Images from the CAS conference

The images above feature some of the speakers from the conference (from left to right): Livia Boscardin, Nick Pendergrast, Carolina Trivino and Madison Bycroft. These photos were taken by Katinka Von Luken.

Listen to this episode and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes here. You can also listen to this episode on Cyber Ears here or download it on MediaFire here (58MB).

This episode is all about The Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania 2013 Conference: Animal Liberation and Social Justice, an Intersectional Approach to Social Change. We discuss a bunch of talks from the conference and also play some. We discuss Madison Kate Bycroft’s talk ‘The-animal-stalks-at-five-o’clock: Becoming a new human-animal through sculpture’ and Carolina Trivino’s talk ‘Animal activism in Colombia’. We play Jess Ison’s talk ‘Happy Meat and roaming factory hens: the new neoliberal animal rights’, Livia Boscardin’s talk ‘Our common future’ – developing a non-speciesist, critical theory of sustainability’ (you can view the powerpoint for Livia’s talk here), and Nick’s talk ‘Veganism Enters the Mainstream’ (you can view the powerpoint for Nick’s talk here). You can see links to a whole lot more talks below, which you can listen to online. You can see photos from the conference here (thanks to Katinka Von Luken), including photos of Ghost the dog! Other topics covered on this episode are: Sentience Art Exhibition, racism and animal experimentation in Aotearoa, A Poultry Place no kill sanctuary, Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary, our 20th episode that gave practical advice on living vegan, The Vegan Easy Challenge, Team Earthling animal rights podcast, and “hooning” on bikes.

Clips:

Naj OneNew Dawn Breaking’, Anti-FlagRight On’, LowkeyMy Soul’, Jess IsonHappy Meat and roaming factory hens: the new neoliberal animal rights’, Livia BoscardinOur common future’ – developing a non-speciesist, critical theory of sustainability’, Austin Powers, Nick PendergrastVeganism Enters the Mainstream’, Antagonist AD ‘Show Some Heart (Go Vegan)’.

More Talks that were Recorded at the Conference*:

Colin Salter ‘Animals and War’, Walter Kudrycz ‘Emotional Rescue: Ethics and Animal Liberation’, Steve Garlic ‘Environmental Sustainability, Cognitive Justice, and the Kangaroo‘, Helen Marston ‘A Vicious Circle‘, Frankie Seymour ‘Slavery and Liberation: Implications of Human History for the Emancipation of Animals’, Wilma Davidson ‘Animal Rights – From a Quaker’s Perspective’.

*There are more talks from this conference linked to in the show notes above. If any of the speakers would like any changes to the way you or your talk is described, or would like any edits to the audio of your talk, or would like to send us your powerpoint so we can link to it, please contact us.

Labor or Liberal

Image from the Maritime Union of Australia.

This episode has been released in two parts. You can download part 1 of this episode on Media Fire here (49MB) and part 2 on Media Fire here (52MB).

On part one of this episode, we bring you a taste of the event Now That’s a Party!, organised by the activist organisation GetUp!, which gave a voice to some of the minor political parties in Australia. You’ll hear from Scott Ludlam from the Greens, Fiona Patten from The Sex Party, Greg Barnes from the WikiLeaks Party, Brendan Molloy from the Pirate Party, and Sam Wainwright from the Socialist Alliance. These parties are so often left out of the mainstream media coverage of Australian politics, which obsesses over the two major parties. These major parties, while having some differences, have many similarities, including both demonising “foreigners” and similarities on so many other issues. We focus on the media quite a bit in this episode, with a return of the segment ‘What you HAVEN’T learnt from the media this week’. In this segment, we mention that 77% of people in the United States don’t trust newspapers and TV news, as well as discussing Nick’s conference paper on elections and the media. We discuss some recent news, including Kevin Rudd becoming Prime Minister of Australia and we bust Labor’s myths about asylum seekers being economic migrants, while also speaking up for those migrating for economic reasons. We also give updates on Bradley Manning and discuss Chris Hedges article ‘We Are All Bradley Manning’, as well as discussing Edward Snowden’s case, Julian Assange trying to help him out and getting in trouble, the documentary: We Steal Secrets and a funny religious pamphlet we got in the mail.

On part two of the episode, we discuss some more points from the Now That’s a Party! event, including: Brendan Molloy from the Pirate Party on changing marriage to civil unions, Scott Ludlam from the Greens on sustainable cities, and Sam Wainwright from the Socialist Alliance on nationalising the mines, public money going to religious organisations, and challenging testing in education. We also discuss Corey Bernadi comparing polygamy to bestiality, iTunes reviews for our show (you can leave iTunes reviews for us here), memrise.com, The Dispossessed, croquet (or crochet??) and social change, Maori lessons from Jon, Turkey’s “standing man” protest, UK tries to deter immigrants with ridiculous billboards, Jeremy from Critical Transit on cars being the problem when it comes to transport, links between human rights and animal rights, Team Earthling’s episode on intersectionality, The Critical Animal Studies Conference in Canberra (we’ll discuss this conference and bring you some of the talks from it on our next episode), Julian Burnside’s talk on refugees, asylum seekers removed from Manus Island, and a recap of the Walk Together event, which we promoted on our previous episode.

Alternative Media:

RTR 92.1FM Indymedia.

Clips (part one):

The Desaparecidos ‘Left is Right’, Peep Show (Series 4, episode 4), Lowkey ‘Terrorist’, Goldfinger ‘Not Amused’, The Thick of it (Series 1, episode 1), Now That’s a Party! event – edited by Nick Pendergrast,* Chumbawamba ‘The Candidates Find Common Ground’.

