Joseph Toscano

Dr Joseph Toscano (born 1952) is a medical practitioner, a broadcaster and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has become widely known as an anarchist spokesperson for the Anarchist Media Institute through his broadcasting on community radio, his frequent letters to newspapers such as The Age and Herald Sun and his initiation of community campaigns. He was married to Ellen Jose.

He was educated in Brisbane at the University of Queensland where he acquired his Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery, then his doctoral degree from University of Melbourne. When he moved to Melbourne in 1977 Dr Toscano established an activist group called the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society.

Dr Toscano has presented the long running Anarchist World this week program on 3CR since 1977, which is also rebroadcast to community radio stations around Australia through the Community Radio Satellite managed by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA). A talk back show with Joe Toscano is also a popular 3CR program. A weekly newsletter, the Anarchist Age Weekly Review has been compiled by Joe Toscano since 1991 and distributed around the world.

The Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations in Melbourne from 1–4 May 1986 were used by some anarchists to rebuff the negative connotations placed on the word "anarchy". Dr Joseph Toscano told a reporter from the Sun "Anarchy is a bogey word: we are coming out of the closet, as it were, to show that we do not have horns or tails. We are simply Australians who have a different philosophy of life. We don't believe in Big Government: in fact, we don't believe in government at all. Government, any government is based on violence and power. If you don't believe it, just look at your headlines over the past few weeks. Anarchy doesn't mean bombs in the street or supersonic bomber raids, it means 'without rulers'. Anarchy means voluntary co-operation and self-management, equality, shared economic decision making."

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