Living the Dream

Well it's been a while, but Living the Dream is back!   Jon and Dave welcome in 2024 by discussing how in 2023 the Albanese Hegemony disintegrated. We discuss what the Laborist project looked like coming out of the 2022 election, and how over 2023 between the costs of living crisis and the failure of the Voice referendum the wheels fell off and more importantly why we should or should not care.   Jon has been very busy being a historian you should follow him on the social media formally known at Twitter - @jonpiccini. Dave has been largely occupying himself with table top games but also has contributed to this research project Class and Capital in Australia   Stuff we read, listened to etc and may have discussed in this episode include:   Megan Davis Truth After the Voice Irene Watson There is No Hope in a Voice to Parliament Noel Pearson Boyer Lectures Laura Tingle Regaining control over the national political conversation will be Anthony Albanese's one great challenge in 2024 Jonathon Green Wither Progress? Jim Chalmers Capitalism After the Crises

Hi All Long time no listen! Dave has launched a game on Kickstarter and is using Living The Dream to shameless promote it! Go here and pledge Share the link with your friendshttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/babyboomer/baby-boomer-have-it-all-relaunch  

  In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) and Jon (@jonpiccini) discuss The White Possessive by Aileen Moreton-Robinson. Aileen Moreton-Robinson is a Goenpul woman from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), Quandamooka First Nation (Moreton Bay) in Queensland, Australia and is Professor of Indigenous Research at the University of Queensland. Moreton-Robinson's work provides a root-and-branch critique of modernity from the perspective of Indigenous Sovereignty and produces a set of critical concepts to think against the operation of race and whiteness both within Australia and beyond. Other sources mentioned include The Act of Disappearing (meanjin.com.au) by Amy McQuire and the work of Onyeka Nubia, David Roediger and Noel Ignatiev Listeners should be aware that this show discusses racism, including racist violence. Music by Chasing Ghost  

Recorded just before Xmas in this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk about 2021. Unsurprisingly we talk a lot about the global pandemic and the attempts to manage it. We discuss the continual rise of an insurgent Right that seems to have become the pole for much of social rebellion at the same time large sections of the Left have further invested in fantasies of the state, the current condition of global capitalism beset by a logistics crisis, labour insubordinations and inflation and more!   Stuff we mention include Conspiracy and Social Struggle – Wu Ming The Specific Character of Today's Crisis – Sergio Bologna Immunodemocracy Dear Agamben, I write to you – Donatella Di Cesare  

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with two anarchist comrades Tommy (@correnterosso) and Charlie about Tommy's recent article Anarchy and Its Allies: The United Front and the Groupings of Tendency and the related rise in anarcho-communist organisations in Australia.  We chat about how anarchism is developing andthe current appeal of Platformism and Especifismo . Topics of discussion include the role a theoretical framework plays and where it comes from, class composition and the history of organisations, and the relationship of revolutionaries to class struggle.   A key text mentioned is Social Anarchism and Organisation   Tommy is a member of Geelong Anarcho-Communists  and says sorry for how they pronounced the group TMA Charlie is a member of Black Flag Sydney   They recommend reading Red and Black Notes   You used to be able to find the archives of the Mutiny Zine at Jura but their website is having issues. Music by Ernst Busch

In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) continue their discussion about race, whiteness and Australia. This time they are reading Ghassan Hage’s classic of 90s Theory White Nation. We talk through his ideas about Whiteness, White Nationalism and fantasy, his critique of tolerance and multiculturalism and try to work out what these ideas give us and also what they miss. How does Hage’s work reflect the changes in Australian society, its internal conflicts and the ruptures and continuations in radical ideas? We finish this episode with Joe Dolce’s Shaddap You Face – picked as an example of a particular kind of humour produced by 70s/80s multiculturalism. Since then we have discovered that Joe Dolce, a self-declared Leftist, has moved over to writing for Quadrant, largely it seems due as a reaction to cultural debates. So there you go.