Clips (part two):

Chumbawamba ‘The Candidates Find Common Ground’, 5 clips from the Now That’s a Party! event, Austin PowersThe IT Crowd, Jon’s Maori Pronunciation Guide, music from the Walk Together event, Critical Transit ‘Episode 33’, Suli BreaksI Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate’.

*You can listen to a recording of the entire event here. You can also watch all of the speech from Sam Wainwright from the Social Alliance here. If anyone knows of any of the other talks from the night being available to watch online, please contact us and we will add the link to them.

Image fromWelcome to Australia.

You can download this episode on Media Fire here (44MB).

This time we bring you a refugee-themed episode for Refugee Week. We start the episode by discussing Australia excising itself from the migration zone, drawing on the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Melissa Phillips and Bianca Hall. We also discuss the similarities between the two major parties on the issue of refugees, some different ideas on refugees from minor parties at the Now That’s a Party event, the Gillard government’s asylum seeker policy adviser quits, problems with ASIO’s security assessments and a recent case where this has affected a family, and finally a positive story on Australian’s attitudes towards refugees! The main focus of this episode is giving people advice on effectively changing attitudes refugees, mainly drawing on Amnesty International’s Activist Resources. We encourage people to bust myths on refugees and get the facts out to people who need to know them, as well as promoting Amnesty’s pro-asylum seeker pledge.

We also cover some creative ways to make change on refugees and other issues, including through: apps, computer games, board games, comedy and music. Other stuff covered is: Nick guest hosting the punk show Burn the Airwaves (6 June 2013 episode), Worldwide Vegan Activism (features Nick, as well as Marcus and Ruth from The Species Barrier podcast), Gary Francione’s commentary on talking to non-vegans about veganism, shock jock Howard Sattler gets fired, the activist well-being group Plan to Thrive, Noam Chomsky’s recent interview on anarchism, Reaction Podcast’s review of our show, and we critique arguments in favour of restricting migration to Australia for environmental reasons, instead arguing in favour of welcoming people coming to Australia – whether they are fleeing persecution or coming here for economic reasons. We finish by promoting the Walk Together event, which has this message – find an event near you here.

Clips:

ABC News ‘Parliament Excises Mainland from Migration Zone’, Sleater KinneyOff With Your Head’, Scrubs (Season 6, episode 7), Wil WagnaI Don’t Want to Live Here Anymore’, Aamer RahmanPolitics’, Bill HicksSleep and the Message’, The Herd77%’, Monty Python and the Holy GrailDennis the Constitutional Peasant’, Howard Sattler “mash up” from interviews with Nick on humane slaughter and horse meat, Sam Wainwright and Scott Ludlam from the Now That’s a Party event, True Blood ‘Season 3, Episode 6’, Bill HicksAustralia’, Billy Bragg ‘Economic Migrants’, Anti-Flag ‘Underground Network’.

Image from Melbourne Street Medic Collective.

You can listen to or download part 1 of this episode on Archive.org here (38MB) and part 2 on Archive.org here (33MB) or Media Fire here (33MB).

This episode has been released in two parts. Part 1 of this episode has a discussion with Coggo, CJ Wallace and Jazz from the almighty Melbourne Street Medic Collective. We cover the history of the collective, what they’re doing now, experiences with Occupy and police repression, creating alternative institutions to the state, working with other street medics to make their work relevant for activists and activist burnout. Other issues covered on the episode include: travelling, the gift economy, computer use, viewing protest marches as just one of many possible tactics, graffiti for refugees and we encourage people to support Bradley Manning.

Part 2 of the episode has the second part of our interview with Melbourne Street Collective. In this part of the interview, the issues covered include: Occupy Sandy, Occupy and democracy, creating coalitions with different groups around Australia and beyond, and small-scale affinity groups reporting to larger spokescouncils, as a way to ensure greater democracy and put anarchism into practice. In part 2 of this episode, we also encourage people to organise a flash mob in their city, with the help of Reproductive Choice Australia, and we discuss some feedback and additional stories on our 28th episode ‘Beyond Same-Sex Marriage’, including: the word “queer”, hippies, the same-sex marriage campaign attempting to “normalise” queer relationships, “couples privilege” and the French government pledges tougher penalties for homophobia.

Book Recommendation (from part 2):

Chomsky on Anarchism by Noam Chomsky.

Clips (part 1):

Frank Turner ‘The Road’, The Checkout ‘Foxtel’, Star Fucking HipstersDumpster to the Grave’ and ‘Death or Fight’, The Checkout ‘Access vs Ownership’, 5E CommunityI’m Your Medic’, Part 1 of interview with Melbourne Street Medic Collective, Promoe ‘These Walls Don’t Lie’, Coggo’s speech at the #FreeBrad Rally in Melbourne, The Desaparecidos ‘Anonymous’.

Clips (part 2):

Rap News#Occupy2012’, Foeknawledge ‘Knowledge is Key’, Peep Show (Series 1, episode 5), Good RiddanceDefusing the Popular Struggle’, Part 2 of our interview with Melbourne Street Medic Collective, Bob DylanMaggie’s Farm’, The SimpsonsSuper-liminal Recruiting’, Frenzal RhombI Went Out With a Hippy & Now I Love Everyone Except for Her’, Peep Show (Series 3, episode 2), The SoviettesMultiply and Divide’.