Living the Dream

Living The Dream with The Maritime Defence Committee during the 1998 Wharf Dispute

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/

Living the Dream whilst the Global Order fractures

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 50^th 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

Living The Dream in the time of #metoo Part 2

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

Living The Dream in the time of #metoo Part 1

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

Living The Dream in Ipswich

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

Living The Dream with Marx's Theories of Crisis

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

Music by Stereolab

Living The Dream at Labour Day 2018

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

Living The Dream during Trump's Trade War

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

Living The Dream with the National Disability Insurance Scheme

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.

Living The Dream in the feminist moment

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 2^nd 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