The Party Line Podcast

Episode 68 - The Party Line on the socialist campaign for Footscray We start by talking about elite private schools being parasites, Australia’s fusion with the US military-industrial complex, big corporations paying ZERO TAX while we struggle with inflation, and serial Liberal failure, Amelia Hamer, cosplaying as a construction worker (after her attempt to be a renter was called out). We then take a look at an absolutely explosive and inspirational struggle going on in Spain right now, where working class people have risen up against the indignity of exorbitant and insecure rentals. Hundreds of thousands have protested across the country in response to an 87 year old woman, Maricarmen, being evicted from her home after 71 years. They’ve now occupied public plazas in a number of cities, including the location of the history-defining indignados movement of 2011, with the demand of the struggle being an immediate 50% rent cut, indefinite rental contracts, and expropriating empty properties and lands. The unions are now calling a general strike, and the government is now offering a 4 year eviction ban to try and quell the struggle. Finally, we chat to Jasmine Duff about her brilliant campaign in Footscray, where she hopes to unseat the Labor incumbent Katie Hall. We speak of her volunteer teams, the heroic door knocking efforts (over 20,000 knocked so far!), the positive response by locals, and her plans to turn the old hospital site and a number of developer-owned empty properties into public housing and amenities. Finally we address the socialist response to the issues of homelessness and crime in the area, and how Labor’s failure to invest in housing and support services continues to make things worse.Thanks for listening, remember to like, subscribe, share, HYPE!, and sign up to our Patreon if you can. News linksOn the campaign trail with Victorian Socialists The private schools with the richest parents in Victoria revealed as extra funding flowsInside the push for Australia to supply world’s most lethal weaponsASX defence stocks soar as the world becomes more dangerousBillions of dollars, none of it taxed: ATO reveals the tech giants paying zero income tax | The Guardian Amelia Hamer compares herself to construction worker*****************Hosted by Jordan van den Lamb (@purplepingers), Anneke Demanuele and Omar Hassan. Huge thanks to our (MIFF Talent of Tomorrow Award-winning) producer Jak Scanlon who should be working in Hollywood, and Jaan Schild our new cover photo designer.This is a podcast by members of the Socialist Party in Naarm (Melbourne). We hope to bring a radical perspective to a podcast landscape dominated by insipid liberalism (looking at you, The Daily) or Labor apologism (@friendlyjordies). The pod will come out weekly, and aims to breakdown news and current eventTs from a socialist point of view. While a lot of what’s going on in the world is fairly bleak, The Party Line will try and highlight voices of resistance and struggle.If you like what you hear, please rate, subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues and comrades. If you are in a position to support us financially then sign up at patreon.com/thepartyline. If you find yourself agreeing with us more often than not, please join your local branch of the Socialist Party at socialists.org.au. We need your help to build a fighting socialist movement that can take on both the far right and its centrist enablers.(The views and opinions expressed in our show are ours and ours alone, and do not reflect on the Socialist Party or Victorian Socialists.) This pod was produced on stolen land and we stand in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades in their ongoing fight against racism and capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 67 - The Party Line on how the RBA is screwing usBig news week in the headlines: AI being evil and hacking medicare, more on raunch culture, Barnaby Joyce hanging out with Nazis, and anti-fascism in Northern Ireland.Our first key story is Omar’s exposure of the media’s uncritical promotion of fascist narratives. Pauline Hanson and One Nation have been getting a total free ride in the media, which is determined to ‘take them seriously’. Rather than examining who their policies serve (the rich), and who they hurt (workers, migrants, women, etc), this means just publicising their press releases and allowing far right talking points to lead national politics.The second story is about the Reserve Bank of Australia’s looming call to increase interest rates. We look at the growing expenses hurting working class people including groceries (Coles and Woolies increasing prices by 7% in three months), petrol (up nearly 50% in 3 months), and housing, and how the RBA’s decision will only make our lives worse. Who benefits from these policies you might ask? The rich (strange, right?).Finally we talk to Chris Dite, the VS candidate for Richmond, on the campaign that he has helped lead to stop the closure of cohealth clinics across Melbourne. The inspiring campaign of protests, pickets and mass meetings has had some early wins, but