Togs Place.Com & What I stand for by John Tognolini

 I’m opposed to war, racism, sexism, fascism, bigotry, and injustice. There are many things that have shaped me into the political individual, activist and writer that I am today at the young age of sixty five. I will write about them on my blog at another time. However, next year will mark fifty years as an active unionist, twenty five years a blue collar unionist and twenty five years as a teacher unionist, Life Membership in two unions, the Painters & Dockers from when I worked at Sydney’s Cockatoo Island Dockyard and NSW Teachers Federation. My work with First Nations Peoples from working with the families who lost family in nation’s police and prison custody, that forced prime minister Bob Hawke to set up the 1989 Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission and the 1988 Sydney Anti- Bicentenary Protests to supporting First Nations Australian Football League Footballer, Adnyamathanha and Narungga Man Adam Goodes against the racist booing that drove him out of the game, to campaigning for the Voice last year. I have also been regularly attending the protests in Sydney and Katoomba against Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.

I'm a member of the Greens because I believe in the Green New Deal Public Works Scheme to deal with the Climate Change Emergency and a Billionaire Tax to fund public housing, public health and public education, the Greens record against Racism and support for First Nations, Opposition against AUKUS, Abolition of HECS, and, a few other reasons too.

In relaunching Togs Place.Com I’m going to share all the media I support financially through subscriptions and Pateron in Australia as well as in the US & UK.

In Australia: John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations, Michael West’s Michael West Media, Declassified Australia and the Juice Media in the US Mehdi Hasan’s media company Zeteo and Double Down News and Owen Jones in the UK.

I’m also going to start doing reviews of some of the books I’ve listened and read in the last twelve months:

Working Class Man by Jimmy Barnes

The Nature of Honour by David McBride.

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein,

Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking by Mehdi Hasan,

The Boy from Boomerang Crescent by Eddie Betts,

Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein,

Technofeudalism-What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis,

Rambling Man: My Life on the Road by Billy Connolly,

Stalin Ate My Homework & Thatcher Stole My Trousers by Alexei Sayle,

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein,

Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud by Mehreen Faruqi,

The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah by Benjamin Zephaniah

The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke and

Toxic The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry by Richard Flanagan.

I won’ just be writing but also using Youtube Podcast so you can listen to my writing as well. I also cover health issues such as heart disease, stroke and mini-strokes/ters too, sharing my personal experiences of major health killers of people.

Also, I’m going to do a road map of learning French and acting with Shakespeare.

John Tognolini

26/4/2024

Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Greater Western Sydney, Australia