Afleveringen
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Jennifer and Jacques have a closer look at why citizens are losing faith in political systems and processes, and the idea that democracies are working in their interests. This is a world-wide trend.Meanwhile, on the home front, tone-deaf representatives of wealth and power tell a senate committee looking into tax changes, why they should pay lower tax to normal income earners. Against all the evidence to the contrary, they argue that tax breaks make them more productive and lead to them contributing more to society.ReferencesJoseph Stiglitz 2019, People, power and profits: Progressive capitalism for an age of discontent, Great Britain, Allen Lane.Richard Sennett 1977, The fall of public man.Transcripts of 2-day senate hearing regarding tax changes
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Ex Member for Wills, Kelvin Thomson, talks about his passionate connection with nature dating back to childhood, and current projects he is leading and is involved in to protect local habitats and waterways.These include the Moonee Ponds Chain of Ponds collaboration, and the 'Adopt a Creek' initiative that involves community members keeping small patches of creek litter-free.Kelvin suggested community members can support this and similar local initiatives. On a broader policy level he suggested people camapign to reduce the huge and unsustainable level of litter we are producing as a society. LinksChain of Ponds - Adopt a CreekBoomerang Alliance - taking action against wasteAbout the UK Plastic Packaging TaxMore about the UK Plastic Packaging Tax
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In this radiothon special, the presenters discuss the origins and 'reason for being' of Borderlands Cooperative and its program at 3CR, 'Think Again'.Themes have included:peace and how this is best folded into everyday relations and organising (while countering 'command and control' managerialism)developing and celebrating community, and generating change from the grassrootsexploring alternative and more cooperative ways of doing 'economy'holistically connecting the range of issues affecting us and their historical contexts.You can still donate to 3CR(NB: Feel free to nominate 'Think Again' for your donation to help us reach our target).People's Plan for Footscray
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Jennifer and Jacques unpick what is happening in the Australian electorate with some big shifts in community sentiment and voting trends, such as a move to One Nation and the demise of the National-Liberal Coalition.They argue that the changing voting patterns are not temporary anomalies, but a response to the inequity that has grown over several decades of market-rules neoliberalism. As argued by Kim Carr, former Labor Senator, governments need to restore people's confidence in democratic institutions that can deliver economic security and fairness.ReferencesAmy Remeikis, 'Ham-fisted embrace of "Australian values" exposes a craven hollowness', The New Daily, 16 April 2026.Karen Barlow, 'The rules have changed: Inside the push for a teal party', The Saturday Paper, 30 May 2026.Kos Samaras, 'Three Australias: new polling shows deepening divide'. Pearls and Irritations, 29 May 2026.
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Jennifer and Jacques weave together a few threads relating to Israel's occupation and genocide in Palestine, including the complicity of the US and western powers, Zionism, Christian Zionism, big money, and the media. For their analysis they are helped by Jewish scholars and historians.The presenters warn against pro-Zionist forces which are working to suppress free speech and critique of Israel in Australia today.ReferencesYakov Rabkin 2026, Zionism decoded in 101 quotes, Montreal: Barak Books.Adam H Johnson 2026, How to sell a genocide: The media's complicity in the destruction of Gaza, London: Pluto Press.Video links'Zionism's biggest mistake in 300 years', with Y Rabkin & J Sachs'Can the Imperial Core be Reformed?' with C Hedges & A MatéA Jewish holocaust survivor campaigns against Zionism
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Nour Salman, who leads the Anti-Palestinian Racism project, talks about a preliminary report on incidents recorded through a national online register (by APAN).Anti-Palestinian racism includes racial vilification and dehumanisation, suppression of political and cultural expression, and denial of identity and equal rights. It is often directed at people standing in solidarity with Palestinian people, as well as at people of Palestinian heritage.Incidents documented in the report are highly alarming, with impacts including serious psychological harm, loss of a feeling of safety within communities, job loss, career damage, and interruption to studies. Many incidents of anti-Palestinian racism in the report take place in mainstream institutions including work places, government offices, and universities. The systemic racism is further evidenced and compounded by the inaction of police in response to incidents, leaving people feeling vulnerable and powerless. LinksWebsite to report incidents of Anti-Palestinian RacismAnti-Palestinian racism reportPast interviewsNick Reimer on Universities Australia definition of anti-semitismGreg Barns SC on Australia's new hate speech laws
