Jess Scully is the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney as part of “Team Clover”. This year she released her debut book Glimpses of Utopia: Real Ideas for a Fairer World, which draws on her own experience and actual examples from all over the world on how people are doing politics, democracy, work and environmental action differently.

Jess is a delightful, passionate and optimistic person who inspired me to shake out of my current cynical, black pill-ed view of the world (as Jess says, under neoliberalism, “We have internalised the impossibility of change”). We discussed why it’s worth thinking about utopia and how we can get there, citizens’ juries, workers’ co-ops, the financialised economy and how the alternative ways of organising society are already playing out in the world right now.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’m hosting Refugee Legal’s “Not The Annual Dinner” online event this Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here. 

@Jessaroo

jessscully.com

teamclover.com.au

Glimpses Of Utopia: Real ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully is out now through Pantera Press

The New Democracy Foundation

Cause of the Week: The Asylum Seekers Centre’s “Open The Door To Hope” Appeal

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This is my conversation with a group of young climate leaders as part of a panel organised by the Foundation for Young Australians, Youth Action NSW and the team behind the Youth On Strike! documentary.

It was a fierce and inspiring chat about about where young people’s call for climate action goes to from here in a post-COVID Australia and touched on activism, First Nations justice and youth representation. It was a pleasure to moderate; I hope you enjoy listening to it.

The panel featured:

• William from the Youth on Strike! docco and SEED Mob
• Leila, an organiser with School Strike 4 Climate
• Tish from SEED Mob
• Gauri from Outburst!
• Ishara from Climate Reality
• Timothy from Pacific Climate Warriors

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’m hosting Refugee Legal’s “Not The Annual Dinner” online event on Thursday November 26th, 7pm, feat. a keynote address by Behrooz Boochani. Book tickets here. 

Watch the Youth On Strike! documentary

The Foundation for Young Australians 

Youth Action NSW

Seed Mob

Outburst!

Climate Reality

Pacific Climate Warriors

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Richard Cooke is a brilliant writer and commentator who’s written for the likes of The Chaser, The Monthly, The New York Times and The New Republic. His 2019 collection of essays Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline painted a picture of “Trump country” and the factors at play in US politics over the past four years.

Richard kindly came back on the pod to reflect on the results of the 2020 presidential election: what a Biden/Harris victory means, just how bad the Trump presidency has/hasn’t been, whether Bernie Would Have Won, the spectre of “wokism” (ergh), BIPARTISANSHIP and what this whole whacky episode might tell us about the state of the Australian Left.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

It’s NAIDOC Week!

I’m hosting a conversation with young climate activists in partnership with the Foundation of Young Australians and you can join for FREE 

The Greens had a huge number of wins in the Victorian Local Council elections, including the first ever Greens government in my local City of Yarra. Join The Greens today (if you like)! 

@rgcooke

richardcooke.com

Richard’s writing on LongForm

Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline by Richard Cooke

ARTICLE: The Disappearing Man by Richard Cooke

ARTICLE: Anthony Albanese on Rudd, News Corp, Trump and why he won’t name a JobSeeker rate by Josh Butler

Cause of the Week: Swing Left (swingleft.org)

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Osmond Chiu is a researcher with the progressive think tank Per Capita and editor of the Labor Left magazine Challenge. A couple of weeks ago, as he was giving evidence to a senate inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities, Osmond was asked by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. It was very weird and bad and Abetz has since refused to apologise and only doubled down.

Here I ask Osmond about why that incident was so demeaning, why it matters and how we might consider Australia’s relationship with China in a serious, critical but definitely not-racist way.

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’m hosting a conversation with young climate activists in partnership with the Foundation of Young Australians and you can join for FREE 

My conversation with Max Chandler-Mather has been written up for Jacobin magazine

I am very sad about what’s happened to Jeremy Corbyn and I know it’s complicated but please watch this video by the son of a Holocaust survivor that lays out how cynical the anti-Semitism charge is

@redrabbleroz

osmondchiu.com.au

ARTICLE: Locking Out The Left: The Emergence of National Factions in Australian Labor

ARTICLE: I was born in Australia. Why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party? 

ARTICLE: Abetz’s questioning tests our democracy

You can sign Getup!’s petition supporting Oz here

ARTICLE: Seeing red: Labor’s China problem

Cause of the Week: Union Aid Abroad (apheda.org.au)

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IT’S A CROSS-POD, PEOPLE.

My dear friend Greg Larsen has a new podcast about the dogshit state of things in Australia right now. It is good and funny and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Greg interviewed me for his first episode and we covered it all: does the Left need to get better at falling in line? Is hating Murdoch more important than getting infuriated by the ALP? Why are the Greens wankers? To vote or not vote? Are YouTube comedians good?

If you’ve got the means please support this show by becoming a Patron

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

@GregMLarsen

Listen & subscribe to Greg’s Big Aussie Revolution on iTunes

Episode 131 with Greg

Adam Bandt’s address at the National Press Club and declaration of the Greens’ War on Privatisation

Cause of the Week: Anti-Poverty Week (antipovertyweek.org.au)

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Dave Eden is a Brisbane-based communist writer and podcaster who authors the blogs With Sober Senses and The Word From Struggle Street. He costs the anti-capitalist podcast Living The Dream with Jon Piccini.

In this conversation Dave explains what he means by the term “communism” and gives a fascinating anti-capitalist take on the Budget. We also discuss his piece for Jacobin on why the current calls for a return to Keynesianism and full employment won’t work.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

It’s Anti-Poverty Week! I’m proud to become an ambassador for Alex Makes Meals; check them out and help them if you can

@withsobersenses

withsobersenses.wordpress.com

The Living The Dream podcast

ARTICLE: In Australia, Keynesianism Is Back In Fashion – but It Still Won’t Work by Dave Eden

Cause of the Week: Sisters Inside’s Fund For Children

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Wayne Swan is a former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. He’s the current President of the Australian Labor Party.

In this conversation I ask Wayne about Labor’s performance in the recent Newspoll, what it means for Australia to aspire to “full employment” out of COVID, the ideological war over superannuation, whether the Hawke-Keating legacy can be described as “neoliberal” and how he thinks about the relationship between the ALP and the Greens.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

@SwannyQLD

Wayne’s media as ALP President

My interview with Wayne on Tonightly in 2018

ARTICLE: Sometimes, Too Much Is…Too Much by Wayne Swan

ARTICLE: Already in this crisis we are slipping into over-optimism about the economy and over-pessimism about debt by Wayne Swan

ARTICLE: Liberals tearing down the pillars of our superannuation scheme by Wayne Swan

ARTICLE: Weakening superannuation is a once-in-a-100-year mistake by Wayne Swan

ARTICLE: The Hawke-Keating agenda was Laborism, not neoliberalism, and is still a guiding light by Wayne Swan

How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project by Elizabeth Humphrys

Cause of the Week: St Vincent de Paul Society (vinnies.org.au)

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