Living the Dream

In this episode Dave and Jon discuss two new books about the 1960s, the Vietnam War and political struggle.

They are Quiet Protest by Effie Karageorgos and Cold War Kid by Rowan Cahill.

There is a Brisbane book launch of Cold War Kid on Saturday August 22nd

The recording software crashed when we were recording - this  means there is an echo in some sections.

You can, and should, buy the books:

Cold War Kid

Quiet Protest

 

 

 

Living the Dream is back! Jon and Dave are trying to work out what’s going on with the Crisafulli/ Janetzki Queensland state government. Why is it criminalising simply speaking up against the genocide in GAZA? Why is it criminalising children? What’s its plan for capitalism in Queensland? Why has it launched a commission against the CFMEU? How is it balancing the culture war hunger of its aging base against the need to win elections and manage society? And what does this all mean for those of us committed to emancipation?

Stuff we reference includes:

Inflation & the Cost of Living Crisis

 

Field Notes

 

Could the Liberals’ Deakinite dilemma reshape the party system? Frank Bongiorno

 

Antony Loewenstein Podcast

 

Queensland’s renewable energy ‘whiplash’: how the shift from coal stalled in Australia’s most polluting state

 

 

The LNP’s phrase-banning law is wide open to constitutional attack. Is it a victory for the people, or a smart political play? Anne Twomey

In this episode, recorded in October 2024, Jon and Dave chat with friend of the show and all-around good egg Elizabeth Humphrys about the Labour Movement’s (both the ALP and Trade Unions) actions to put the CFMEU under administration. Just what is going on?

 

You can read more of Liz’s prolific output here.

 

Listeners may be interested in this building industry rank and file newsletter Hard Hat

In this episode Dave chats with Nick Southall about his new book Disaster Communism and Anarchy in the Streets

 

You can buy a copy of Nick’s book from the publisher Kembla Books

 

Nick’s blog is Revolts Now . Here you can find a collection of his work: including that on the Wollongong Out of Workers Union, his PhD thesis, reflections on his life in the Communist Party of Australia, his experiences on being on the last fraternal delegation to the USSR and much much more!

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.