Writer
Stuart Rees
Stuart Rees OAM is Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney, recipient of the Jerusalem (Akl Quds) Peace Prize and author of the new book “Cruelty or Humanity”, Bristol: Policy Press. A human rights activist, poet, novelist, and Founder Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation.
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Paranoia over China, government, media, AFP collusion
The High Court’s current deliberations about the legality of warrants issued last year to the AFP to search the home of John Zhang, part-time assistant to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, are the tip of a massive iceberg of government abuses of power. … Continue reading »
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Labor makes another flimsy commitment to Palestinians
While Israel and Palestine are geographically distant, there’s no excuse for the Labor Party‘s out of touch support for a two-state solution, and for appearing unaware of critiques of the controversial Israeli supported definition of anti-Semitism. … Continue reading »
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An American culture of violence: Implications for Australia?
Gun slaughter runs rampant crosses the United States, but belief in US exceptionalism accompanied by denial that a culture of violence exists discourages diagnosis of the pandemic’s root cause…. Continue reading »
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Police compliance with cruelty: will Australia follow Moscow, Minsk and Myanmar?
In an ideal world, war is declared but no-one turns up. In the same utopia, police forces refuse orders to arrest, torture and kill, but in Myanmar, Minsk, Moscow and Hong Kong, men in police uniforms are complying with orders…. Continue reading »
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A tepid cry for change: Tanya Plibersek’s book “Upturn” and Labor’s prospects
In a world riven by crises, we need new ways of thinking, knowing, and relating. We also need courage. The challenge is huge. There will be no return to a pre-Covid-19 normal, which for many Australians meant poverty, hardship, and marginalization. This book had rich promise but is a missed opportunity. A comprehensive, coherent vision… Continue reading »
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Colonial-type genocide in West Papua: living in constant fear
West Papuans are Indigenous people, easily ignored, their natural resources exploited, their homes and cultures destroyed, hundreds tortured, hundreds of thousands killed. Our media reports endlessly about genocide in remote Xinjiang but not about genocide in neighbouring West Papua. Why?… Continue reading »
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Australia’s ‘exceptional’ human rights record
Leaders who consider their country exceptional are less likely to acknowledge any shortcomings. In light of recent criticism of Australia’s human rights record, will our leaders feel so ashamed of being labelled exceptional that they will look to implement standards of common decency considered central to a fair-go culture?… Continue reading »
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Cruelty as policy in Australia and elsewhere: a short list of 2020s’ victims
Political cultures also foster sadism, justifying such behaviour by an alleged need to protect national security. And once specific population groups have been dehumanised, they become targets for cruelties…. Continue reading »
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Conspiracy Theorists, Free Speech and Australian Politicians
No need to be a wowser to insist that respect for truth cements civil society and that personal relationships, conduct in organizations and the implementation of governments’ policies depend on claims based on proven facts…. Continue reading »
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Trump thuggery exploited political fault lines
Fault lines beneath US politics explain the fragility of democracy and the invasion of the Capitol building. Like a thug armed with high explosives, President Trump exploited each weakness and lit the fuse to guarantee an explosion…. Continue reading »
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Assange decision welcome but sullied by legal chicanery
The British judge’s ruling that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the United States is welcome, but it comes after the charade called justice in which British authorities held an unconvicted person in a top security prison and made his defence as difficult as possible…. Continue reading »
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Cancelling Brexit, the only remedy for a disastrous decision
No deal Brexit looms. Britain will be leaving the EU. Nationalist Prime Minister Boris Johnson promises the use of the Royal Navy to protect British fishing boats and to keep foreign vessels out, even though the EU emphasized inclusiveness. There’s no place for friendly sentiments among ethnocentric Tories…. Continue reading »
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Replacing Cruelty to Refugees with Aspirations from 1948
If politicians re-learn the principles which dignified the rule-based order, launched in 1948 with passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this should affect the chances that 2021 will not see a repeat of the cruelties of 2020…. Continue reading »
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Reveille for Timor, apology from Australia: Courage or Cowardice in Public Life
In common with other countries, Australian rejuvenation after the Covid pandemic depends not only on a vaccine, but also on a language for humanity, as in advocating the return of human rights principles and displays of courage in public life…. Continue reading »
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Morrison’s selective attitude to human rights
Article 1 of the UN Charter declares objectives to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. But the Morrison government ignores the abuses of its friends, does not care about the ‘without distinction’ principle, and thereby undermines claims to champion… Continue reading »
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Apologising to Shaoquett Moselmane – a touch of courage needed
Courage to say sorry to anyone wrongly offended is an invaluable quality in personal relations and in the cement which builds a dignified civil society, but courage and dignity is still absent in the treatment of NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane…. Continue reading »
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Slaughter in France, abusive power, the significance of satire
Slaughter in Paris and Nice by Islamist extremists raises the issue whether it is worth risking discussion of actions taken in the name of a religion, let alone re-asserting the value of satire…. Continue reading »
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Shaoquett Moselmane, Dan Oakes and Julian Assange: what price justice? What about the media?
