Caroline Graham’s enduring legacy of resistance and activism

The life and legacy of activist Caroline Graham reflects decades of struggle in feminism, environmentalism and Palestinian solidarity, writes Dr Evan Jones.

NAUGHT ACTIVIST Caroline Graham died on April 24, aged 87. Shamikh Badra pays powerful tribute to him Green LeftApril 25.

Caroline co-founded it, along with others. Women’s Electoral Lobby In 1972.

At one point, Caroline was working as a journalist for Murdoch. Australian in his early years (with Wendy Bacon) Before Caroline abandons ship (she claims to have been fired), the newspaper’s editorial lurches sharply to starboard.

Caroline had a remarkable ability to digest and synthesize material and present a compelling narrative to readers busy with busy lives. So it is with a 7,000-word article about the seemingly genetic predisposition to violence of those who exercise hierarchical domination over the individuals in question, especially when that domination is clearly demonstrated with a uniform and a gun.

Colonization of Britain Terra AustralisIt provided an ideal breeding ground for this mentality, combined with its convict outpost character. Here is the article: ‘Of Warriors, Rotten Apples and Bloodlust’inside meanjinwinter 2021 (a short version was published at: Pearls and IrritationsDecember 11, 2020).

Caroline was an avid letter writer to newspapers (including Australian – imagine having the stomach to read this).

Here’s a news story from the Sydney Morning Herald dated 27 October 1986:

SIR: Australian Government decision viewed in historical context [a Bob Hawke initiative, see below] Overturning the United Nations resolution “Zionism is a form of racism” is a gesture of solidarity between two colonial settler states. Australia and Israel are among a small number of colonial settler states that have failed to negotiate a settlement or settlement with the indigenous peoples they dispossessed, and who have also failed to financially compensate for the devastation they have wrought.

A society where Aboriginal people were massacred as late as 1928 is unlikely to be affected by genocidal attacks on Palestinians.

Quite a few. Forty years later this (Sydney Morning HeraldMarch 3, 2026):

Now the USA and Israel have started their unprovoked attacks on Iran; Australians need to clarify our government: do we still support the fragile international legal system or not? We deserve to know our position given the insulting speed with which our government and other Western nations have offered unconditional support for the US’s illegal bombing of Iran. After all, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has often supported our commitment to the rule of law in the past, but has now completely abandoned that commitment. It is time for the uncertainty to end and for the government to let us know exactly where it stands.

Again quite. The common element of these events, which occurred years apart, is the opportunism and compliance of Labor governments.

I got to know Caroline through her pro-Palestinian activism (unfortunately I never met her).

Caroline had been involved in the production of a movie for a long time. Middle East Report program in Sydney (university-funded) 2SER radio station on Broadway on Sunday evenings. In 1981, Zionists tried to shut down the program. Caroline faces heavy barrage Australian Broadcasting Court and the program survived.

Caroline was a major force in the NSW branch of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) organization in the 1980s; this included a branch at the University of Sydney, where he later worked in the Department of Government.

According to my activist friend Antonina GentileDuring the 1980s, the preparations of the overlapping groups, the production of material and the organization of rallies took place at Caroline’s home in Petersham until events moved to the Palestine Center at the Addison Road Community Center in Marrickville in the late 1980s.

Antonina describes a memorable incident when Caroline’s connections helped her achieve success at that time. Federation of Waterside Workers Blockade of Israel from Australia Zim The line during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. (Zim was a joint state and para-state enterprise integrally involved in the construction and maintenance of apartheid Israel until it was acquired by a German company in early 2026.)

Some of Caroline’s writings in particular deserve to be remembered for wider and longer-term exposure. In 2021 Caroline exposed the former Deputy Prime Minister’s duplicitous role to the wider public HV Evatt in facilitating and legitimizing the creation State of Israel In May 1948.

Evatt refused to meet Palestinian representatives and ignored the Pakistani delegate because of the absurd partition plan approved by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947. Muhammad Zafrulla KhanAn equally famous lawyer, he demanded that the Partition plan be submitted to the recently mandated International Court of Justice.

In the public eye, Evatt’s role is seen as integral to his role in the institutionalization of human rights through the United Nations. In Zionist statements Evatt is praised to the highest heavens. Numerous Evatt biographers (including Gideon Haigh2022 Bright Child) Ignore or treat Evatt’s role as midwife in the birth of Israel casually.

Caroline states that Evatt’s rejection of Palestinian claims is consistent with his view. racist approach This persistent behavior towards other indigenous peoples was curiously overlooked by Evatt’s admirers.

Along with Evatt’s revelation, in my opinion Caroline’s strongest written contribution documenting the former prime minister Bob Hawke‘s love affair with the Zionist Jewish community and Israel. with title ‘The Creation of a Zionist Prime Minister’this two-part reveal appeared in the low-distribution and short-lived release that is now relatively inaccessible. Palestine Human Rights Campaign – Information BulletinNo.8-9 (March-April 1983) and No.10-11 (May-August 1983).

