Subversion #1312 Linda Rose

I recently recorded the voice over for a video called The Age of Democracy produced by AntiMidia from Brasil. It's a great take on voting and elections emphasizing that for real change we need to organise horizontally.

Over the last 15 years, several social movements and anti-capitalist groups have answered the call of the Zapatista National Liberation Army and the entire Zapatista Movement for a campaign "from below and to the left" for radical changes. Since the first march that traveled through 32 Mexican states in 2006, Zapatists have proposed listening to communities and promoting values such as anti-capitalism, horizontalism, and equality.

Our proposal, like the original Otra Campaña, is to offer a vision of politics beyond the parties and the institutional left that, financed by the rich and the state itself, flood the streets and the media with their propaganda and the notion that only through the state institutions can we promote profound changes.

Many of the major movements and revolutions underway in our times share the idea that it is better to change the system in a direct, popular, self-organized way and without the instruments of state management and repression. Only practice and debate that considers these experiences can show people that politics exists beyond voting and bourgeois representative democracy.

For this reason, Antimídia and Facção Fictícia present "The Age of Democracy," a video and an article designed to stimulate debate on the origins of democratic voting, its limits and proposals for overcoming it and building a truly egalitarian and free world - a world where many worlds fit!

We echo the words of Sub-Commander Moses, who reminds us that "we don't tell you to vote, nor do we tell you not to vote. We simply tell you to organize".

Well it's been a while since I've uploaded a podcast. I've been taking a break partly due to the craziness in the world and partly because I want one.

The sedition was actually produced for the 4ZZZ program Eco Radio.

First up on the show is an interview with Izzy Brown about the protest and festival at the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia.

The protestival was planned for the end of July but because of COVID-19 has been postponed until the end of September.

I went the the Vomit Cabaret the previous night so I play two performances from that. The song by The Songs Of Tom Smith leads nicely into a discussion about Ursula Le Guin's book The Dispossessed.

The final major issue covered is the refugees who are detained in hotels in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Here in Brisbane there's an ongoing blockade at the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel where activists are demanding freedom for the 120 men locked inside.

One of the men who is locked in the Mantra Hotel in Melbourne is Farhad Bandesh.

Farhad is a musician and artist. Being detained offshore and onshore for seven years has not stopped him making music and art. The show ends with his song Friendship.

With protests continuing in cities all over the world, the Channel Zero Network has some reminders on how to support those who have been arrested, and those who may be arrested in the future. More info available here -https://rebelsteps.com/episodes/6-jail-support.html

No-one in Australia can go to a pub right now but Andrew Leavold is still hell bent on making a film called PUB.

The film which is in production is about St Kilda artist, satirist, and musician Fred Negro (real name).

It's also about the changing face of that Melbourne suburb and the Australian music scene.

Andrew called into the show and we found out all about the film which is currently the subject of a crowd funding campaign.

This film can give us a hope for the future. One day the pubs and live music venues will open again and we'll be able to watch PUB in a cinema somewhere.

"For me it's a character study of a neglected, misunderstood and under-appreciated Aussie character who has never received his dues (not to mention a very old mate of mine, so I know EXACTLY the right stories to tell).

It's also a love letter to St Kilda itself, former bohemian haunt and Mecca of Musical Excess, now tarted up and gentrified to the point where those pockets of grunge that gave St Kilda its disreputable character, its very essence of being, exist as tiny pockets of True Believers. In a very real sense, Fred Negro is like a Davy Crockett and the bars he and his keepers of the Rock'n'Roll flame fiercely protect are the Alamo, surrounded by "Mexicans" in $100,000 sports cars and Gucci suits."

COVID 19 is spreading fast around the globe.

While we can thank the virus for infecting people like Peter Dutton and Prince Charles it's killing a lot of innocent people and affecting our lives enormously.

Governments, elites, and some in the middle class are more concerned about the crash diving 'economy' than people.

The economy is not actually a real thing but people are.

A swift complete shut down would have this thing crushed in less time with fewer casualties.

Mutual Aid groups are springing up all over as more and more people lose their jobs or are required to self isolate or both. Neighborhoods are coming together because we can't rely on the government we need each other to survive this.

This week on Subversion #1312 I caught up with Acacia Ridge resident Hannah who initiated a mutual aid group for her area.

Refer to our website subversion1312.org for resources

This is a special bonus interview sedition of Subversion #1312. It features an interview I did with American singer/song writer David Rovics who is currently in so-called Australia.

David is an indie/folk political sing/song writer. He identifies as an anarchist.

Since the 1990s he's been writing songs and touring the world performing them. My friends and I used to joke that no matter what the topic David Rovics has written a song about it. War/peace, refugees, free media, workers' rights, students rights, renters rights, and even children's songs.