/358/ Lucky, Meaty Nations (II) ft. Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor
Added 2023-08-15 14:07:01 +0000 UTCOn Australia and New Zealand at the end of the end of history.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The second part of George's interview with Shahar and Tom in which they explore why Australia and New Zealand have avoided the turbulence of the end of the end of history. Is it as simple as uninterrupted growth and high wages? How well is the political system able to respond to people's frustrations, and have there been any populist breakthroughs there?
And what happens if China's slowdown brings the Antipodes down? We discuss all this in the After Party.
Readings:
- Australian Labor’s hollow victory, Shahar Hameiri & Tom Chodor, UnHerd
- Jacinda Ardern still haunts New Zealand, Tom Chodor, UnHerd
Comments
One good anecdote about Australia is from the end of Capital Volume I, where Robert Peel tries to export capitalism to Australia by building a factory and bringing workers, only for all of them to run away to become farmers instead, which Marx uses to illustrate that Capital as ultimately a social relation between people.
Blake
2023-08-28 10:19:33 +0000 UTCInteresting discussion, maybe check Louis Harz “The Founding of New Societies” 1964 on the “dominion mode of development”.Harz practically argues as much and the book contains a response from an Australian Marxist who elaborates, I can’t remember his name. Also, I think the view that OZ didn’t have populist moments misses the fact that Howard invented the dog whistle in the 1990s and Morrison threw away the whistle and just appealed directly to the blue collar tradie vote by evoking populist nationalist themes. There was a Quarterly Essay on him a while back.
Andrew Scerri
2023-08-17 21:30:39 +0000 UTC