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) and Jon (@JonPiccini) discuss Humphrey McQueen's A New Britannia. This is the first of three books we are reading as part of a series on race and capitalism in Australia, We try to come to grips with his argument and its explanation for racism arising from the specifics of class formation in Australia, how it challenged established Leftwing thought and its implications for today. We reference Two Radical Legends: Russel Ward, Humphrey McQueen and the New Left Challenge in Australian Historiography   Music by Redgum  

This is part 1 of our new reading series on race in Australia and the struggle against it. Over the next 3 or so months Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) will be reading A New Britannia by Humphrey McQueen, White Nation by Ghassan Hage and The White Possessive by Aileen Moreton-Robinson.  In this episode we set out why we are doing this, our thinking at this point in time and briefly discuss what the White Australia Policy was and wasn’t and the whys and whynots. We encourage all our listeners to read with us and join us in the discussion. Correction: I mention Nelson Peery as being a member of DRUM/League of Revolutionary Black Workers. He wasn’t. You can find an interview with him about his life and works here As for DRUM and the League you can find an interview with Darryl ‘Waistline’ Mitchell and Donald Abdul Roberts here You should read Hard Crackers and its recent offshoot (split?) Gasoline and Grits too Insurgent Notes has a special issue dedicate to the life and works of Noel Ignatiev Music by Wyatt Waddell

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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

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)  

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

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

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 .

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with friend of the show Michael. Michael talks about how the NDIS has changed the experience of those that work in care and community services, how it has impacted work conditions and how it has undermined the kind of care that those on the NDIS receive. We also talk about what does this mean for struggle around these issues? What are the unions doing? What are the workers doing? How does this impact with a larger question about the struggle against poverty in Australian society? This is the second show we have done on the NDIS. Our first episode can be found here

In this episode Dave(@withsobersenses) and Jon (@jonpiccini) chat with Padraic Gibson (@paddygibson) about his research into the Communist Party of Australia and its early, or lack there of, engagement with Indigenous struggles in the 1920s and 30s. Not only is the history fascinating but Paddy also really digs into what was wrong with socialist and communist thought at the time, and the inheritance of Marx and Engel’s work, that made it hard for the CPA to connect with these struggles. How and why did this change? And how do these concerns play out today? Sadly Jon’s internet dropped out 15 or 20 minutes into the conversation Paddy is a member of Solidarity and his work can be found there. Paddy would like to acknowledge that the history about the links between the Garvyist movement and Aboriginal activists in Australia in the 1920s he talks about comes from John Maynard’s book Fight for Liberty and Freedom Paddy was nominated as an interviewee by John Passant when John donated to Living the Dream. Thanks John!

It has been twenty years since the Wharf Dispute between Patrick Stevedores and the Coalition Government on one side and the Maritime Union of Australia, the Trade Unions and supporters on the other. This was (so far) the last set piece national confrontation between Capital and Labour over a specific industrial dispute to happen in Australia. In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Nick Southall about the Maritime Defence Committee. The latter was formed by comrades outside of the industry to provide meaningful support for the struggle. What happened during the dispute and are there implications for class struggle today? Articles mention include Nick Southall   Getting the Gong – A Tale of Two Cities Shane Reside  Rules made for breaking: beyond ‘Change the Rules’ Picture: A Banner on the Main Gate of Patrick Stevedores East Swanson Dock in Melbourne.© Takver. http://www.takver.com/

What the hell is going on globally? In this (short) episode Dave (@withsobersenses) tries to think through the fracturing of the global order: the split in the G7, the end of QE by the US Federal Reserve and the ECB and the looming possibility of more US tariffs on Chinese imports. How do we understanding these phenomena? Why are they happening and what does it all mean? This is our 50th Episode! Ambrose Evans-Pritchard ECB winds down QE despite slowdown, risking '2011' policy error Central bank carnival over as Powell Fed goes on the warpath Civil China-hosted summit contrasts with G7 turmoil                                                                 Music by Wall of Voodoo

