Joe Toscano

Since 2005 the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion Celebrations Committee has awarded six Eureka Australia Medals (EAM) at Bakery Hill, Ballarat (the site where the Eureka Oath was taken) on Eureka Day, 3rd December.

The EAM is awarded to people living in Australia who have lived lives that reflect the sentiments expressed in the Eureka Oath which was sworn by miners and their supporters at Bakery Hill, Ballarat on the 29th November 1854 –

“We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties”.

We encourage you to join us in a campaign which, if supported by you, has the potential to force the state government to abandon its plans to privatise the public housing sector. This campaign is being co-ordinated by Public Interests Before Corporate Interests (PIBCI www.pibci.net) and is endorsed by PIBCI, Friends of Public Housing – Victoria and the Wednesday Action Group. We expect many more organisations to endorse this campaign over the coming weeks. Let us know if you wish to endorse the Defend and Extend Public Housing campaign: Send mail to Defend and Extend Public Housing

See also: United States Militarizing Response to Ebola Crisis While Cuba Pledges Medical Assistance (23/9/14) on Global Research. Update, 25 Sep: The Syrian Girl's Is #Ebola a biological weapon? (11/8/14) video added as an appendix.

Nothing highlights the bankruptcy of the deregulation, corporatisation, privatisation and globalisation revolution that has swept the world over the past three decades than the human and economic devastation caused by the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa. Over a decade ago all the pure research that was needed to embark on a vaccination trial had been carried out, all that was needed was a billion dollars to carry out that trial.

The Wednesday Action Group was established in 1999 to take issues that directly affect us as individuals, communities and the nation, directly to the people on the streets. The group is a coalition of concerned reformers, radicals and conservatives who believe the current social, cultural, political and economic needs of the people of this country cannot be met by the economic, legal and political institutions that currently dominate life in Australia. The Wednesday Action Group

On every available indicator and every batch of statistics the gap between the powerless and the powerful has grown in Australia.
Despite the wealth being generated by a once in a lifetime mining boom, 22 million people living on a continent still have trouble
tackling issues that should have been sorted out decades ago. The lid has been kept on dissent through the availability of relatively easy
credit for people with investments and jobs.

Joe Toscano is also running for Lord Mayor of Melbourne. Toscano is highly educated in political history and economic systems. He is one of the few doctors in Australia who still makes home visits. His ideas and values empower people at local level first and look at quality of life and democracy. Whilst it is true that a Mayor of Melbourne cannot create a peoples' bank, nonetheless, they can raise the idea seriously in some big forums. Listen to Joe on 3CR where he broadcasts weekly. Joe is also publicising a Meeting at 11am near the 8 hour monument, where Australian Anarchists will begin a walk to Human Rights Square, corner of Collins and Swanston (formerly City Square), to reclaim it as public space (because it has been corporatised). From MIDDAY THIS SATURDAY 20th October, as part of a world event known as "Global Noise" there will also be public banging of pots and pans in Human Rights Square.

Today, Wednesday 3 October, Dr Joe Toscano and Dr Jean Ely launched a colourful campaign against a backdrop of Spring flowers outside Melbourne Town Hall. (Video-link inside). They made the point that the other 8 candidates campaign as if Melbourne were a business proposition and neglect the 40 per cent of votes that come from non-business people in a uniquely skewed electoral system where some businesses get two or three votes. This vast electorate includes Carlton, North Carlton, Flemington, Kensington, South Melbourne, East Melbourne, Docklands, Parts of South Yarra and West Melbourne.
Most public housing is located there but there are many homeless. There are a lot of children but public schools are rare.

"This is the statement that will be posted to over 100,000 electors by the Victorian Electoral Commission during the Melbourne City Council Election. It encapsulates our political program for the City of Melbourne. Use it as a template for your political struggles, pass it on to all and sundry. Alternatives exist, we need to express them." Dr. Joseph Toscano and Dr. Jean Ely launch a campaign about running the city of Melbourne as a community, instead of as a money making 'business' opportunity for those who take and do not give. Campaign launch midday Wednesday 3rd October, cnr Collins & Swanston St, Melbourne. "Let’s not forget that of the 100,000 people on the electoral roll, the majority live in Docklands, Parkville, Flemington, North Melbourne, West Melbourne, South Melbourne, Southbank, Kensington, part of South Yarra, East Melbourne, Carlton and North Melbourne, not the CBD."

The 774 ABC Jon Faine show was doing a Melbourne By-Election special at the Victoria Markets today Friday 20 July 2012. I rang the show and said that I wanted to hear an interview of Joe Toscano. To give Jon Faine credit, Joe was then interviewed almost immediately and did very well on the subject of the ABC Sheltered workshop for the IPA. He then responded to questions about his platform as a Radical Independent candidate, which I have posted here.