(The Information Bulletin was the contribution of the PHRC’s Sydney group. In 1982, various state and territorial PHRCs established a national office in Melbourne, which he chaired. David Spratt as national secretary. In the 1980s, Spratt and Frans Timmerman affiliated with Ali Kazak take out monthly Free Palestine.)

PHRC-IB the essays draw on a lateral reading of two Hawke biographies (John Hurst1979 Hawke: The Definitive Biography And Blanche d’Alpuget1982 Robert J Hawke) and other publicly available materials.

Hawke grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family. His childlike grasp of the biblical story of David and Goliath underpins the adult’s pathologically intense attachment to Israel. Hawke’s devotion to Israel constantly brought tears to his eyes. Hawke became national president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (AKTU) (1969-1980), Chairman of the Australian Labor Party (1973-1978), Federal MP from 1980 and Prime Minister (1983-1991).

In these capacities, Hawke worked assiduously for Israel’s interests, undermining official Labor Party policy (though not always successfully), working with the Zionist lobby to deny Palestinian representatives access to Australia (as for leading intellectuals). Faris Glubb in 1983-84). He even became Israel’s de facto roving ambassador as he sought a change in the Soviet Union’s policy of allowing the emigration of Jewish citizens from Soviet territory.

As Prime Minister, Hawke opposed the National Conference’s negotiations on Palestine, and his Cabinet choices reinforced his own pro-Israel orientation. For his services to this foreign rogue state, Hawke had a forest named after him in December 1976.

As with the Evatt story, Caroline deftly weaves together the marginal and occasionally central arcs of Bob Hawke’s career in the political life of Australia and the Labor Party in particular. Hawke later recanted some of his continued support for Israel, but his deplorable self-indoctrination into the Zionist cause remains inexcusable.

(David Spratt notes that the 1990 Gulf War diverted the energies of activists to countering anti-Arab attacks. Simultaneously, the Palestinian issue gained greater recognition in Canberra, particularly with the presence and involvement of Ali Kazak. PHRCs disbanded and were not resurrected.)

Caroline was active in “green” politics. Suffering from “burnout” (my term), he moved to a “bush block” (his term, Douglas Park, NSW) in the 1990s. However, he soon gets into another fight. As Nepean’s spokesperson [River] Action Group and then Rivers SOS Alliance stood out in the fight against longwall coal mining targets BHP Billiton And Peabody Resources Undermining the catchment of the Nepean River system and Woronora Reservoir (and therefore Sydney’s water supply) and even the safety of the towering Douglas Park Bridge over the M31 Hume motorway.

Caroline then returned to Sydney. His green activism continued by joining the organization. Pittwater Knitting Nannas.

His pro-Palestinian activism was revived, and he and others founded the Northern Shores Committee for Palestine (NBCP).

Some other articles by Caroline are also interesting. Like this ‘Backlash: Gaza sewage intifada’, Q&AJuly-September 2019. Caroline emphasizes that it is impossible to maintain Gaza’s water and sewage system under Israeli bombardment.

The irony here is that polluted water has no policy and knows no borders, thus negatively affecting Israel’s desalination plants and some farmers. The Israeli leadership, obsessed with ethnic cleansing, doesn’t care. Even Jerusalem Post drew attention to the environmental (and of course social) disaster and led many multi-party NGOs (Hope grows in Gaza, EcoBaris Middle East) They are working to alleviate the difficult situation of Gazans.

But given the Israeli leadership’s scorched earth approach, this amounts to putting a Band-Aid on an incurable wound. Global powers are looking the other way.

Caroline also permanently reminded the deranged former PM Scott Morrisonsubmission to the commandments of Israel under the supposed commandments of the Bible through the Pentecostal denomination (‘Hooping towards Jerusalem: Australia as an Israeli defender’, Pearls and IrritationsJune 6, 2021). The Albanian Government is less harsh than Morrison, but its approval of Israel and the lobby is substantially greater or the same.

There is also the story of the “Gaza pincers”. Caroline and others at NBCP were considering ways to give Gazans better access to coastal waters. born in Gaza Shamikh Badra He joined the NBCP and emphasized what was needed: a surf training program that would enable Gazans to master the waves and at the very least significantly reduce the ongoing number of drowning deaths.

Muhammed Salih and Hasan Alhabil He was brought to Australia for training in 2020 with permission from the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club. After long preparations, the program finally started in 2023, but was stopped due to events. 7 October and then. Since then, some grapplers as well as program staff have been killed.

Mohammed and his family found refuge in Australia with the help of his supporters, but initially only on a travel visa. According to the latest information released to the public, Hasan is stranded in Gaza. This writer is unaware of the current situation of these brave people.

Caroline Graham’s long involvement in progressive activism left a legacy of many friends and admirers.