In this episode Dave @withsobersenses takes a moment to think about how and why COVID-19 is impacting the capitalist mode of production, what are the drivers of the looming recession and depression and why various Keynesian arguments get it wrong.   You should read Social Contagion   Music by Assück

Living the Dream

Living The Dream with COVID-19 and a Recession

In this episode, Jon (@JonPiccini) has a long delayed conversation with Shan Windscript (@ShanWindy), Phd student at University of Melbourne and organiser, who has played key roles in the fight for casual workers in the tertiary sector and the rights of international students. We talk about how the Coronavirus has served to weaponise long standing fears about China in Australia, how supporting movements for change in Hong Kong is not incompatible with working for political and economic rights on the mainland, and how Shan’s research on the inner lives of everyday activists in Maoist China undermines attempts to present the present CCP regime as omnipotent. Shan's writing includes Can Chinese Students Abroad Speak? Asserting Political Agency amid Australian Nationalist Anxiety How to Write a Diary in Mao’s New China: Guidebooks in the Crafting of Socialist Subjectivities Music by RE-Tros

Living The Dream against anti-Chinese Racism

In this episode of Living The Dream Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) catch up with Tash Heenan (@tashellenheenan) and Jeremy Poxon (@JeremyPoxon) to discuss the Green New Deal. Jon, Tash and Jeremy are partisans of the Green New Deal, seeing it as a way of addressing immediate concerns and opening pathways to more radical transformations whilst Dave remains something of a half-reformed ultra-left curmudgeon who can do nothing more than yell ‘but the value-form’ at worried passer-bys. We chat about what a Green New Deal may or may not be, if it is an attempt to save or destroy capitalism, its relationship or not with creating communism, the hard limits the environmental crisis imposes, the disappearance of the commons as a concept, and a whole lot more. Writings we reference include: Australia Needs A Green New Deal, Not More Centrism We need a Blak New Deal to fight the climate crisis A Red Deal Three Ways a Green New Deal Can Promote Life Over Capital Responsible minerals sourcing for renewable energy Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Between the Devil and the Green New Deal

Living The Dream with a Green New Deal

Now that the hot-takes have gone cold and are stale as bricks @JonPiccini and @withsobersenses  take out their artisanal slow-cooker take on the recent Australian Federal election. Why did we get it so wrong? Why did #changetherules suck? What will a Morrison Coalition government look like and what does it mean for our strategy? CW: This show contains a discussion of misogyny and domestic violence. Stuff we mention includes: Elizabeth Humphrys – We Live in Anti-Political Times Amy Thomas - Federal election 2019: What the hell just happened? Five arguments Jeremy Poxon, Tash Heenan & Jon Piccini - Australia Needs A Green New Deal, Not More Centrism Music by Class War

Living the Dream with ScoMo

In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) try to work out if we have anything useful to say about an election that is all hype but actually a snoozefest. What does it tell us about the state of Australian society, what can anticapitalists draw from it? Are we about the #Changetherules or will Clive Palmer be leading us into a Kangaroo Reich? What happens the morning after? We also address some criticisms we have received and try to muddle through some blind-spots in our thinking. Stuff we mention includes: Whiteness and Class Struggle Anti-politics and how to watch election night Fully Automated Luxury Communism? | Ash Sarkar meets Franco 'Bifo' Berardi Whiteness Again Sojourner Truth Organisation: Understanding and Fighting White Supremacy Floodcast 10 Petition Me Daddy On Christchurch, lone wolves, and the threat of fascism

Living The Dream during #Ausvotes2019

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Keir Milburn (@KeirMilburn ). Keir is from Leeds and has been an anti-state communist for a respectable amount of time (and an all round good egg). Previously a member of Class War and the Leeds May Day Group/ The Free Association he is now part of Plan C. Recently he has been trying to think through how anti-capitalists can related to the rise of Corbyn and the return of social democracy. We talk through the arguments and deal with some of the critiques. He has a new book Generation Left out now. Some stuff we mention includes Acid Corbynism is a gateway drug Class War is Dead… Long Live The Class War On Social Strikes and Directional Demands Turbulence: What would it mean to win What can an institution do? Towards Public-Common partnerships and a new common-sense

Living The Dream with Acid Communism and/or Acid Corbynism

In this episode of Living the Dream Feargal and Bill report from the campsite out at Deebing Creek. They have a chat with Shale and James about what is going on, the nature of the struggle, the relationships of solidarity that are being built and what they think will happen next.  Follow the struggle at Deebing Creek here: Yuggera Ugarapul Tribal Elders Save Deebing Creek Mission   Sign the petition for a Commission of Inquiry  Music by A.B. Original  (feat. Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu)

Living the Dream at Deebing Creek

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Elena Jeffreys (@ElenaJeffrys) from the sex worker organisation Respect Inc. Elena talks about the history of sex worker self-organisation, the conditions of sex workers in Australia today and the importance of the struggle to decriminalise sex work to improving the working conditions and lives of sex workers. Elena digs into the what is wrong with the ‘Swedish Model’, the negative and violent impact it has had on peoples’ lives, and the role that section of feminism and the Left have played in instituting it. Content Warning – the episode mentions violence against women.   Music by Goran Bregovic – (with possibly ambiguous lyrics)