threats remain present. Particularly given the board, which includes at least one senior Greens figure, has smuggled nearly a million dollars in bailout money to pay a handful of executives.Thanks for listening, remember to like, subscribe, share, HYPE!, and sign up to our Patreon if you can. *****************Hosted by Jordan van den Lamb (@purplepingers), Anneke Demanuele and Omar Hassan. Huge thanks to our (MIFF Talent of Tomorrow Award-winning) producer Jak Scanlon who should be working in Hollywood, and Jaan Schild our new cover photo designer.This is a podcast by members of the Socialist Party in Naarm (Melbourne). We hope to bring a radical perspective to a podcast landscape dominated by insipid liberalism (looking at you, The Daily) or Labor apologism (@friendlyjordies). The pod will come out weekly, and aims to breakdown news and current eventTs from a socialist point of view. While a lot of what’s going on in the world is fairly bleak, The Party Line will try and highlight voices of resistance and struggle.If you like what you hear, please rate, subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues and comrades. If you are in a position to support us financially then sign up at patreon.com/thepartyline. If you find yourself agreeing with us more often than not, please join your local branch of the Socialist Party at socialists.org.au. We need your help to build a fighting socialist movement that can take on both the far right and its centrist enablers.(The views and opinions expressed in our show are ours and ours alone, and do not reflect on the Socialist Party or Victorian Socialists.) This pod was produced on stolen land and we stand in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades in their ongoing fight against racism and capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 66 - The Party Line on Labor’s immigration capitulation to One Nation This ep is about Labor doing Labor things - adopting One Nation talking points on immigration. But first we check out the news, looking at KKK support for Pauline Hanson, why CEO’s are abandoning the Liberals for One Nation, Liberal plans to bring soldiers into schools to indoctrinate kids, why Labor is actually expanding datacentre approvals (despite the Guardian headlines) and why homeless women are being forced to use sex to secure housing. The substance of the show is about Tony Burke’s announcement about migration last week. While the policy substance was fairly minimal, the significance of the day was Labor openly accepting the narrative that migrants are to blame for Australia’s social crises, and that therefore limiting them and policing them was an important policy priority. This line was borrowed straight from the talking points of the far right, and has no connection to reality. The people to blame for our declining living standards are the bosses and the political decisionmakers, who have failed to invest and support working class living standards. We also take a look at the Landforces convention happening in Perth in a few weeks, which is a massive military expo designed for arms dealers to spruik their wares to the world, including companies that are involved in the ongoing wars on Palestine, Iran, Yemen and more. We speak to an organiser of a protest against the event in Perth, and reminisce about our protest in Melbourne that drove them out.Thanks for listening, remember to like, subscribe, share, HYPE!, and sign up to our Patreon if you can. *****************Hosted by Jordan van den Lamb (@purplepingers), Anneke Demanuele and Omar Hassan. Huge thanks to our new (MIFF Talent of Tomorrow Award-winning) producer Jak Scanlon who should be working in Hollywood.This is a podcast by members of the Socialist Party in Naarm (Melbourne). We hope to bring a radical perspective to a podcast landscape dominated by insipid liberalism (looking at you, The Daily) or Labor apologism (@friendlyjordies). The pod will come out weekly, and aims to breakdown news and current eventTs from a socialist point of view. While a lot of what’s going on in the world is fairly bleak, The Party Line will try and highlight voices of resistance and struggle.If you like what you hear, please rate, subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues and comrades. If you are in a position to support us financially then sign up at patreon.com/thepartyline. If you find yourself agreeing with us more often than not, please join your local branch of the Socialist Party at socialists.org.au. We need your help to build a fighting socialist movement that can take on both the far right and its centrist enablers.