What on earth is CACA?

I love Melbourne; I love the awesome crew of comedians and artists I know. This post is about this little group of comedians called CACA.

I wanted to put it out there, why CACA was born (click the link for the full name!).

I'm trans, queer and autistic.  My community is being waged war on in the US and anti-trans legislation is on its way here (draft bills in parliament about "indoctrination" in education by Pauline Hanson).  And nazis are picketing our events and threatening us.  I'm speaking to people who are now hiding their work away because they are scared.  South Australia has just had a major move to try and re-criminalise abortion. 

I've also got 20 plus years as an anthropologist in the NT and FNQ who has worked in some of the most political contexts there is (things like native title and youth justice for example) and came to community arts that way.  When I came to Victoria it was to access political jobs and activism, that I thought I couldn’t achieve in the NT, hoping to contribute to collective justice. To raise social justice issues through the arts, because I am worried right-wing humour is winning. People like Alex Jones (who claims he is playing a character) and Joe Rogan are quite profitable as much as they are gross, it turns out.

We lefties don’t find right-wing humour funny. But they do. And they use it to build bigoted networks of acolytes. Continuing to gentrify comedy, isn’t going to cut it.

Arts activism is vitally needed aka Larry Bogad.  For now, CACA is rag tag and it’s going to be slow, but hopefully over time…patience, effort, growth. I know many grassroots folks are trying to get up in meaningful ways and are being ignored.  And honestly, I'm a little tired of being patted on the head by people who think that my experience is not valid here.  Am I angry? Nope, I'm activated and not sitting around handwringing about the state of the world, I'm organising.  Yet, I'm getting feedback that the high arts clique in Melbourne think this idea - www.caca.au is a bit of a joke and that’s completely okay, we are building this for grassroots artists; that’s the point, thus why our acronym is, let me call it, “irreverent”.

But here’s what I’m most annoyed about. Those dudes in all black on the streets aren't going away, I was trying to teach some of them at UQ in 2002 while Pauline Hanson first ranted in parliament.  I had to think about them in my ethics clearance for my PhD, because the ethics committee were worried about any street theatre elements with the rise in protest violence on Melbourne streets.   

My research (political science) is about how comedy is a vital form of political expression.  I did it, not for status, but because I care about the topic.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has just made awesome recommendations to the Creative Victoria Strategy, and what they are talking in those recommendations about is cultural democracy in action.   

And I think it’s time we got way more political in the arts, because the anti-art folk of the far right are far more organised than we are.  That means we need to challenge the “creative industries” neo-liberalism and focusing on what art fundamentally does for humanity. To be able to have time to lobby instead of working several jobs.

There is genuine arts activism speak in Melbourne, but it exists in corners some people want to keep darkly lit and underfunded. And many artists, across Australia are in survival mode, all the time.

Our collective lobbying power is being overlooked while artists are in survival mode.  We need movements like that of the Betty Rocked the Pram of Carlton in the 1970s! Online isn't the only answer as it's subject to algorithms and the politics of Zuckerberg and Musk. Sure online is mega effective, but who is setting the agenda? Are we just constantly responding to what trends? Isn’t of what our communities need to raise? Online and live have to be able to co-exist.

But there aren't meaningful lobby groups within the arts sector, what there is, is fixated with commercial viability and/or notions of high art.  And sadly, festivals are folding faster than TAFE origami classes.

MEAA are so stretched and their workload is enormous. There are clear patterns in how arts policy and funding are distributed, that are linked to waves of neo-liberal economics (work hard enough nonsense) nationalism and conservative politics.  

How else is it that there are so many open mic nights were hospitality venues profit and comedians don't get paid? You only have to look at the massive wage theft in hospitality to see why. 

Remember when theatre restaurants paid people to perform? Why aren't we talking about how festivals are funded by artists for the most part?  At look at the financials on ACNC for festivals and you see the massive amount of funding that comes from artists fees.  And that’s something worth raising to support better funding for festivals (from mixed funding models).

And what of universal basic income? Like Ireland has been doing?

This neglect of grassroots art can be mapped and directly linked to the idea that art (which comedy is a part of) should not be political (wtf) and mostly, commercially viable (wtaf). 

Not a conspiracy; when artists speak out, there are all those Herald Sun reading people saying they should stay out of politics, as if art is not inherently political.  Even if you say art is human, how anyone can think humanity isn’t political is simply flabbergasting. Anyone who says they don’t need to be political must have way much more privilege than I do.

The rise of the 'creative industries' has unfairly placed commercial viability over and above what is good for the art that promotes public critical thinking. 

Art promotes critical thinking, whether we like to think of it like that or not.  

I'd like to see some talk about what artivism could look like, beyond the usual we become accustomed to…which is a little bit political, but mostly not really rocking the boat.

So there. There’s my dummy spit on why CACA. So, all the usual arts donors can peer over their chardonnay at me and at least know why I’m trying to get this off the ground. :)