It's always nice to take a break from North American politics and go somewhere else, especially if it's another Commonwealth country. In Australia this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese became embroiled in a major political scandal over wearing Department of Joy T-shirt.
On October 23, Albanese – leader of the centre-left Labor Party – was photographed descending from a plane wearing a (very popular) T-shirt featuring the cover of the band's 1979 album. Unknown pleasuresrather than the usual political suit and tie. In a speech to parliament five days later (28 October), Susan Ley, who leads the conservative Liberal Party, criticized him for wearing the shirt.
It wasn't just casual clothing that Ley took issue with: She called Albanese's fashion choices a “profound error of judgment,” arguing that Joy Division are anti-Semitic because the band took its name from “a wing of a Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women were forced into sexual slavery.” [via the Sydney Morning Herald].
“At a time when Australian Jews face rising anti-Semitism, and when families are asking for comfort and unity, the Prime Minister has chosen to expose an image rooted in hatred and suffering,” she continued. Lay also stated that Albanese learned about the origins of Joy Division's name from a 2022 podcast, where he reportedly admitted: “It's very dark, isn't it?”
According to GuardianAccording to Ley's analysis, the understanding of this aspect of the concentration camps is based on how they were portrayed in the 1953 novella. Doll housebut it is historically disputed whether Jewish women were among those forced to work in this way.
Representative of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum said: “To our knowledge, there is no historical record of any 'wing' of the concentration camp where Jewish women were forced into sexual slavery.” They added: “I am no expert on the history of punk music” and emphasized that while brothels and sex slavery did exist in the camps, most of the women forced to work “were German socially unfit prisoners imprisoned at Auschwitz for prostitution.”
With the exception of far-right Sky News, which made the most of the opportunity, most Australian Jewish organizations did not support Lay's opposition to Albanese's shirt, which he could easily have bought at any local Hot Topic or H&M, provided they stocked it, and the Prime Minister makes no apology. Being a music lover is a big part of his personal brand, and he has a penchant for appearing at festivals and DJing.
“There are big problems in the world and I don't think mainstream band T-shirts are one of them,” Labor Party assistant minister Patrick Gorman told ABC. Afternoon briefing.
