“Aysha” (not her real name) is a Kashmiri activist who advocates for the rights of those suffering under the Indo-Pakistan-Chinese conflict in her home country.

I’ve previously known very little about the situation in Kashmir and was grateful to Aysha for giving me a crash-course history lesson on the conflict and the 2019 escalation of tensions by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We discussed the nature of India’s occupation, the possibilities of democracy in the region, the effects of COVID-19 and what others can do.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’m hosting a trivia night to raise money for the Yarra City Greens Local Election campaign. Come along! 

Kashmir: Explained by Vox Media (good summary of the history of the conflict)

Human Rights Watch articles on Kashmir

Amnesty International Australia articles on Kashmir

ARTICLE: Kashmir crisis: India’s latest steps expose deep fault lines in Australia’s Indian and Pakistani communities 

ARTICLE: Leave Kashmir dispute out of UN, Australia urges

ARTICLE: Does Australia have the courage to challenge India’s defiance over Kashmir? by Lee Rhiannon

ARTICLE: Faulty tests, poor contact tracing: COVID-19 fight in Kashmir myriad stumbling blocks 

Cause of the Week: Stand With Kashmir Australia (Facebook page)

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Guy Rundle is a political essayist, comedy writer, activist and the correspondent-at-large for Crikey. He’s a former editor of Arena Magazine. 

Guy’s been writing about the strangeness and politics of COVID-19. Here I ask him about what a collective virus means for certain political ideologies, what it means to be a “post-Marxist” and what he made of the Democratic National Convention and the possibilities of a Biden presidency.

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Guy’s writing at Crikey

ARTICLE: How our lockdown reality became stranger than fiction by Guy Rundle

Cause of the Week: Free Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert (change.org)

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This week’s ep is a conversation I had with journalist and author Melissa Davey about her brilliant new book, The Case of George Pell.

The book was launched on Tuesday night and Mel kindly asked me to discuss its details and what the story and trials of Pell mean for us now.

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@MelissaLDavey

The Case Of George Pell: Reckoning With Child Sex Abuse By Clergy by Melissa Davey 

Cause of the Week: Broken Rites Australia (brokenrites.org.au)

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It’s episode 200! Hurrah.

Dominic Kelly is a political historian and Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University. His 2019 book Political Troglodytes and Economic Lunatics: The Hard Right in Australia examines the activities and influence of four Australian right-wing single-issue advocacy groups: the H.R. Nicholls Society (focussed on industrial relations), the Samuel Griffiths Society (constitutional issues and federalism), the Bennelong Society (Indigenous issues) and the Lavoisier Group (climate change). All four groups were created and steered by three central figures: mining executive Hugh Morgan, his speechwriter Ray Evans and former public servant John Stone. It’s a fascinating and (blackly) amusing history.

Here Dominic lays out just how far these four societies have pulled Australia to the right over the past thirty years, what the Left can learn from them and what it shows us about the role that mining interests play in Australian politics.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I was recently on another episode of The Little Dum Dum Club alongside the very funny Nick Capper

Join me online in conversation with Melissa Davey discussing her book The Case of George Pell on Tuesday August 18th

@dominickelly_

Buy Political Troglodytes and Economic Lunatics on Black Inc. Books

Cause of the Week: Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (unemployedworkersunion.com)

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Max Chandler-Mather is a former union activist and active member of the Queensland Greens. He was the party’s candidate for the seat of Griffith in last year’s election, when he increased the Greens vote by 7.2%, the biggest Greens swing in the country.