This is Part 2 of our 2-part show with Tanya Serisier about #metoo, feminism and the struggle against gendered and sexual violence. This show fleshes out the problems of the notion of consent as a solution to gendered and sexual violence, the continuing importance of the lessons of 70s feminism, including much-maligned lesbian separatism, how feminism has forced a rethink of what politics and power is and we finish with Tanya’s reflections on the recent UCU strike and what it shows us about radical and collective struggles. Some stuff we mention includes: Wendy Brown Moralism as Anti-politics Critical Resistance  Tanya Serisier Is Consent Sexy Judith Butler Sexual Consent: Some Thoughts on Psychoanalysis and Law Nancy Fraser Feminism, Capitalism And The Cunning Of History Adriana Cavarero In Spite of Plato

This episode is part one of a two-part interview with feminist scholar and activist Tanya Serisier. Tanya and Dave(@withsobersenses) discuss how #metoo can be understood in the history of feminist struggle against, and thought about, gendered sexual violence. Tanya discusses how complex these issues are: they evade easy answers and they bring up difficult questions about where such violence comes from and how struggle and speech against them sometimes breaks from the broader patterns of power and sometimes reinforces them.   Tanya’s research work and writing can be found here

In this episode of Living The Dream (@withsobersenses) chats with Aaron and Michelle at Bad Habit Recordsabout what’s happening in Ipswich. The council is engulfed in a corruption scandal (complete with bashings in the forest), the centre of the town is in dire straits caught between neglect and a development project, the local economy is suffering except for a massive real estate venture in Springfield and the plan for a new, and hotly contested, super dump in New Chum. In the face of all this Aaron and Michelle are doing their bit stoking the embers of alternative culture and trying to bring to fruition a different vision for the city. You should read Ipswich Underground Post card image courtesy of Future Ipswich Music by Scraps

This episode is a recording from Marx200 Brisbane of Dave's (@withsobersenses) presentation on Marx's Theories of Crisis . Music by Stereolab

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) grabs a recorder and heads to the Labour Day rally. He interviews friends and comrades about the rally, what they think the impact of #ChangeTheRules has been, and if there is any opportunity to broaden and open up struggle? Due to a moments hestitation he didn't try to interview Sally McManus as she walked past. Music by Alistair Hulet

In this episode of Living The Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) tries to start an analysis of the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policy. Why has the Australian Left been so paralysed over this question? What sense can we make of it? How do we understand the policies of the state in the broader dynamics of world capitalism?  Stuff mentioned includes:  U.S. Admits That Politics Was Behind Steel Tariffs(not a Brazilian paper but a US paper reporting on US representatives talking to Brazilian business leaders)  Midnight Notes Collective – Introduction to The New Enclosures  II Rubin – A History of Economic Thought Music by the Levon Helm Band

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Vanamali Hermans (@VChristabel) about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Whilst billed as ‘the most significant economic and social reform since the introduction of Medicare in the 1970s’ Vanamali shows how the NDIS often means the reduction in services for those with disabilities and bureaucratic hellishness. We discuss why this is so, the compounding issue of inequality in regional health delivery and the struggles and strategies both developing and possible. This is the first of possibly a few episodes on the NDIS.   Due to incurable idiocy Dave’s levels are still too low. (Sorry)   Articles mentioned incomed: Vanamali Hermans  Behind Closed Doors Our Healthcare System is Failing Us Market-Models Like the NDIS Are Failing People With Disabilities Tim Lyons: Organising Ourselves: rebuilding Australian unions   Precarias a la Deriva A Very Careful Strike - Four hypotheses.

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) chat with Eleanor Robertson (@marrowing) about if we are living in a feminist moment and what that means. We focus our conversation on two of her articles from Meanjin. We discuss why it is that so much of contemporary feminism focuses on representations in popular culture – what does that tell us about both feminism and popular culture? From here we talk about the complex history of 2nd Wave feminism, the limitations of the intersectionality/class debate and then move into broader discussion about the possibilities of radical politics. Is there any value in radical reformist projects? When capital so dominates our lives what’s the possibility for radical collective self-activity? We return to the common questions we dwell on at Living the Dream: is there any role for agency and if so what kind? What can and is to be done? Articles, people and things we talk about include: Eleanor Robertson Get mad and get even Eleanor Robertson Intersectional Identity and the Path to Progress Amber A’lee Frost All Worked Up and Nowhere to Go Moishe Postone Maria Mies Paolo Virno Virtuosity and Revolution: The Political Theory of Exodus Monsieur Dupont Nihilist Communism E.P Thompson The making of the English Working Class The Combahee River Collective Statement Endnotes Wildcat Migration and national social democracy in Britain Nothing is Ever Lost

