Living the Dream

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)

 Other things we mention include:

• The Young Workers Centre

Music by The Sweatshop Union

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)

 Other things we mention include:

• The Young Workers Centre

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

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.

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

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—

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

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.

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.