"There is not one independent in the Victorian Legislative Assembly or the Victorian Legislative Council, let alone a RADICAL INDEPENDENT. Power in a democratic society should rest in the hands of the people, not the State, corporate boardrooms or the Government of the day. Real power no longer resides in Parliament, it lies in the hands of unaccountable corporations that increasingly dictate the Legislative agenda. As we move from a period of relative abundance to scarcity as a consequence of the domination of the world economy by corporate capitalism an economic system based on the creation of ever increasing profits irrespective of the human, social and environmental costs, the ever increasing consumption of finite resources, increasing population growth and increasing greenhouse emissions as a result of human activity, we require radical changes to the way we govern ourselves, what we produce, how we produce it and how we live." - Joe Toscano

In a fortuitous collision of pique, the Greens and Labor have preferenced Radical Independent Dr Joe Toscano ahead of each other in this Melbourne by-election. Toscano has his finger on the political pulse of this nation because he has an in depth knowledge of Australian history and what we have all lost through corporatisation, privatisation, overpopulation and a corrupt public and commercial media. Hopefully many of the public will actually put Joe first. Although Your ABC Radio has shamefully refused to include Joe Toscano or other alternatives in its by-election broadcast from the Victoria Markets on Friday, a parallel but democratic gathering 8.30 to 12pm at corner of Therry and Queen Street, Victoria Markets will give publicity and information about other candidates. Please join it. As the writer of this article and with a strong acquaintance with Joe, I can make no higher recommendation than Vote 1 for Joe Toscano! See inside for Joe's platform and how you can help and contact details.

Eddie Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander from the island of Mer in the Torres Strait, while working as a gardener at Townsville University in the mid 1970’s, realised what was being taught at the University was legal fiction because he knew he and his family owned land on Mer. Here is some background on the Mabo case in Australia. Article by Joe Toscano.

Joe Toscano comments on education in Australia and the Gonski Report. "It’s no accident Australian education outcomes continue to fall behind comparable countries, we need to import specialised skilled labour and many Australian families are burdened with the problems associated with intergenerational social security dependency. The growing private public education chasm has become the single most important barrier to social cohesion in the country."

The current economic crisis in Europe can be compared to a couple in a street building a three storey mansion in a street made up of one storey dwellings and then forcing the residents of the one storey dwellings to stop paying their electricity and gas bills to meet the mortgage repayments of the couple who built the three storey mansion. Article by Joe Toscano

Joe Toscano writes: The violent removal of Occupy Melbourne protestors by Victoria Police on Friday 21st October 2011 from Melbourne’s City Square after being given the green light by the Melbourne Mayor, Robert Doyle, and the Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu highlights how important it is to reclaim open public space for political activity in the City of Melbourne, a city that only gives lip service to the right to protest.

"Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Bob Brown are in a position to change the political, social and cultural landscape in Australia once and for all. They find themselves in the unique position of having the community support they need to stop the parliamentary puppet masters dictating parliamentary policy. They find themselves in the position to uproot the few stunted perennials that blight political, social and cultural debate in this community and let a thousand flowers bloom by passing parliamentary legislation that forces media monopolies to limit their media holdings to 10% of the privately owned media outlets in a community.

The latest Joe Toscano anarchist podcast dissects the reasons why the Murdoch empire needs to be toppled. Great listening and fundamental education. Also wraps up the state of democracy in Australia.

Along with Dr. Joe Toscano, environmental activist, Jenny Warfe, (campaigner against Port Phillip Channel Deepening) has decided to stand as a radical independent for the Federal senate in the forthcoming election. The group of friendly independents, has decided to give their preferences to The Greens. On the senate ballot paper Dr. Joe Toscano will be the lead candidate and Jenny will appear below him as the second of three radical independent candidates. Joining with Dr. Toscano and third candidate Andrew Sadauskas means that they will be allocated a box ‘above the line’ on the senate ballot paper. Thus voters can Vote 1 above the line for them without having to number every one of the sixty or so boxes below the line. Jenny Warfe is pro small population for Australia - see https://candobetter.org/node/2145

Joe Toscano's Anarchist World this week is now downloadable at http://podcast.3cr.org.au/pod/3CRCast-2009-08-19-91890.mp3 A breath of sanity on Melbourne's trendoid congested airwaves. Anarchism is deeply conservative, as Joe says. Most people would recognise it under a new name, "Relocalisation". Critique of Royal Commission into Victorian Bushfires. Demand for inquiry into corruption in Victoria. See inside for details of Anarchist Eureka Rebellion ceremony in Ballarat and . You can also the latest of Joe Toscano's programs here if the link above is out of date.

Tired, angry, frightened by your government and big business? Surrounded by hysterical idiots? ABC and the shockjocks make you grind your teeth? Don't know where to turn? Need to get a grip? - Look for the Joe Toscano anarchist pod-casts on 3CR Victoria. You can download his soothing but relevant political counsel every week. It's all about relocalise, energy, population, democracy and land-tenure. It's called anarchism, and Joe is the only person I've ever heard talk about it coherently and simply.