Talking About a Revolution

Yassmin Abdel-Magied started out a dynamic, optimistic, naïve, youthful grass-roots organiser and oil rig worker and without intent, was suddenly taking on the heft of the Australian political and media establishment. She left Australia to rebuild a new life, away from family and friends, and with no employment, in London. In the UK she has been broadcasting on the BBC, consulting to multinational corporations, writing for stage and screen, and publishing successful books for young readers.

In TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION, a collection of new and revisited essays, Yassmin explores resistance, transformation, and revolution. The Private and Public Self', includes essays on her crazy passions for cars, cryptocurrency and other unexpected things, as well as the personal challenges and grief around her activism and leaving Australia. She provides a hearty defence of hobbies (that are not turned into money-making side hustles), expands on the value and process of carving out a private life and self in an incredibly public facing world (linking to the concept of keeping her body private through hijab). Yassmin tackles the concept of identity when one is a forever migrant: by ancestry, and by choice. What does it mean to organise for social justice when untethered to place?

In Systems and Society' Yassmin shares how her thinking on activism, transformative change and justice has evolved. This section contains articles on cultural appropriation, the myth of the model minority and her incredibly popular TEDx talk on unconscious bias. She challenges and interrogates the contemporary social and political landscape: on how consistently tech companies are replicating the same inequalities (and inequitable structures) online as offline, on how to bring an 'abolitionist' lens to social justice work, on the value and challenges faced by younger generations of activists who are taught to work towards 'empowerment' rather than 'power'.

In all these essays, written with the passion, lived-experience and intelligence of someone who wants to improve our world, the concept of revolution is ever-present.