In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) have a chat with Anthony O’Donnell (@AnthonyODonne13), a Senior Lecturer from La Trobe and author of ‘Inventing Unemployment: Regulating Joblessness in Twentieth-Century Australia’. Anthony shows us how the category of Full Employment was invented and why, and undermines the claim that the low levels of post-War unemployment were due to the magic powers of a white paper written under the Chifley Government rather than say the general dynamics of the boom. At the time it was low levels of unemployment that presented an issue for capitalism and the groundwork of the punitive regime the poor are subjected to today was developed then. Great stuff.

Living the Dream

Living The Dream with Full Employment

In this episode of Living The Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) talks with Anna Sturman (@anna_sturman) author of ‘Climate Emergency’, COVID-19 and the Australian capitalist state . Anna draws on the work of Nicos Poulantzas to present an understanding of the state, a diagnosis of the contemporary conjuncture of Australian capitalism and suggest ways that we can struggle for dignity and lives worth living.  We talk through the possibilities of the present, the opportunities for creating and using power and cut the gordian knot of  the great debate of 2019 – Jobs Guarantee or Universal Basic Income.   Music by Chumbawamba

Living The Dream with a Climate Emergency, COVID-19 and The Australian State

In this episode of Living The Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Godfrey Moase (@gemoase) a director of the United Workers Union.   The UWU, a recent a fusion of the National Union of Workers and United Voice, has been receiving a lot of attention due to the industrial actions of its members, its claims to be revitalising internal democracy and its Workers’ Plan To Survive Covid-19 Crisis : a broad vision to address the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in a way that points beyond capitalism. This interview with Tim Kennedy the National Secretary of the UWU in Jacobin is very useful: “We Can Use This Crisis to Reconceptualize the Economy” .   Here Godfrey explains the strategy and organisational direction of the UWU, gives a critique of the #changetherules defeat and presents what he thinks is a viable way forward to accumulate class power.   Music by Meatraffle

Living The Dream with a Workers’ Plan To Survive Covid-19 Crisis

In this episode of Living The Dream Dave @withsobersenses talks about the questions that COVID-19 is forcing us to confront – and then goes on to do an analysis of a report from  Macquarie Wealth Management stating conventional capitalism is dying and finishes by looking at the latest developments in the provision of stimulus from the RBA and the Federal Government. After recording this episode I found out that the story about dolphins in Venice wasn’t true. Bum. Articles mentioned include: The Age of Mass Protests: Understanding an Escalating Global Trend Conventional capitalism is dying: Macquarie warns Music by Cable Ties   Image: If the unemployed are dole bludgers, what the fuck are the idle rich? - Redback Graphix remixed by Wendy Murray

Living The Dream in the time of COVID-19

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 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

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

hubhopper

Living the Dream

hubhopper