Living The Dream after your #penaltyrates got cut

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

Living the Dream whilst fighting for your #righttothecity

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.
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 drops the #Bernardibomb

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) have a very quick chat about Cory Bernardi quitting the Liberal party. We discuss how this is more evidence of the breakdown of politics/the rise of antipolitics; the attempts by the RBA to keep capital accumulation going through monetary policy whilst everything crumbles around them and what this means for radical strategy and tactics.

Stuff we mention includes:

Leftflank

National Press Club: Malcolm Turnbull

National Press Club: Bill Shorten

Unlegislated measures carried forward in the budget estimates—
February 2017 update

Novara Media

The Linguistic Nature of Money and Finance

Chart Pack Graphs on the Australian Economy and Financial Markets

Statement by Philip Lowe, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_5EFhzROqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczfhXVYbxg

Antonio Negri Logic and Theory of Inquiry: militant praxis as subject and as episteme

Music from Fat White Family

Living the Dream in 2017

In this episode of Living The Dream  Jon (@jonpiccini ) and Dave (@withsobersenses) go through the entrails with an inverted periscope to try to see what we should expect for 2017. We chat about Invasion Day and the rising tide of Indigenous struggles, the Centrelink debacle, anti-Road protests and more. We are pretty optimistic about the year ahead and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Articles, people and groups we mentioned or are relevant:

Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance –WAR

Celeste Liddle

Amy McQuire

Police Clash With Flag-Burning Protesters At Invasion Day March In Sydney

http://twitter.com/AllanJClarke/status/824442249903697922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

White Purity

The Safety Pin and the Swastika

How the Centrelink debt debacle failure rate is much worse than we all thought

Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’

www.theguardian.com/embed/video/australia-news/video/2015/mar/25/aboriginal-adani-carmichael-coalmine-queensland-protest-video

Cottle, A. (2011), 'The Colour-line and the Third Period: A Comparative Analysis of American and Australian Communism and the Question of Race, 1928-1934', American Communist History, vol 10, no 2 , pp 119 - 131.

Working for the Class: The Praxis of the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Union

Anti Poverty Network SA

unite  

We play music from A.B. Original and DISPOSSESSED They are rad – support them.

#WTF2016 ? Living The Dream takes the down bound Trump Train out of here

In this episode of Living the Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk about the weird as hell political environment of the Age of Trump. Was 2016 the worst year ever? Are we caught in the midst of a rising reactionary wave? And why do the failures of the liberal establishment feel to so many people to be failures of the Left? (And what is the Left? Are we the Left?) What’s with the amateur sociology about voting demographics that is everywhere now? Do we really have to choose between identity politics and Left economic populism? Where can we draw hope from and what about the historical experience of working class anti-racism? All this and more!

Articles/organisations we refer to include:

Behind the News with Doug Henwood

Hard Crackers  From A Small New England Town As Told To Noel Ignatiev

The Weimar Analogy

KING: There’s a huge education level drop-off with the Trump cabinet picks

Tsiolkas - The Second Coming The Politics Of Rage Won’t Let Us Listen To One Another

Many in Milwaukee Neighborhood Didn’t Vote — and Don’t Regret It

It Was My Primal Scream

Revolutionary Hillbilly: An Interview With Hy Thurman of the Young Patriots Organization

Ghassan Hage – Recalling anti-racism

Knives out for Hanson staffer Ashby, accused of profiting off candidates

redneckrevolt

The great student swindle: how young people are being ripped off

Music by Sharon Jones and Dap-kings and Joe Pug

And watch this footage of this amazing  meeting between the Black Panthers and the Young Patriots.

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Living the Dream whilst Organising in Your Workplace

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

Living the Dream has an #altright time in Melbourne

In this episode of Living the Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Kieran (@Kieran Bennett) about a recent Melbourne counter-rally to a Trump celebration rally  ostensibly organised by #altright types and attended by local fascists and neo-Nazis. From here Kieran lets us know who is who in the fascist zoo in Australia, the social phenomena behind the far-right and we discuss what a relevant anti-capitalist practice might be that can defeat the fascists and offer a genuine emancipatory alternative to the issues that we all face.

Kieran blogs at Kieran’s Review and is a member (of the perhaps soon to be rebranded) Anarchist Affinity

Articles and things  we refer to include:

Angry Workers of the World

Ghassan Hage – Recalling Anti-racism

Ben Hillier –  ‘All that is holy was profaned’: the year that was, and the politics we need (Ben recommends you also read ‘Post-truth politics’ isn’t peak populism, it’s peak liberal capitalism and suggests that my read of his argument is wrong.)

Campaign Against Racism and Fascism

Do We Need To Talk About Donald? Living the Dream on the US Election

In this episode of Living The Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) talk about the US Election and the phenomenon of Donald Trump. We aren’t interest so much is speculations about what is going on in the US but rather what the different ways Trump and Clinton are talked about in Australia tells us about what is going on in Australia.

Articles we refer to include:

Debating Deplorables: How the Left Can (and Cannot) Win Trump Voters

 Sympathy for the Devil?

Theses on the New European Fascism

Time to hail Hillary Clinton – and face down the testosterone left

How the working class became white

Queer Kids for Full Communism: Living the Dream with the Queer Liberation Front

In this episode of Living the Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Angus from the Queer Liberation Front. Angus lets us know what the QLF are all about, what they have been doing and what they are up to. Angus talks about the QLF's praxis and how this collective of young queer people are attempting to generate a radical anticapitalist politics, how hegemony and aesthetics fit together and how this all relates to the current "Brisbane Moment' that is going on. And then we finish it all off with a track from Los Crudos

On dissolving the people: Living the Dream on #ausvotes2016

In this episode of LivingThe Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) have a chat aboutthe recent election. It isn’t a chat about if the result is ‘good’ or ‘bad’but rather how does it fit into, and what does it tell us, about the current momentin capitalism in Australia and class struggle?We also try to work out therelationship between the electoral return of Pauline Hanson and the deepcurrent of racism in Australia. 

These articles are some we either mention or are on topic

TheElection That Solved Nothing – Tad Tietze

TheAnti–Industrial Relations Club – Frank Bongiorno

The Greens are aparty of the affluent middle classes – Ben Hillier

Howwe stopped Pauline Hanson last time – Tess Lee Ack

TheyDon’t Represent Us: The Populist Moment – Richard Seymour

Crisisand the Return to the Nation: Dismantling the Right Ecology in Germany –Ben L

Fourwomen arrested in WestConnex protest – Wendy Bacon

Watch Ask Sarkar's 

The Unbearable Whiteness of Brexit - Race, class & the EU Referendum on the streets of Barking.

Colgan, Paul. 2016. Australian Voters Just Put The EntirePolitical Establishment On Notice. Business Insider [cited 14th July 2016].Available from http://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-election-result-voters-put-political-establishment-on-notice-2016-7.

Phillips, Ben. 2016. Trends in Household Living Standards in Australia: 1990 to 2016.ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods [cited 14th July 2016]. Availablefrom http://rsss.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/Living_Standards_Mar_2016.pdf.