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Jacques and Jennifer continue their critique of pro-Israel hegemony, which is an active scourge on free and informed public discourse in Australia affecting our media, our legal system and our universities, to name a few institutions.For this program the presenters particularly focus on the pro-Zionist bias underpinning the current Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, and the platform it is providing in the media to suppress pro-Palestine voices. Illustrating this bias, the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), Australia's peak body for Palestinians and their allies, has been refused permission to appear before the Commission. LinksAPAN Media Release: Australia’s peak Palestine body denied right to appear before Royal CommissionAPAN Media Release: People are afraid to speak - new report reveals surge in anti-Palestinian racism across AustraliaAnti-Palestinian Racism Preliminary ReportAPAN space to report anti-Palestinian abuse and discriminationAustralian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN)Free PalestineReferencesAdam H Johnson 2026, How to sell a genocide: The media's complicity in the destruction of Gaza, Pluto Press (or go to: Proof of pro-Israel media bias in mainstream media)Henry Reynolds 2026, Looking from the North, Sydney, NewSouth
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Greg Barns SC provides an overview of Australia's new hate speech laws at federal and state levels, and how they present a serious threat to free speech and dissent.While the patchwork of laws is confusing, in general they set some groups against others in partisan fashion, and favour the pro-Israel lobby.Some of the laws are over-reliant on subjective judgements such as what constitutes 'hatred', and how people feel when they hear expressions from others. In Queensland two specific phrases have been banned: 'globalise the intifada' and 'from the river to the sea', although these expressions have various meanings for Zionists, Palestinians and protestors. For example, 'from the river to the sea' has been used in the past as a Zionist slogan. Of great concern, academic freedom is at risk, as are universities as a site of scholarly debate and contest. This is already happening to a degree and there is risk of freedom of speech on campuses being further curtailed.Some of the laws will undoubtedly be contested. In the meantime people are advised to stay informed, but to not let these laws have a chilling effect on their right to free speech.
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For this May Day special, Jacques talks with Stefan Gigacz and Jorge Jorquera about the history of the Young Christian Workers (YCW), a workers' movement that emerged within the Catholic church starting in Belgium over 100 years ago and rapidly spreading worldwide.All three of us have been involved in the movement and have been influenced in various ways, Stefan starting in St Alban's in Melbourne's NorthWest and researching the life of Joseph Cardijn, YCW's founder, Jorge from Chile arriving as a refugee in Brisbane and immersed in the thinking and activism of Liberation Theology and Jacques in his native Belgium studying in a Catholic Wokers Movement School of Social Work and later involved in several Catholic movements and events in Congo and Germany. All three offer their personal accounts from their own experience.Referenceshttps://australiancardijninstitute.org/ https://australiancardijninstitute.org/cross-disrupts-imperialist-occupation-of-the-world-pope-leo/
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Jennifer and Jacques return to the topic of Artificial Intelligence, this time focussing on the pressing dangers of Superintelligent AI, which is self-organising and self-directing and not within the understanding and control of any humans.They refer to a recent book by experts in the field, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. with the self-explanatory title: If anyone builds it, everyone dies: The case against superintelligent AI. The authors urge for it to be shut down before it is too late.And Karen Hao's Empire of AI describes poignantly the story of OpenAI and how it developed from a 'not-for-profit' set of values to a determined contributor to the small group of trillionaire capitalists threatening to dominate our lives and thoughts.ReferencesKaren Hao 2025, Empire of AI: Inside the reckless race for total domination. London: Allen Lane.Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares 2025, If anyone builds it, everyone dies: The case against superintelligent AI. London: The Bodley Head/Vintage
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Following the program on this topic two weeks ago, Rob Hattam and Marie Brennan discuss how Australia's policy regime silences the voices of teachers who are treated as mere technicians who should just carry out instructions. In this regime teachers are treated as stupid, requiring dumbed down instruction about what to do in classrooms.Rob and Marie offer an alternative way, based on good social science, rather than the pseudo science spouted by our leaders. Based on his extensive research about 'what works' in teaching, Rob says that social science refuses universal truth claims (or 'laws' that work in every case), instead paying attention to context, and documenting and exploring what works in a particular place.Rob and Marie discuss how a good social science approach would involve teachers and students as researchers, in their teaching-learning contexts. Both have worked with teachers as researchers, and this has been essential to finding new ways to address challenges for schools and students.Finally, Rob talks about his project work supporting teachers as researchers to build new knowledge, particularly to build culturally responsive curriculum and teaching practice.