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk with Tad Tietze (@Dr_Tad) about the idea of antipolitics he developed with Elizabeth Humphrys(@liz_beths). We talk about what politics is and how it relates to capitalism and the state. Tad argues that politics is increasingly detached from society and what this means and how communism as ‘the real movement’ can and should related to politics. Tad argues that this analysis has serious and devastating implications for what we call The Left and Activism. We debate if there is any role, before the emergence of social movements, for the agency of anticapitalists. We are currently trying to raise some cash to improve our recording capabilities. You can donate here  Tad provided the following reading list On anti-politics in general (with Liz Humphrys): https://left-flank.org/2013/10/31/anti-politics-elephant-room/ On anti-politics and neoliberalism (with Liz Humphrys): https://oxfordleftreview.com/olr-issue-14/tad-tietze-and-elizabeth-hymphreys-anti-politics-and-the-illusions-of-neoliberalism/ On Greece: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/syriza-referendum-podemos-austerity/ On Australia: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/labor-tony-abbott-rudd-gillard-shorten/ On Trump: https://left-flank.org/2016/01/25/the-trump-paradox-a-rough-guide-for-the-left/ On recuperating politics: https://left-flank.org/2017/02/03/why-better-politics-cant-make-anti-politics-go-away/ The Piping Shrike on Corbyn: http://www.pipingshrike.com/2017/06/the-confusions-of-anti-politics-uk-edition-an-update.html   We also mention a debate between Plan C and Angry Workers of the World over Directional Demands

Welcome to 2018! In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) look into the swirling mists of the crystal ball of class struggle and try to work out what’s going on in 2018 and what happened in 2017. It’s a wide ranging chat about race, class, Invasion Day, strikes that didn’t happen and plebiscites. Will the experiments in radical social democracy continue to gain traction? What’s #changetherules all about? What plans do thinkers for capital have if any at all? Is capital accumulation chugging along nicely or is a debt fuelled financial crisis about to explode? What about bananacoin? All this and more!  Stuff we talk about includes: Novara Media - Faultlines: Liz Fekete on Racism, Europe and the New Right Ben Pennings - Buying Time To Beat Adani Tony Birch – On Sovereignty Endnotes – The Holding Pattern IMF - World Economic Outlook Update, January 2018 IMF – Credit Booms – Is China Different Uluru -Statement from the Heart Humphrey McQueen - 150 years young Marx's Capital  

Workers of the world unite, right? Okay, but how? This is a special episode where Shane Reside, an organiser with the International Transport Workers Federation, interviews Jamie K McCallum (@jamiekmccallum)  author of Global Unions, Local Power: The New Spirit of Transnational Labor Organizing about a new kind of labour internationalism: the global union federation. What are they? Where did they come from? Are they any good? Do they challenge the inequalities between workers in the North and South or recreate them? How useful are the Global Framework Agreements that they use? Focusing on the history and experience of UNI Global Union Shane and Jamie talk about all this and more. There are no easy answers here. Whether you think the union makes us strong (you know who you are) or that unions are forces of recuperation (as do you) this is a must-listen-to conversation about the real experience of the global labour institutions.

In this special #qldvotes2017 episode of Living The Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) engage in all the froth and illusion of electoral politics. We chat about the broader situation in Queensland and the impact of the slowdown of capital accumulation and the rise in state debt and the general degeneration of all the major parties. What is the ALP government all about and why is it so boring? What is left of the LNP and what kind of reactionary mindblowingness is One Nation engaged in now? Why are power bills rising and why are the mainstream solutions so shit?   We end the podcast with a chat about the revitalised and radical campaign of the Greens. Can this contribute to radically changing society? What are its promises and what are its limitations? Can elections play any role in anti-capitalist strategy? If so what? Is this a new way forward or old-school recuperation?   Some of the stuff we mention is:   Policing Newman’s Crisis: Law and order, hegemony and the State   Roads to Nowhere – Capital’s Plan A   Thwaites Report   Grattan Institute on Energy   Refusing Survival: What Happens If We Don’t Save the World From Climate Change? by Nicholas Beuret

