Kamala Emanuel
My friend Kamala Emanuel is a member of the Socialist Alliance in Perth, on Australia’s west coast. She posted this on her Facebook page today. It’s a brilliant illustration of the fundamental truth that what are often portrayed as individual problems can only be solved through social change.
And because I know Kamala, I know that every word is true …
This morning on ABC talkback radio the host kicked off a discussion criticising mothers who buy prepackaged sliced apples for their kids’ lunch-boxes.
As an environmentalist, I’m troubled by the harm done by mountains and indeed islands of non-biodegradable plastic dumped in landfill, waterways and oceans.
As a parent who has tried to teach my daughter healthy eating habits, I’m sympathetic to attempts to present sliced fruit in a way that is palatable.
As a woman, I noticed that Hutchison slipped from complaining about parents to complaining about mothers.
As a feminist I recognise it is still women who are expected to take responsibility for the bulk of parenting.
As a materialist, I observe that mothers tend to take advantage of affordable measures to ease the burden of food preparation and other domestic work.
As a Marxist, I see that working class women’s unpaid labour replaces each generation of workers, without whom capitalists have no-one to exploit for profit.
As a women’s liberationist, I advocate social provision of services necessary for the care of children, to make possible their availability outside the private family.
Putting it all together, I see the solution in the provision of nutritious, free school meals for all our kids. As a socialist, I say let’s take the wealth of the mining industry into public hands and use the wealth for this and other measures to meet the needs of people and the environment, not profit.
As an activist, I’ll be rallying with others at 5.30pm 1/3/13 at Pioneer Park Fremantle for this.
Kamala’s final sentence refers to this event … if you are in the area, be there, and say hello for me.
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Ian