In this weeks episode...

Elections Around The World:

Big political moments are happening around the world and we are joined by Firenze based international relations student Tommaso Carlini to break down together some of the geopolitical situations happening right now. 

The elections in Israel are still being counted with no clear winner in sight but with an overwhelming display of barbaric rhetoric from both the Netanyahu and Anti-Netanyahu camps, a small but vocal minority coalition of progressive Palestinian and Israeli voices exists but with no real tangible hope of commanding decisive power as the Likud paerty still dominates the polls at the moment. 

In Brazil President Lula has been elected for a 4th non consecutive term and causing an upset to the new Monroe Doctrine that the US regime has been pushing in influencing the turn to right wing agendas across South America. In what was an incredible display of popular democracy which saw people traverse flooded rivers in dingys in order to cast their votes we reflect in studio on what seeking victories abroad without taking into consideration the mass movements and the conditions they are organizing under and what we can learn from them in our struggle to build a popular movement here. 

We close out the section by discussing about the Serbian student movement and the elections that were just held which unseated the outgoing Vucic presidency that had presided over the country over the last 12 years. The last decade has seen a broad move to liberalize large sections of the country and lobby to join the EU. These and other policies have brought the cost of living to dramatic levels in the countries and the discontent reached fever pitch when the roof of a train station collapsed injusring and killing a number of people which precipitated the already boiling under the surface tension around political corruption. This erupted this year in a horizontal movement which collected many different social realities and brought about the sudden political upheaval, the outcomes remains to be seen as the movement has yet to produce tangible cohesive political and economic policies. 


When we talk about the conditions for protests worlwide we can't help but bring that lens home and reflect on the conditons here and why many people are turning to Divided (One) Nation for answers. The almost entireity of the political specturm has betrayed the interests of the Australian people for those of the big end of town, we need to build a strong movement that can counteract this slide to the right and force the political establishment to respond to the will of the people. 

Tommaso reflects on the experience of the Blocchiamo Tutto movement from las tyeaer that was launched by CALP (The Genova Dock Workers) and USB (Unione Sindacale Di Base) and brought the nations problems to bear in an Italian society where people are struggling to put food on the table, support their families and where the government cuts spending to social services and increases spending for war profiteering. 

The latest call to action has been widely responded to by the student movement and various other social movements in Italy and the State has responded by finding a scapegoat in the form of a second generation Italian student who the State chose to pin the entire responsibility of the movement on. This not only highlighted the deepo racism with which Meloni's far right government built its campaign on but also the lack of political will to address citizens concerns. 

We hear about Yousef Sihers case from the microphones of Radio Onda D'Urto as Samed from GPI (Giovani Palestinesi Italiani) talks about their response to the governments arrest of Yousef and the media narrative around "Maranza", a derogatory term used to describe young second generations italians from largely SWANA diasporas. 

Matthew reads a translated statement from Potere Al Popolo regarding the media narrative around Yousef's case and an appeal to everyone to join on the mobilizations of the 30th of October, you can read the original here. 

We discuss the media narrative that frames protests both here and in Italy and using a translated excerpt from Amy Remeikis article on Deepcut we discuss the slide to the right from many right wing labour state governments here from the Minns government crackdown of peaceful prostests against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to increasing repression in Victoria. You can read the original article here. 

We close out the program by hearing again from the microphones of Radio Onda D'Urto but this time speaking is Guido Lutrario from the National Executive from USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) about what the original call for the general strike on the 30th of October was and how the movement has developed since then. 

We in the studio offer our analysis on the situation on the ground from the union and student movement and the build up to the 30th of October and how you can get invloved by getting down to the State Library on Friday!

Events coming up:

Friday 30th October - Solidarity with the general strike called by the dockworkers, 5pm @ State Library of Victoria

Saturday 31st October - Francesco Fantin, Antifascism and Civilian Internment in Australia during WW2, 2pm @ Democritus 583 High St, Northcote. 

Sunday 8th November - Never Again, No Civilian Internment, 11am @ Murchison Ossario 




Songs played on this episode:

C.S.I - Unita Di Produzione
C.S.I - Cupe Vampe