‘A Lovely Magnificence’: Bodies of Light, by Jennifer Down

Type
Review

Maggie is a character that is at times both easy to sympathise with and difficult to understand. She is the archetype of unreliable narrator, with her drug and alcohol use, blackouts, and trauma from the foster care system bearing a strong influence on the narrative affect. For those of us with trauma experiences, it is eerily reminiscent of our own memories: not being sure of what was real, or what has become surreal, embellished, and distorted.

Type
Article
Category
Trans rights
Work

Gender affirmation leave: trans rights at work

Nobody should be able to dictate how and when trans and gender diverse people affirm their gender, least of all employers. Gender affirmation leave is a positive step towards reducing the barriers those transitioning face and comes at only minor expense to employers. Whether this struggle achieves its emancipatory potential will depend on unions and employers listening to trans and gender-diverse staff voices and equitably meeting their demands.

Type
Article
Category
Education
Workers' rights

Why we are going on strike

The NSW government set the conditions for the slowly spreading recruitment poverty in its own public education system back in 2011, when it became the first state or territory to impose an austerity measure in the form of a wages cap of 2.5 per cent on all public sector employees (including teachers and nurses). This remarkable act of economic vandalism has overseen a year-on-year decline in teacher wages in relation to inflation and the cost of living.