It’s a great and challenging show and I was honoured to be asked to chat to them about Australian politics, race, comedy and “doing the work”.
214 – Ed Miller
Ed Miller is the Economic Fairness Campaigns Director at the progressive activist group GetUp!.
I wanted to chat to Ed about where GetUp! is at these days; the attacks being made on it by the Murdoch media, its recent wins and failures and its more explicitly anti-capitalist campaigning that I’ve been noticing recently. We discuss the way GetUp! works, why conservatives hate it, the power of its members and why Australian politics’ obsession with “debt and deficits” has limited our political imagination.
We also had a (quick) crack at discussing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and why it matters.
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I’m performing at Melbourne’s excellent Comedy Republic this Thursday and Friday
I’m coming to Brunswick Heads for a bunch of shows with Sam Taunton & Nikki Britton in January
My 100th episode with GetUp! director Paul Oosting from 2017
The People’s Recovery – GetUp!’s policy vision
The Australian editorial: Every dollar you donate to GetUp! is a waste of money
ARTICLE: GetUp!’s MMT push in Australia “fraught with danger”
ARTICLE: Captain GetUp: conservative group’s satirical superhero debuts to ridicule
A piece from MMT economists on inflation in the FT
A video explainer on the basics of MMT
Ed’s interview with MMT economist Stephanie Kelton for GetUp!’s Future to Fight For podcast
Cause of the Week: Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network (seedmob.org.au)
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213 – Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully
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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Glimpses Of Utopia: Real ideas for a Fairer World by Jess Scully is out now through Pantera Press
Cause of the Week: The Asylum Seekers Centre’s “Open The Door To Hope” Appeal
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212 – In Conversation With Young Climate Leaders
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
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Watch the Youth On Strike! documentary
The Foundation for Young Australians
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211 – Richard Cooke (Returns)
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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Tired of Winning: A Chronicle of American Decline by Richard Cooke
ARTICLE: The Disappearing Man by Richard Cooke
Cause of the Week: Swing Left (swingleft.org)
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210 – Osmond Chiu
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.
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My conversation with Max Chandler-Mather has been written up for Jacobin magazine
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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My Max Chandler-Mather Interview Is Up On Jacobin
My really interesting (and inspiring) interview with Queensland Greens campaigner Max Chandler-Mather has been written up in Jacobin Magazine.
I really loved this conversation and would highly recommend reading over it if you want a little bit of Leftish hope in you.
209 – Greg Larsen’s Big Aussie Revolution
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?
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Listen & subscribe to Greg’s Big Aussie Revolution on iTunes
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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208 – Dave Eden
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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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
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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206 – Wayne Swan
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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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: 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
Cause of the Week: St Vincent de Paul Society (vinnies.org.au)
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