Radio Adelaide's home of international news and current affairs analysis
Inka Stafrace is the director of Hope in a Slingshot, a documentary film about the realities of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.
Inka is touring Australia promoting screenings of the film after the ABC controversially canceled plans to broadcast it.
The film is being screened in Adelaide at the Mercury Cinema on Wednesday the 11th of August at 6pm.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 28th of July.
Gemma Weedall is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Adelaide while Renfrey Clark is on the Socialist Alliance South Australian Senate ticket.
With the upcoming Australian Federal Election, Back Story took the opportunity to speak with the two candidates about issues including environmental, refugee, aboriginal intervention and industrial relations policy.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 28th of July.
Back Story spoke to William Astore about the close to decades long United States military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why is the US still involved in these countries and what kind of arguments or reasons are given for this continual state of war?
William Astore is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force. He now teaches history at the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology and is a regular contributor to Tom Dispatch.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 21st of July.
In September 1999 the Howard government initiated a military intervention in East Timor as the province was emerging from under Indonesian occupation.
Sam Pietsch is the author of a PhD on Australia’s military intervention in East Timor. An article based on his research recently appeared in Marxist Interventions.
Back Story spoke to Sam about the political background of the intervention and the way in which it characterised a new direction in Australian foreign policy.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 14th of July.
The actions that governments have been taking in response to the ongoing global economic crisis during the last three years have culminated in the decisions coming out of the G20 summit held in Toronto at the end of last month.
The powerful European states are calling for the implementation of harsh austerity measures to curb government debt after many governments outlaid huge amounts of capital to prop up financial institutions. These policies are characterised by the recent British budget and those imposed in Greece which mean sharp decreases in government social spending programs and other social safety nets traditionally associated with liberal democratic industrial societies. The importance of such moves was highlighted by a London Treasury Official quoted in the Financial Times as saying “Anyone who thinks the spending review is just about saving money is missing the point, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way that government works.”
Back Story spoke to Ben Hillier, a contributor to Socialist Alternative about the state of the world economic system and the move towards economic austerity.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 7th of July.
Back Story spoke to John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute of Policy Studies about the economic and political significance of Turkey in light of the country recently asserting itself, perhaps beyond that of an unwavering US ally. The Israeli flotilla attack which killed nine Turkish nationals was strongly condemned by Turkey to the extent of jeopardising Turkish/Israeli relations.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 7th of July.
This month has seen major media exposure of the Israeli occupation of Gaza in the aftermath following the deadly Israeli attack on one of a flotilla of aid ships attempting to run the blockade of Gaza.
I spoke to Ali Abunimah to importantly reiterate the background details, what is the situation in Gaza and why was the attempt to run the Israeli blockade a justified and necessary response from international civil society.
Ali Abunimah is an analyst and the co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an online publication focussed on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. He blogs at aliabunimah.posterous.com
Unfortunately this interview was recorded over Skype with a machine that could not handle sound recording and Skype at the same time. Every now and then there will be half a second of dead air in the recording but the content of the interview still comes through very strongly.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 30th of June.
A producer here on Back Story, Craig Nielson is the author of “Israel/Palestine – A Christian Response to the Conflict”. A historical reader, the book deals with the issue of Christian Zionism from a Christian perspective while addressing the political effects of the movement. Ultimately Craig’s book shows the narrow extent to which a religious framework is able to explain a political reality.
The book is available through Koorong Books and more information is available by contacting us through Radio Adelaide.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 16th of June.
Back Story spoke to Anthony DiMaggio about the media aftermath following the Israeli attack on a vessel attempting to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Anthony DiMaggio has lectured at Illinois State University and is author of When Media Goes to War. He edits the website Media-ocracy.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 16th of June.
One of the most fundamental marketing tools, polling is heavily prevalent in the analysis of the public’s perception of political events. Although political platforms are shifted as a result of rigorous public polling, they are done so under the framework of marketing and managing candidates rather than a genuine participation of the public in forming policy decisions.
Back Story spoke to Charles Derber about the results of a recent poll conducted to gauge the emotional reactions of Americans to words such as “capitalism” and “socialism”.
Charles Derber is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and a prolific political commentator. His latest book is “Greed to Green: Solving Climate Change and Remaking the Economy”.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 9th of June.
