Category: Social Reproduction

Living the Dream whilst fighting for your #righttothecity

west-village
Protest at West Village Picture: Jack Tran

In a special episode of Living The Dream, Max and Natalie (@DrNatOsborne) join Jon (@JonPiccini) to discuss radical happenings in Brisbane of late. We talk about the election of Jonathon Sri in the Brisbane City Council elections of last year, why Brisbane is experiencing such a strong wave of ‘right to the city’ activism and how these two interconnect. Musings on the interconnections between social movements and elections, the global and the local and culture and politics abound.

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South Brisbane Greens – https://www.facebook.com/SouthBrisbaneGreens/
Right to the City Brisbane – https://www.facebook.com/righttothecitybrisbane/
tactical urbanism – http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/
Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance – https://www.facebook.com/WARcollective/
Jonathon Sri, Councillor for the Gabba – https://www.facebook.com/jonno.sri/
Henri Lefebvre – https://chisineu.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/lefebvre-henri-writings-on-cities.pdf

Music by the Mouldy Lovers – which was the painfully obvious choice.

Living the Dream whilst Organising in Your Workplace

Four female members of ILGWU Local 221 drinking coffee as they picket
Kheel Center Four female members of ILGWU Local 221 drinking coffee as they picket https://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/5279669440 CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

In this episode of Living The Dream, Dave (@withsobersenses ) chats with Carmen about the Workplace Organising 101 training she recently provided in Brisbane. Carmen talks about the purpose and structure of this training, its relationship to anarcho-syndicalism and reflects critically on the contribution it can play to developing our collective power and overcoming capitalism.

Organisations mentioned include:

Brisbane IWW

Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union (FAU)

Music by Dolly Parton and Marianne Faithful

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Ergon workers defy Qld ALP’s Debt Action Plan

bundaberg workers strike

On the 20th January workers at Ergon Bundaberg Depot walked off their jobs in protest at proposed plans to cut positions and increase outsourcing. This followed a similar action in Atherton the previous Friday. Whilst this industrial action has received little news coverage it is of incredible importance. It is the articulation of a group of workers’ collective self-interest in a way that actually points to the deep flaws in the ALP state government’s attempt to manage the challenge of funding social reproduction and honouring the state’s debts (in the context of the end of the mining boom which is a symptom of the Global Recession). What this struggle shows us is that under the layers of mystification debt is ultimately about class struggles:  debt hinges on the struggle between the ability of capital to secure the future of its profits via the imposition of work and discipline today and our collective ability to refuse it and assert our dignity and desires.

Continue reading “Ergon workers defy Qld ALP’s Debt Action Plan” →

Living the Dream: Welfare, Social Reproduction and Social Impact Bonds

SIB-Feature

 

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) and Rob talk about how the provision of welfare and social services are changing. We chat about the concept of social reproduction, the welfare state and its evolution and critically investigate new developments. As the mining boom ends, the world teeters on a the edge of another economic meltdown and states struggle with increasing amounts of debt we ask what’s going on with welfare and how can we struggle on this terrain in ways that point to a better life and a better society.

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Material referred to includes:

Multi-million dollar ‘green bonds’ could fund Qld’s climate change strategy

 

Competition Policy Review

 

Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group

 

Delivering On Impact: The Australian Advisory Board Breakthrough Strategy To Catalyse Impact Investment

 

Back ground on Debt and Social Reproduction can be found at Australia you’re standing in it part 2: Debt & Social Reproduction

An earlier show on the struggle of No Shelter! A Collective Against Gendered Violence can be found here

Everyone should read this issue of Viewpoint on Social Reproduction.

 

For an inspiring historical of the unemployed struggling over the conditions of welfare see The WOW factor: Wollongong’s unemployed and the dispossession of class and history

 

And listen to this killer track by Mutant Death (which features an on air argument between the scumbag Bob Hawke and dear comrade and friend Nick)