    Australia is currently in the midst of a non-binding postal survey on same-sex marriage and it seems likely that the ‘Yes’ vote will win by a massive majority. Yet the ‘Left’ and supporters of same-sex marriage seem miserable and downcast about this. In this episode Simon Copland (@SimonCopland) helps Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) make sense of it all. We talk about the role that homophobia and sexuality plays in capitalism, the histories of Queer struggles within neoliberalism, and how certain sections of the Yes campaign have internalised a pessimistic perspective about people and democracy. We finish on a high-note about what the expected resounding Yes vote will mean for Australian society and the possibility of further struggles. This episode starts with Dave mispronouncing Simon’s name.   Writers and articles we mention include: Wendy Brown – States of Injury Dennis Altman – Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation Melinda Cooper – Family Values  Interchange – In the Name of the Family: The Moral Uses of Welfare    Sarah Schulman The Gentrification of the Mind   Queers Podcast Music by Bob. B Soxx and the Blues Jeans and by Dark Blue

In episode 2 of Marx’s Textbook Dave (@withsobersenses) looks at two very different ways of understanding the broad dynamics of capitalism. Mainstream economics asks us to think of capitalism as simply a system of wealth creation and consider questions of what is or isn’t an efficient use of resources and when or if the state should intervene; whilst Marx argues that capitalism is primarily compelled by the drive to make profits and accumulate capital, the source of which is the exploitation of labour and that it has an inherent tendency to crisis and creates the material possibilities of a better society – communism. Which approach is correct? (Spoiler: it is Marx’s – capitalism is a profit driven system of exploitation with a tendency to crisis and we are its gravediggers).   Bibliography Littleboy, Bruce, Akila Weerapana, and John B Taylor. 2013. Macroeconomics : Principles and Practice. Asia Pacific: Cengage Learning Australia ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/lib/uql/detail.action?docID=1990996. Marx, Karl. 1990. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Translated by Ben Fowkes. Vol. 1. London: Penguin Classics. Marx, Karl. 1991. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Translated by David Fernbach. Vol. 3. London: Penguin Books in association with New Left Review. Marx, Karl. 1992. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Translated by David Fernbach. Vol. 2. London: Penguin Classics.

Marx’s Textbook Ep.1: An Introduction to the Critique of Capitalism & of Economics   This is the first episode of a new Living The Dream series entitled Marx’s Textbook. In each episode Dave(@withsobersenses) takes a chapter of a basic macroeconomics textbooks – in this case Littleboy (2013) – summarises the content and then presents how Marx can help us think about these issues and challenge the dominant assumptions. What we find is that Marx doesn’t just provide different answers rather he compels us to ask different questions. Each episode will only be approx. 30 minutes long and is aimed at helping people to understand and critique both capitalism and economics as an ideology. No prior knowledge of Marx or macroeconomics is required.   Further reading: “Capital”after MEGA: Discontinuities, Interruptions, and New Beginnings Michael Heinrich   Littleboy, Bruce, et al.,. 2013. Macroeconomics : Principles and Practice. Asia Pacific: Cengage Learning Australia ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/lib/uql/detail.action?docID=1990996.

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@jonpiccini)  and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk with all-round good egg Troy Henderson (@TroyCHenderson) about the idea of a Universal Basic Income.  Troy provides us with an intellectual history and we discuss if it is a techbro attempt to sure up capitalism, a radical social democratic attempt to fix capitalism or if it contains radical elements that point in an anti-capitalist direction? We also talk about why a Jobs Guarantee is horrid and shit.   Some stuff we may have mentioned or should have: Helen Razer UBI is just a bedtime story Elon Musk tells himself to help the super-wealthy sleep Bill Mitchell A basic income guarantee is a neo-liberal strategy for serfdom without the work Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams  Inventing the Future Postcapitalism and a World Without Work Antonio Negri  Benoît Hamon and Universal Income Immaterial Workers of the World (Paolo Virno) What Did I Tell You? Andrew Leigh Why a universal basic income is a terrible idea Chapo Trap House  Episode 123 - UBIsoft feat. Clio Chang (7/10/17) Music includes Soft Pink Things and The Business both covering CRASS

