.

In the early 1980s Alistair was again performing folk material around Sydney and was a founding member of a five-piece punk folk outfit called Roaring Jack, which specialised rocking Celtic reels and radical and revolutionary lyrics. Alistair was an active revolutionary socialist, with the International Socialist Organisation, and he and Roaring jack offered their talents for many benefits, rallies and demonstrations, in support of the antiwar movement and solidarity with workers in struggle.

For the next five years the Jacks made a startling impression on the Australian music scene. Their first album, StreetCeltabillity, was released in 1986 and reached No. 1 on the local indie charts. By the time the second album, The Cat AmongThe Pigeons was released in 1988 the band was headlining in major Australian rock venues, as well as opening for overseas acts including Billy Bragg, the Pogues, and The Men They Couldn't Hang. The The Cat Among The Pigeons was nominated for an Australian Music Industry Association (ARIA) award and was released in Europe by the German labelIntercord.

Alistair's solo work was always a part of the Jacks' live shows and offers to appear at festivals and clubs in his own right drew him further back into the folk orbit. By 1989 his songs were being extensively covered by several stalwarts of the Australian folk establishment. The demise of Roaring Jack coincided with this period and after the release of their third album, ThroughThe Smoke of Innocence, the band decided to call it a day despite another ARIA nomination.

Alistair's first solo CD, Dance of the Underclass, was recorded in 1991. Completely acoustic, with contributions from other members of Roaring Jack, the album was instantly hailed as a folk classic and proved to be the turning point in Alistair's return to the folk fold. His position as one of the most influential musicians on the Australian scene was now beyond dispute. In the UK his song, "He Fades Away", was picked up by Roy Bailey and by June Tabor and later by Andy Irvine. All three performers recorded uniquely different but thoroughly compelling interpretations of the song.

Rather than follow with more of the same Alistair recorded his solo CD with a return to the punk fuelled energy of the days with Roaring Jack. In the Backstreets of Paradise was a collection of songs originally intended as the next Jacks' release and rather than let the songs go to waste Alistair formed an acoustic outfit called The Hooligans to complete the cycle. The album caught some of Alistair's new found admirers among the purists unawares but during the next two years The Hooligans won them over with blistering live performances at every major folk festival in Australia. In the meantime Alistair continued his solo gigs with an ever growing reliance on the traditional songs that have always formed the backbone of his writing.

In 1995 Alistair compiled a collection of songs that owed little to punk and everything to the folk revival that inspired him in the sixties. Saturday Johnny and Jimmy The Rat was originally intended as a solo affair in homage to the likes of Ewan MacColl, Jeannie Robertson and Davie Stewart, as well as an acknowledgment of the time when the folk movement was a vital political and musical force.

At the time Dave Swarbrick was living in Australia and Alistair toyed with the idea of inviting Swarb to join him in the studio. Nothing more would have come of the notion had it not been for a phone call from a friend saying that Swarb wouldn't mind working with the bloke who had written "The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away". Thus was forged a musical partnership that has won acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Following a hugely successful Australian tour the duo returned to the UK. A triumphant perormance at Sidmouth in 1996 was broadcast by the BBC and was followed by a live in studio session a few weeks later. Since then Alistair and Dave have toured extensively in the UK, returned to Australia for another successful tour and recorded their second album together. The Cold Grey Light of Dawn was enthusiastically received and gathered some impressive reviews

Alistair, having returned to live in Scotland, continued to work solo and with Swarb. He wrote and performed three workshop presentations. "From Blackheath To Trafalgar Square" looked at "insurrection and resistance in the Disunited Kingdom" from the Peasants' Revolt to the poll tax riots. "The Fire Last Time" was a study of the protest song movement of the 1960s and "Red Clydeside" examined the working class unrest on the Clyde between 1915 and 1920.

Alistair, based once again in Glasgow, toured Australia in a double bill with US singer/songwriter David Rovics in December 2008-January 2009, playing benefits for Australia's leading radical newspaper, Green Left Weekly. Two more solo albums, In Sleepy Scotland and more recently Riches And Rags, confirmed Alistair Hulett’s position as one of the most consistent songwriters, musicians and interpreters of the tradition in Scotland. Folk On Tap called him "One of the defining voices of Scottish music" and a reviewer in the influential music magazine fROOTS wrote: "Hulett is at once an intense singer, radiating conviction, and a genuinely imaginative lyricist."

In partnership with 1960s veteran Scots folksinger Jimmy Ross, Alistair Hulett presented word and song presentations with powerpoint visual images at various events and festivals around the UK. Alistair and Jimmy shared a common political perspective, with both being deeply involved in socialist politics, and this bond was evident in the scripts they prepared together for these presentations. The three they have performed so far are titled Which Side Are You On? The Life And Times Of Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl And The Politics Of The British Folk Revival and Ireland – A History Of Struggle In Song.

Most recently, Alistair Hulett joined with several Yorkshire based musicians to form a five-piece, semi-electric band calledThe Malkies. This was Hulett’s first return to working with a full-time band since Roaring Jack called it a day in 1992. Their debut album was Suited And Booted (2008).

Alistair toured Australia for the last time in late 2009, and again made his talents available to the socialist cause.

Sources: http://www.folkicons.co.uk/alisbio.htm, http://www.alistairhulett.com/biography.htm, http://www.roaringjack.com/

Reviews of Alistair Hulett in Green Left Weekly:
Revolutionary music from 'Sleepy Scotland'
Album puts Hulett among the best

Please leave your comments at the article at LINKS.

