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‘Social justice is for everyone’ (previously 2020socialjustice) invites you to join a conversation about racism, gender and sexuality, (dis)ability and refugee policy, abuse of workers and bullying, children and older people, death and euthanasia, health and mental health, economic in(justice), access to education, power relations, and other issues of social justice and human rights.

‘Social justice is for everyone’ considers every issue of social justice as part of THE issue of social equity. Everyone has as contribution to make. Every contribution counts. Social equity is a collective work in progress.

You can navigate ‘Social justice is for everyone’ from Categories in the sidebar or start browsing below.

Some essays contain material that may be confronting or disturbing. If you feel distressed by what you read, your usual supports and ways of responding are important. Contact numbers for helplines (such as Lifeline: 13 11 14 in Australia) may also be useful.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are advised that this site may include images and other references to people who have passed away. It may also contain links to sites that may use images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation as the traditional owners of the land on which I live and write. I pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. I acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Joan Beckwith, PhD.

 

Most recent ...

Social justice student award fails university obstacle course

April 9th, 2017   

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A perpetual student award, for an essay related to social justice. The academic aspects were straightforward to organise, but the administrative aspects were not. Lack of overall coordination across these two arms of the university created a barrier to sustainability. The endowment has now been transferred into one-off Study Support Scholarships.

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What role for ridicule in resistance movements?

March 17th, 2017   

Ridicule works, the meme claims. But to achieve what, I wonder, raising seven questions about the effects (and effectiveness) of ridicule when the aim is non-violent resistance against abusive forms of power.

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As my friend lies dying…it’s not black and white

January 12th, 2017   

“I support euthanasia,” I would have said, without hesitation, until recently. That was before my friend, Eva, begged me to help her to die. What a huge thing it would be, I now realise, to decide the timing of another person’s death – even if it was legal, which in Australia it currently is not. Eva is now in palliative care, alive but with no life. Palliation is no panacea either, I have learned, and nothing about dying is black and white.

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Slow clap for part-time work

October 14th, 2016   

“I am not going to demonise part-time employment. I’m going to support it and applaud it,” (Minister for Employment). This applause was greeted with a slow clap – by underemployed workers and those who empathise with their position. Here I collate some responses, which I also sent to Canberra for the minister’s comment.

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No harder than when she came out as vegetarian!

September 23rd, 2016   

“How was it for you when your daughter came out as lesbian?” my friend asked. I was a little taken aback by the question (my daughter having been out for years) but did my best to recall some memories. Really, I summed up in the end, it was less of an adjustment for me than when she became vegetarian.

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Eating like a refugee – for a week

August 26th, 2016   

“Eat the same rations as a Syrian refugee”, the advertisement invited.
“I did,” writes Nicole Soorkia, guest blogger for 2020socialjustice, “for a week. It was hard, but not nearly as hard as it would be if it was every week. I’m humbled and grateful for this glimpse into part of a refugee’s life, and here are my notes from each day.”

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Save Medicare to cut emergency care

July 23rd, 2016   

The erosion of Medicare is an incendiary issue in Australia, and yet patients are urged to go to general practitioners instead of hospital emergency rooms. Stories collected in this post illustrate crucial barriers to this otherwise reasonable aim.

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Aged care cuts: My old friend is scared and needs solidarity

July 9th, 2016   

My old friend is scared about the aged care cuts. She lives in a facility where rumour runs rife about being dumped on the street or stranded in bed without incontinence pads. It would be easy to buy into divisiveness about the ‘burden’ of old people, but solidarity is our best defence against neoliberalism.

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Detention dilemmas in refugee week

June 19th, 2016   

It is, I find, impossible to celebrate refugee week in Australia while offshore detention persists. I found myself, instead, thinking about the dilemmas of detention work – for workers themselves, as well as the rest of us.

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Why can’t we learn some Finnish lessons? The Minister explains

May 7th, 2016   

Why can’t Australian education be as good as the Finnish system, a teacher of 40 years recently asked, answering his own question by highlighting the politics of education, and particularly of standardised testing. I put his question to the Minister for Education, and this post records the response. It didn’t satisfy me, but would be interested in other views.

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