  In this episode of Living The Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) talks with Craig Gent from Novara Media. We talk about the recent UK General Election and the surprisingly good result Labour under Jeremy Corbyn received. Craig tells us about how Novara have chosen to orientate to Corybn and elections, the contradictions of social democracy and what the election may or may not mean for larger anticapitalist practice. These contradictions are represented artistically by starting the show with a sample of Corbyn reading Shelley and finishing with a classic anti-parliamentary anarchist banger by Chumbawamba – representing the wide gamut of UK radicalism in verse and song. Articles we mention include: 4 Reasons Working-Class Radicals Should Vote Labour on 7 May Where We Go From Here – Richard Seymour 12 Reasons to Vote Green in this General Election 5 Reasons Why I Won’t Vote in #GE2015 Global Economic Prospects: A Fragile Recovery – World Bank

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) are joined by Liz Humphrys (@liz_beths) who torpedos the hagiography of the ALP Hawke-Keating government. Whilst the talking heads of the ALP like Van Badham and Wayne Swan argue over if the Hawke-Keating government was mainly excellent with a few flaws or really excellent with none, Liz’s ground breaking work on the Accord shows how the latter was the central plank of the implementation of neo-liberalism in Australia and the method of delivering an epoch defining defeat to the working class and the decomposition of our power. Not one for pointless pessimism Liz also gives us some key insights from this history that can help us recompose a viable anticapitalist project today. Liz’s work can be found at:   An Integral State  Left Flank How Labour Made Neoliberalism (with Damien Cahill)   And we take umbrage at these confused musings of and about Australian Laborism: Australian Labor led centre-left parties into neoliberalism. Can they lead it out? Labour has a chance if it replaces Corbyn. Look at Australia in 1983 The Hawke-Keating agenda was Laborism, not neoliberalism, and is still a guiding light   For those interested in the subject matter of this podcast the Brisbane Labour History Association is presenting the Alex Macdonald lecture: Labor, labour and Australia in the 1980s feature historian Frank Bongiorno 7th June 5.30 for 6.00pm at the QCU Building, 16 Peel St,, South Brisbane. This podcast contains music from Painters and Dockers that encapsulates the feel of Australia in the 1980s

In this episode of Living the Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Godfrey Moase (@gemoase) the General Branch Assistant Secretary of the National Union of Workers. Godfrey had a number of criticisms of our last show . We talk about these and Godfrey also addresses the broader strategic and tactical possibilities for anticapitalist struggle and how they relate to trade unions.   You can find some of Godfrey’s writings here: Maintain the wage rage (with Carina Garland) Defending Australian Labor The case for a 30-hour working week Absorbing Corbyn    Other things we mention include: The Young Workers Centre The Wollongong Out-of-Workers Union   Music by The Sweatshop Union

In this episode Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk about the recent cuts to penalty rates by the Fair Work Commission . We dismiss the idea that this attack is actual just a product of ‘the Right’; rather it is a continuation of the 100+ year tradition of arbitration supported by the ALP and the mainstream of the ACTU in the context of the real contradictions of capital accumulation. We discuss the movement against penalty rate cut as well as the Big Steps walk off of early childcare educators and the challenges the class faces to recomposing our power and secure emancipation. Stuff we mention includes Mazel Tov Cocktail podcast Fair Work Commission 4 yearly review of modern awards – Penalty Rates Elizabeth Humphrys, ‘Australia Under The Accord (1983-1996)’ A Fiery Defence Of Sally McManus: Thank Civil Disobedience For The Gains Of Today The problem with ‘Join your union’ In Defense Of The “Apex Gang” Insights into Low Wage Growth in Australia Top industrial judge resigns in disgust over 'biased' system Music by Barrett Strong