I find the more explicitly Leftist approach taken by Max and the Queensland Party really exciting because they’re pushing good, anti-neoliberal polices and, more importantly, it’s really working for them. Here I ask Max to explain how a democratic socialist like him is making this happen and why it’s been successful. We talk about renters’ rights, building the foundations of a mass party, door-knocking, selling “common sense and popular” ideas and the perennial Greens/ALP conflict.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I was on Twink Revolution again with the one and only Aimee Terese to chat about what the “Left” is

Join me online in conversation with Melissa Davey discussing her book The Case of George Pell on Tuesday August 18th

@MChandlerMather

maxforgriffith.com

Max’s Facebook page

ARTICLE: The Right to the City by David Harvey 

The Queensland Greens policies for the state election announced thus far

How Labour Built Neoliberalism by Elizabeth Humphrys

Max’s writing at Flood Media

Max’s writing at Overland Journal 

My episode with Emerald Moon

Cause of the Week: The Queensland Greens (greens.org.au/qld)

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Sunili Govinnage is an Australian human rights lawyer and self-described “social justice witch” who has recently come to some realisations about themselves and their politics.

In the first part of this frank conversation we discuss her “decolonising journey”, her focus on dismantling the “colonialist-capitalist-heteropatriarchy”, anti-racism and cancel culture. We identify areas that we agree on and some points where we have different perspectives – differences that will be further fleshed out in part two.

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@sunili

sunili.net

Sunili’s writing at The Guardian

ARTICLE: Western Australia’s King Leopold Ranges renamed Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges

My episode with Dr. Chelsea Bond

Cause of the Week: Stop Black Deaths In Custody GoFundMe Campaign

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Sophie Payten records and performs as Gordi. She makes powerful, sweeping, personal indie-pop and last week released her sophomore album, Our Two Skins. I am a fan and it is good.

I wanted to talk to Sophie about her other job (she’s a qualified doctor and has been on standby during the pandemic) and explore the political ideas surrounding her recent discovery of her queer identity and the loss of her beloved grandma. We reflect on the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite, the political stasis that Millennials are trapped and having difficult conversations with people who have different politics.

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Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

I’ll be on Josh Earl’s Don’t You Know Who I Am? podcast this Saturday: you can buy tickets and stream it here 

Please check out the new comedy venue from my mates Alex Dyson, Kyran Wheatley and Alex Dyson, Comedy Republic

@GordiMusic

gordimusic.com

You can buy Our Two Skins here

Watch Unready here

Gordi’s supporting Bon Iver on their 2021 tour

ARTICLE: Singer-songwriter Gordi by Nick Buckley (Saturday Paper)

ARTICLE: Australian singer Gordi releases song to raise funds for the RFS 

Cause of the Week: North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (naaja.org.au)

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Alex Bhatal is a social worker and activist. From 2001 to 2018 she was a six-time Greens candidate for the inner-city seat of Cooper (formerly Batman) but in 2019, Alex quit the party having been subjected to a campaign of abuse and “relentless organisational bullying” for years.

Here Alex lays out for her me her journey into politics, her passion for refugee rights and social work, why the Tampa incident inspired her to join the Greens and her experience of running in the same seat for 17 years.

I also ask Alex to explain exactly what happened between her and the Darebin branch of the Greens, how bad it got for her and what it tells us about the state of the party today. Alex is extremely frank and honest talking to me about what was clearly a painful time in her life and for that I’m very grateful.

I’m doing LIASYO live at the 2020 Melbourne Comedy Festival with special guest ANDREW FREAKING DENTON. Tickets are on sale now!

My show ENOUGH is on now the 2020 Adelaide Fringe, tickets available here

My new show GRANDILOQUENT is coming to the 2020 Brisbane Comedy Festival and the 2020 Melbourne International Comedy Festival

GRANDILOQUENT is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, it’s on sale now 

Join the LIASYO Facebook group here please and thank you

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

@alexbhathal

alexbhathal.com

ARTICLE: Alex Bhathal and discord in the Greens by Martin McKenzie-Murray

ARTICLE: Batman: How it went wrong for the Greens by Martin McKenzie-Murray

Alex’s statement on why she resigned from the Greens

From solidarity.net.au: Alex Bhathal resigns – the latest victim of Greens’ drift right

Cause of the Week: Refugee Legal (refugeelegal.org.au)

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