(The views and opinions expressed in our show are ours and ours alone, and do not reflect on the Socialist Party or Victorian Socialists.) This pod was produced on stolen land and we stand in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades in their ongoing fight against racism and capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 65 - The Party Line on the truth about 9/11 (and Macklemore)It’s been 25 years since the attacks on the twin towers, and the wars that ensued. So in light of that we decided to start this ep by discussing Macklemore’s stance for Palestine and Sydney Sweeney’s stance for misogyny, betting companies, and her own bottom line. But following our brief cultural dalliance, we get into the crux of the issues in Australian politics this week. How should we remember 9/11? Whose losses get remembered, and whose are ignored and forgotten? We then explore the devastating impact of the wars that the US launched in the aftermath, the nearly 5 million deaths which eventuated from them, and the violent Islamophobia which shaped the lives of millions of Muslims the world over for decades to come.Aside from the anniversary, this is all significant because of the fash-on-fash spat between Andrew Hastie and Pauline Hanson about whether or not Hastie was a traitor for selling out Ben Roberts Smith. We discuss and conclude that Hastie is in fact a piece of shit, and that the liberal defence of his war record is badly misplaced. Finally, we look at reporting about how to respond to Pauline Hanson, and the criminally mistaken views of Get Up and Victorian Trades Hall, who have come up with a strategy for combatting her ideas without mentioning racism or Gina Rinehart. Genius! (not)Thanks for listening, remember to like, subscribe, share, HYPE!, and sign up to our Patreon if you can. *****************Hosted by Jordan van den Lamb (@purplepingers), Anneke Demanuele and Omar Hassan. Huge thanks to our new (MIFF Talent of Tomorrow Award-winning) producer Jak Scanlon who should be working in Hollywood.This is a podcast by members of the Socialist Party in Naarm (Melbourne). We hope to bring a radical perspective to a podcast landscape dominated by insipid liberalism (looking at you, The Daily) or Labor apologism (@friendlyjordies). The pod will come out weekly, and aims to breakdown news and current eventTs from a socialist point of view. While a lot of what’s going on in the world is fairly bleak, The Party Line will try and highlight voices of resistance and struggle.If you like what you hear, please rate, subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues and comrades. If you are in a position to support us financially then sign up at patreon.com/thepartyline. If you find yourself agreeing with us more often than not, please join your local branch of the Socialist Party at socialists.org.au. We need your help to build a fighting socialist movement that can take on both the far right and its centrist enablers.(The views and opinions expressed in our show are ours and ours alone, and do not reflect on the Socialist Party or Victorian Socialists.) This pod was produced on stolen land and we stand in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades in their ongoing fight against racism and capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 64 - The Party Line on Fascism and the Climate CrisisThis week Omar is interstate, so we replaced him with the Victorian Socialists communication officer James Plested, who is an expert on both Germany and the climate crisis. In Germany, the far right AFD has won over 40% of the vote. This is a grim development, and evidence that the far right is continuing to gain ground. The climate crisis is intensifying, with the floods in Nepal claiming the lives of over 1000 people. The northern summer led to in excess of 35,000 deaths. With an extreme El Niño developing, the southern summer could lead to droughts, fires and famines. The climate emergency is intrinsically linked with the pursuit of profits under capitalism. To resolve it we will need to get rid of this barbaric system. Thanks for listening, remember to like and share and HYPE! *****************Hosted by Jordan van den Lamb (@purplepingers), Anneke Demanuele and Omar Hassan. Huge thanks to our new (MIFF Talent of Tomorrow Award-winning) producer Jak Scanlon who should be working in Hollywood.This is a podcast by members of the Socialist Party in Naarm (Melbourne). We hope to bring a radical perspective to a podcast landscape dominated by insipid liberalism (looking at you, The Daily) or Labor apologism (@friendlyjordies). The pod will come out weekly, and aims to breakdown news and current eventTs from a socialist point of view. While a lot of what’s going on in the world is fairly bleak, The Party Line will try and highlight voices of resistance and struggle.If you like what you hear, please rate, subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues and comrades. If you are in a position to support us financially then sign up at patreon.com/thepartyline. If you find yourself agreeing with us more often than not, please join your local branch of the Socialist Party at socialists.org.au. We need your help to build a fighting socialist movement that can take on both the far right and its centrist enablers.(The views and opinions expressed in our show are ours and ours alone, and do not reflect on the Socialist Party or Victorian Socialists.) This pod was produced on stolen land and we stand in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades in their ongoing fight against racism and capitalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.