Young workers fight back!

This week we spoke with Martin from Young Workers Hub about their campaign against the Mantle Group.

Songs of Working Life and Death

Episode from 5 July

his week we talk to Phil Monsour about his upcoming Songs of Working Life fundraiser to support the medevac refugees who have finally been released from detention. We also talked about Phil's trip to Chicago to visit the Labor Notes conference.

In our second hour we talk to Neil from the Brisbane Labour History Association to talk about their upcoming tour of the Dutton Park cemetary and its working class history. It will take place at the cemetary at 2pm on the 14th of August.

Second interview starts at 34:04

Outro song: Let Them Stay by Phil Monsour

Rock, roll, and land rights

Episode from 28 June

This week we talked to Shane Howard, lead vocalist of Goanna, about their music and their politics, along with some live music in the studio. Goanna is celebrating 40 years since the release of Spirit of Place with a tour across the continent.

Outro song: Solid Rock by Goanna

So-called department of housing

Episode from 14 June

This week we talk to Workers Power regular Andrew from the South East Queenland Union of Renters about their upcoming anti-eviction blockade.

The working class origins of Rugby League

Episode from 7 June

This week we talk to Greg from the Brisbane Labour History Association about the working class origins of Rugby League and how class struggle has shaped the sport over the years.

• Links to what we talked about
• Aboriginal Tent Embassy Caretaker counters Uluru Statement
• Rio Tinto sits down with Traditional Owners
• New South Wales public sector workers to strike
• Ipswich city council workers take action
• NSW nurses reject bad offer
• Seattle government building vandalised in response to sweeps of homeless camps

A union member in parliament

Episode from 31 March

This week we talked to Greens MP Stephen Bates about his recent parliamentary victory and what he plans to do in the role.

Interview starts at 39:22

blood on the hands of the legislators - interview with CFMEU organisers

Episode from 10 March.

This week we talk to Jade and Andy from the CFMEU about the aggression faced by their union from the ABCC.

Profit off poverty & A history of the early Brisbane punk scene part 2

Episode from 3 March

This week we talk to Workers Power regular Jayden from the Anti-Poverty Network about the campaign against the cashless welfare card. In the second hour we have a follow up interview with Virginia from the Brisbane Labour History Association about the history of the punk scene in Brisbane, with a focus on the late Chris Bailey of The Saints.

Interviews start at 6:55 and 32:18

Outro song: Econ Sopro by Worker & Parasite

May Day Special!

Episode from 2 May

We bring you on the ground at the Labour Day march this year as we listen to the union chants and talk to unionists and activists about Labour day and the labour movement. I sure hope you like bagpipes.

Outro Song: Solidarity Forever - Phil Monsour

Dare to Struggle Film Festival

Episode from 19 April

On this week's episode Bill and Dan chat with Linn from Dare To Struggle Film Festival. They are also met with a connundrum for this week's Scallywag.

Interview starts at 17:19

How environmentalists and unions fought to protect the reef

Episode from 12 April

This week we talk to Alison from the Brisbane Labour History Association about the fight in the 70s to protect the Great Barrier Reef from mining. This fight was an early example of solidarity between environmental groups and unions, as well as unions taking industrial action to protect the environment.

Interview begins at 7:29

We'll dispossess you back - Revolutionary art with Trent from Last Quokka

Episode from 15 March

This week we talked to Trent from Last Quokka, an anti-fascist punk band "from the most isolated city on the planet" about their music, their politics, and their (at the time) upcoming tour.

Interview starts at 29:11

Outro song: Colony by Last Quokka

International Working Women's Day - Interview with Decrim QLD

Episode from 8 March

This week we talked to Decrim QLD about the struggle to decriminalise sex work in Queensland and the problems facing sex workers in the current system.

Interview starts at 38:45

Women fighting back - the history of the PMG telephonist's union

Episode from 1 March

This week we talk to Jeff Rickertt from the Brisbane Labour History Association. In the leadup to International Working Women's Day we talked about the campaigns of the telephonists' union in the 1970s and 80s. Telephonists were the workers, mostly women, who operated the manual telephone exchanges across Australia for the Postmaster General's Department (PMG), the largest of all Commonwealth departments in its day. In the 1980s the telecommunications division of PMG became Telecom and was then privatised and renamed Telstra.

Until their jobs were destroyed by automation, the telephonists comprised one of the largest groups of women workers in Australia, and in the 1970s and early 1980s they and their union, the Australian Telephone and Phonogram Officers Association, emerged as one of the most militant public service unions in the country. Here in Meanjin they waged some truly amazing battles that really rattled the bosses.

Interview begins at 34:40

• Links to what we talked about
• Floods see Indigenous community evacuated, Koori Mail cut off
• Calls for tougher COVID safety measures after WA prison riot
• NSW Government drops its case in Fair Work Commission after union demands to see ‘risk assessment’
• Unis attempt to pay casuals with gift cards