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Jennifer and Jacques return to the theme of the state of democracy in Australia.They begin with our seriously misguided military alliance with the US, before moving on to the conservative and highly compromised positioning of the Australian Labor Party, leading many to wonder what it stands for in its pursuit of being the 'natural party of government'.ReferencesSean Kelly 2025, 'The good fight: What does Labor stand for?', Quarterly Essay, no.100.(Various responses to Sean Kelly's essay in) 2026, Quarterly Essay, no.101.The people's plan for Footscray:https://borderlandscooperative.net/footscray-peoples-plan-mapping-session-and-more/
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Marie Brennan, Borderlands Cooperative board member, hosts this program. She is joined by Professor Rob Hattam from Adelaide University, who talks about the ways that government policy has been impeding the ability of schools and teachers to carry out good education for several decades.Rob Hattam argues that we've been infected by a 'GERM', a Global Education Reform Movement. The logics of this include: (i) marketisation and devolution of responsibility to the school level, (ii) standardisation in which schools have to compete to do the same thing (which involves high stakes performance testing), and (iii) a pseudo-science of teaching taking hold that doesn't pass scrutiny.In this context, Rob proposes that education policy is being corrupted by 'knowledge grifters'. ReferenceSahlberg P. 2016, 'The global educational reform movement and its impact on schooling', Handbook of Global Education Policy, WILEY-BLACKWELL. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118468005.ch7
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Jennifer and Jacques take a deeper dive into the wider, historical context of the latest conflagration in the 'middle east', brought on by US-Israel attacks on Iran.They share some ideas for building a better future for all in the region, including: restoration of people's ability to relate across divides and differences, processes for truth-telling, serious resources allocated to reparation, and reform of the education system to foster peaceful and respectful relating.These ideas evidently have universal application beyond the middle east, and we build on them to imagine ourselves in a better system in 2050, based on true grassroots communal democracy.ReferencesOmar El Akkad 2025, One day everyone will have been against this, Canada, Knopf.Illan Pappe 2025, Israel on the brink: Eight steps for a better future, UK, One World. David Shoebridge 2026, The lies that fuel war, Pearls and Irritations, 24 March 2026.David Graeber 2026, The ultimate hidden truth of the world, Penguin.David Graeber & David Wengrow 2021, The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity, Allen Lane.Roman Krznaric 2025, History for tomorrow: Inspiration from the past for the future of humanity, WH Allen.Kim Stanley Robinson 2020, The minstry for the future, US, Orbit Books. (a novel)
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Jennifer and Jacques talk about the US and Israel's full scale attack on Iran which started in late February.They examine some of the reasons given for the war, plus the devastating ripples of harm spinning out from it, harming and uprooting millions of people.
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Conal Feehely from Get Up recently went undercover to an Advance conference and he shares some of his learnings.Amidst some predictably extreme themes from presenters (for example blaming migrants and climate policy for current woes) Conal had a range of civil conversations with attendees with legitimate grievances looking for a political solution. Advance has a deliberate, ongoing strategy of engaging such people - preparing the ground and planting right-wing ideas as a long term strategy of political engagement.Advance is a well-funded reactionary news producing collection of rich benefactors and profiteers that certainly must and can be countered by grassroots people power. Conal talked about possibilities for action, particularly in relation to Get Up and its campaigns.Link: https://www.getup.org.au/
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It's a national disgrace and a tragedy that children across the country as young as 10 continue to be arrested, charged, and hauled before the courts, and are locked up in police and prison cells.And amongst all the rhetoric about 'closing the gap', Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 29 times more likely to be growing up behind bars than other children in Australia. The systemic, policy, relational and everyday racism underpinning this couldn't be clearer.Mililma May from Change the Record talks with Jacques about a campaign to change this situation, which listeners can support: Raise the Age Change the Record links:Website: https://www.changetherecord.org.au/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changetherecord_/Other sources named in the show:Amber Hayward and Lilly Hayward: https://nit.com.au/22-04-2025/17528/noongar-advocates-take-powerful-message-to-the-united-nationsThe Disappeared Project: https://thedisappearedproject.com/
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Jane Gardner from the Australian Conservation Foundation talks about a current ACF campaign 'Love letters to nature'.Already many Australians have put their love letters online, expressing how they feel about places that are precious to them. Jane and the presenters read some of the love letters on air that have touched and inspired them. Overall, the letters provide evidence that nature is important in the lives of many Australians, and is worth fighting for.Jane also provides information about other ACF campaigns listeners can support.LinksYou can read the love letters here and submit your own one: Love letters to natureOther ACF campaigns:Australia's biggest bush walkHelp stop deforestationJoin a local groupACF get involved
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Jacques and Jennifer continue their discussion about democracy from last week, coming back to the question of how we could imagine our political system to be truly democratic - to have a system in which we the people truly govern ourselves.Once again, the presenters critique the current system with two main parties presented by the media as the only way, as a sport in which two teams are in constant battle and too often about futile aspects of what really matters. Meanwhile the will of the people falls by the wayside on a number of important fronts whilst those who already have too much see their wealth increase exponentially.Ideas of David Graeber are discussed, including his insight that the ultimate truth of the world is that we are free to change it as we see fit, while moving towards more social and ecological justice and equality.ReferencesDavid Graeber 2024, The ultimate hidden truth of the world... Allen Lane (Penguin Books), Great Britain.David Graeber & David Wengrow 2021, The Dawn of everything: A new history of humanity. Allen Lane (Pengui Books), Great Britain.David Graeber 2015 , The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Brooklyn. Melville House Publishing.
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