Also:

• Vale - Alistair Hulett
• Alistair Hulett – friend and comrade
• Alistair Hulett: `A truly great singer, songwriter, activist and socialist'
• Vale Alistair Hulett, 1952-2010, musician, writer, activist, socialist, Comrade and friend by John/Togs Tognolini
• Alistair Hulett has died
• RIP: Alistair Hulett (Roaring Jack)

Asylum seekers protest on Christmas Island

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:07 AM
MEDIA RELEASE

MASS TAMIL ASYLUM SEEKER PROTEST HITS CHRISTMAS ISLAND

In scenes reminiscent of the early protests that rocked Woomera, Port Hedland and Baxter, under the Howard government, a mass protest by Tamil detainees at Christmas Island began at 4.30pm Christmas Island time, on Thursday, 27 January.

The protest is supported by all the Tamils detainees but, “We are hopeful that the Kurdish, Iranians and Arabs people will join us,” a Christmas Island detainee told the Refugee Action Coalition.

At 4.30 around 60 asylum seekers began marching around the path inside the detention with placards saying, “How Long Do we have to wait’, “Oceanic Viking 6 weeks, Christmas Island 6 months”, and “Protection Not Detention.”

The protest coincides wit h the visit to the island by Senator Fielding and Opposition spokesperson on immigration, Scott Morrison.

“People are sick and tired of waiting so long for their the applications to be processed. There are scores of Tamils now who have been waiting for six months and much longer. The government has no explanation for why Tamil asylum seekers are having to wait so long. As their placard says, processing on the Oceanic Viking was done in
six weeks, ” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“They are also angry at the people being charged for last year’s so-called riot and being put into the Red Compound management units.

“Australian of the year, Professor Patrick McGorry, was right when he called detention centres ‘factories for mental illness’ Perhaps Julia Gillard and Chris Evans will face up to the fact that Christmas Island is just as much a mental illness factory as Woomera or Baxter.

“There is no adequate torture and trauma counseling available and medication of the detainees is increasing. A government with a humane policy towards asylum seekers would close Christmas Island,” said Ian Rintoul.

There will be more protests in the days ahead. The detainees said they will maintain their protest “until we get answers.”

The protest also comes after detainees were told that under a new rule, management would no longer allow detainees to have mobile phones. Detainees in mainland detention centres are allowed to have mobile phones, and Christmas Island detainees have been allowed to have phones for months.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the two Australian refugee activists detained by Indonesian immigration authorities will return to Australian on Saturday morning. Tamil community activist, Sara Nathan will arrive in Sydney (Flight QF 042) at 7.40am. She will be available for media comment/interview at the airport.

For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

Feb 14 - 6th Anniversary of TJ's Murder

International justice for Tj day

On the sixth anniversary of TJ’s murder

Rally, Sunday, 14th February 2010, 10:30 a.m. 

Gather at the fence line.

Cnr George and Philips Sts Waterloo

March to The Block

SPEAKERS

A Hickey Family Member                       Aboriginal Leaders                        Raul Bassi

Open microphone for concerned Community members

Rally organized by ISJA. Supported by STICS, Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative

  SOVEREIGNTY TREATY SOCIAL JUSTICE

NO MORE BLACK DEATHS IN CUSTODY

"Talk to us or expect a tsunami"

“Talk to us or expect a tsunami”

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 23 January 10 - - In this year of a federal election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash, says the convenor of an Aboriginal summit in Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February.

“We will not lie down and take it anymore,” Michael Anderson writes in a media release.

Delegates are coming from all over Australia, notably Perth, Kalgoorlie, Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, north Queensland and the bush, he says. “They’re telling me they’re tired of government controls.”

The summit is open to the media and Mr Anderson says SBS Radio, the National Indigenous Radio Network and national Aboriginal TV have indicated they’ll cover it. Proceedings will also be streamed live on the internet.

Mr Anderson calls on elders and youth to find solutions to problems created by Great Britain and “maintained by the colonial state of Australia”.

“If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing.”

The release lists the issues troubling Aboriginal people:

· rise of racism;

· attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining;

· using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families;

· shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs;

· using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators;

· to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state;

· to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state;

· to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship;

· removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state;

· to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism

- and the list goes on.

“We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

“The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.”

Mr Anderson, the last remaining founder of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972, writes, “We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.”

Mr Anderson’s release in full:

In this year of a federal election Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to us, the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash.

The rise of racism; attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining; using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families; shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs; using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators; to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state; to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state; to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship; removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state; to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism - and the list goes on.

We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

The ‘New Way’ summit I have convened to Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February is a call to our elders and youth to find solutions to problems that have been created by the foreign state of Great Britain and are maintained by the colonial state of Australia.

If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing. The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.

We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.

As the leader of my nation, the Euahlayi of north-western New South Wales and southern central Queensland, and as the convener of this New Way Summit, I call upon the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, once again to take notice to this summit, for it will lay the foundation for the confrontation that Australians constantly say they never.

The spirits of our ancestors, who fought the white man, are always with us as we have gone from one fight to the other. They are always reminding us that blood was shed every year since the British invasion of our ancestral lands. No Australian history wants to talk of this but we will now remind them that we have survived and we will fight and Australia needs to be aware of the anger that is inside many of our pre-existing diverse nations.

Using the divide of full-blooded Aborigines against the Aboriginal castes has been the backdrop for division as was devised by the governments and their advisors, but do not count on this anymore, for we all share the same shocking history of white oppression and rule over our lives and the way we have done business since the coming of the white man. This will end at this New Way Summit.

We will not lie down and take it anymore.

Outcomes of all discussions at the summit will be available for perusal and comment every day atwww.wgar.info. Live streaming will be accessible at http://www.ustream. tv/channel/ wgar.

Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax,ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au.