Ideology isn’t everything – Words in Winter (VIC)

Ideology isn’t everything: there’s love, blood and stoushes galore associated with ideologies wherever and whenever you look. This session will delve into Sandra Goldbloom Zurbo’s memoir, Tom O’Callaghan’s journalism research and Andrew Scott’s formal studies and experiences as a politically active undergraduate. Janice will engage in conversation with these three formidable thinkers and writers about their views and experiences that have touched on loyalty, love and ideology.

Sandra Goldbloom Zurbo has penned a funny, poignant and entertaining portrait of her father Sam Goldbloom who was a political and peace activist all his life and a member of the Communist Party of Australia. ‘Sandra grew up in thrall to her father, a prominent antiwar activist, brilliant political organiser and covert member of the Communist Party. She adopted his beliefs from an early age, becoming a supporter of the Soviet Union and a peace campaigner. She travelled with him, meeting figures such as Indonesian president Sukarno, and greeted Paul Robeson and North Korean delegates with him at home. My Father’s Shadow is a portrait of life on the Left during a time of great social change. Lyrical, sharply observed and affecting, it is a candid exploration of the fraught dynamics between father and daughter – and, ultimately, the love that underlies them.

Tickets can be booked through the festival’s website.