Under the guise of a phenomenon called security, currently interpreted as ‘suspect any pro-China sentiment’, or ‘don’t reveal murder by US forces’, sinister theatrics play across Australia. These reveal Shaoquett Moselmane MP as one victim, ABC journalist Dan Oakes another, and in London’s Belmarsh security prison sits Julian Assange…. Continue reading »
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Downer on Palestine: to the Manor Born
The powerful prey mercilessly on the vulnerable and the mainstream media let them get away with it…. Continue reading »
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P&I ISSUES in Stuart Rees’ Cruelty or Humanity , Bristol: Policy Press 2020
Regarded by international jurist Richard Falk as ‘A road map for humanity’ and by Noam Chomsky as ‘a wonderful guide to the challenges we face’, Stuart Rees’ ‘Cruelty or Humanity‘ identifies world-wide threats to freedom and democracy and displays the humanitarian alternatives…. Continue reading »
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Overcoming Fatalism: Victoria, The Congo and Yemen
Scapegoating Victoria suggests indifference to global issues. A touch of internationalism could replace the hand wringing pity which has been compounded by partisan attacks on Premier Andrews…. Continue reading »
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Police state governance and the civil liberties of an MP
In disdain for human rights and to display power, governments deploy police forces to harass or arrest citizens, and then justify their actions with claims about the influence of foreign forces.And it’s happening right now in Australia…. Continue reading »
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Border openings, vaccine illusions and a log jam of proposals
Even before a Covid-19 vaccine arrives Coalition politicians, limited by their assumption there is no alternative to capitalism, are recommending the resurrection of Reagan and Thatcher policies to treat everyone and everything as a commodity…. Continue reading »
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Words matter – poets can change the World!
Responses to the mayhem caused by the destruction of Beirut will have much in common with the aftermath of Covid 19: long term recovery from devastation coupled to an opportunity to build societies so different from those which preceded the explosion and the virus…. Continue reading »
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Make peace not war, the language of military strategists
Politicians, defence strategists and media enthusiasts for the armed forces will use words from the Defence Strategic Update proposal to spend $270 billion on weapons for the military. Via the language of non-violence, it is also valuable to convey other ways of thinking…. Continue reading »
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United States and Australia, so little in common ?
Australia identifies with and supports US democracy, yet values and dominant modes of thought in America have produced a form of governance so dysfunctional that Australians should question their assumptions about the two countries’ similarities…. Continue reading »
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Drop the xenophobia and Cold War tactics – respect Shaoquett Moselmane’s rights
A healthy civil and democratic society depends on citizens’ ability to weigh up diverse views, to re-frame issues and to consider the dangers when powerful people make claims without any obvious evidence…. Continue reading »
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A Politics of Deceit: Israel/US Annexation of Palestinian Lands
In response to Israel’s intention to annex up to 30% of the West Bank, respect for truth by all the parties involved, Israeli, Palestinian, US, European and Australian, has been replaced by calculations about the benefits of deceit…. Continue reading »
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Pathology of a Dictatorship: Lessons from the Philippines
Over six thousand kilometres to the north of Australia, a dangerous pandemic is spreading and needs to be contained. President Duterte of the Philippines is consolidating his dictatorship with an Anti-Terrorism Bill which defines terrorism so broadly that free speech can be prosecuted and any dissent punished…. Continue reading »
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STUART REES. Authoritarian cultures in Hong Kong, the US and Australia.
Authoritarianism as a way to govern has been embraced in democracies and by dictators. It rests on assumptions that leaders know best, dissent should be suppressed, democracy derided, free speech stifled, control made effective by violence and secrecy…. Continue reading »