Living the Dream with the Struggle to Decriminalise Sex Work

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with excellent comrade Alexander Brown about the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. Alexander talks about the role nuclear power plays in Japanese society, the pre-Fukushima influence of the New Left, the freeter movement and alter-globalisation struggles, the impact the Fukushima disaster had, the tactics and strategy of the movement, its links with the global wave of ‘squares’ and ‘Occupys’, what’s happening now and the increasingly importance of solidarity in East Asia. Alexander really digs into the thought, concepts and understandings of the movement. You can find Alexander’s book, thesis and blog below.   Anti-nuclear Protest in Post-Fukushima Tokyo   Power struggles: the strategies and tactics of the anti-nuclear movement in contemporary Tokyo   Love From Tokyo

Living The Dream with the Anti-Nuclear Movement in Japan

In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) review ACTU Secretary Sally McManus’ book On Fairness.We try to dig in to how McManus fails to understand the actual dynamics of capitalism – rather blaming bad people and bad ideas for the problems we face. This means the book points us in the wrong direction. Rather we need to address the core dynamics in our society if we want to fight exploitation and oppression today and struggle for and create a society where we can live lives worth living. You can find Jon’s article on Labor, Trade Unions and the White Australia Policy here:             A White Working Man’s Country

Living The Dream reads On Fairness by Sally McManus

In this episode Dave talks with Bridget Harilaou about the recent Imagining Abolition Conference organised by Sisters Inside. Bridget discusses the ideas that were discussed there, their implications for struggles and the kind of future abolishing prisons points to. She digs into how prisons quilt together histories of colonialism, the operation of patriarchy and the oppression of Indigenous people and thus why the struggle against them is so important. Bridget’s work can be found in many places. Here is some of it:  Flavours Of Forgiveness — What Bao Tells Us About Family What we get wrong about smart Asian kids Why Asian Australians should call out racism beyond their own culture Activist Or Professional? A Feminist Question Sisters Inside do lots of amazing things. They are currently raising funds to free Aboriginal women imprisoned for the non-payment of fines. Chip in if you can

Living The Dream whilst abolishing prisons

2019! Wooooo! In this episode of Living The Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) take off the party-hats, pick the streamers from their shoulders of their tuxedo jackets, set aside the Champagne flutes and have a chat about what 2018 was all about what we think is going to happen in 2019. Climate Change, fascism, #libspill, disaster communism, power prices, radical social democracy, #changetherules, #metoo, book recommendations and angry clowns air boxing whilst riding unicycles – this episode has it all!  Some stuff we talk about includes: Cronulla 2.0? : Racist assembly @ St Kilda Beach, Saturday, January 5, 2019 Kieran’s Review Stephen Wertheim – Return of the Neocons Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell - What can an institution do? Towards Public-Common partnerships and a new common-sense Cinzia Arruzza - From Women’s Strikes to a New Class Movement: The Third Feminist Wave Endnotes – The Holding Pattern Salvage Editorial Collective - Salvage Perspectives #6: Evidence of Things Not Seen Out of the Woods - The Uses of Disaster The Dig - The Green New Deal with Kate Aronoff Madeline Lane-McKinley - #MeToo From Below What’s going on with Change the Rules? A report from the Melbourne Delegates Meeting 25th September Jobs You Can Count On – a secure work future for Australia Goodbye Neoliberalism Class War #73 Class War is Dead…Lone Live the Class War The Universalism Debate   Voice of the People: The White Australia Policy (1962)  

Living The Dream in 2019!

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Andrew(@fernandre3000) and Feargal(@feargal89) from the Anti-Poverty Network Qld. We talk about what they have been up to, what their strategy is and how this has gone. APN Qld are one of the most exciting developments going on in Queensland right now with friends and comrades leaving old and stale forms of activism behind to experiment with organising based on where people are at and in ways that directly speak to lived conditions. It is exciting stuff. APN have a conference coming up We Deserve A Living - Anti-Poverty Week Conference 2018 We talk about:  ‘We had Marx, they had Pauline’: left organising in poor communities by Joanna Horton Working for the class: The praxis of the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Unionby Nick Southall Music by Gang of Four

Living The Dream with the Anti-Poverty Network Queensland

In this episode Dave(@withsobersenses) chats again with Michael. We talk about a recent article he wrote on Universal Basic Income and the debates it sparked with proponents of a Jobs Guarantee, his attendance at and thoughts on Tim Soutphommasane’s recent Whitlam Institute speech on combating racism, and Michael’s participation in recent struggles for increased Public Housing.   Stuff we mention includes:  Michael Thorn – Is There Room for Universal Basic Income in Australia  Tim Soutphommasane - Confronting the Return of Race Politics  The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union

Living The Dream with a UBI whilst fighting against racism and for public housing

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) and Jon (@jonpiccini) catch up with Simon Copland (@SimonCopland) ‏ again. We talk about how despite the plebiscite being a fantastic victory the Left (for lack of a better term) seems determined to see it as a defeat and what the impact of this is. Simon also talks about going to, live tweeting from and then writing about a recent Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux talk and his thoughts about how the struggle against reaction can be renovated. Things we mention include: Simon Copland - Racists on speaking tour: rethinking our response Alison Pennington - On the Plebiscite: Beyond Defeatism, Moralism and the Politics of Scarcity Red Action - Declaration Of Independence You can find Simon’s work here and our older episode with him here .

Living the Dream after the Plebiscite and amongst the Alt-Right

The Brisbane Anticapitalist Smash Hit Podcast http://thewordfromstrugglestreet.wordpress.com

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Living the Dream

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