Politics Theory Other: Recent Episodes
Politics Theory Other
A podcast from Tribune magazine on radical politics, critical theory, and culture. Hosted by Alex Doherty.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Contact: politicstheoryother@gmail.com
Tribune Radio: https://www.blubrry.com/tribuneradio/
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the New Left Review on Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran. Eskandar explained why he sees Israel's goals as not being confined to destroying Iran's nuclear programme, but also - and more importantly - the de-development of Iranian society and the balkanisation of the country. We also talked about how Iran is weathering Israel's assault and the degree to which there is any support for Israeli objectives in Iran and within the Iranian diaspora. Finally, we talked about whether the United States will intervene more directly on Israel's side.
If you'd like to hear the rest of this episode please consider becoming a £5 p/m PTO supporter at patreon.com/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour discusses the abrupt increase in Western criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, China's energy transition, and how to understand the Trump administration.If you'd like to hear this episode in full please consider becoming a £5/pm PTO supporter on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
Radhika Desai returns to PTO to talk about the latest round of violence between India and Pakistan, following the terrorist attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian administered Kashmir on April 22nd. We discussed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019, when the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi revoked the territory's special status under the Indian constitution and brought it under direct rule amid a wave of violent repression. We also talked about fears in Kashmir about the Indian government seeking to change the demographic balance in the territory, and about the scale of the fighting Pakistan and India - which far exceeded the previous round of the conflict in 2019.Show notes: Our previous conversation can be listened to here:https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/peak-hindutva-w-radhika-desaiRead more about Radhika's work here:https://radhikadesai.com/And Radhika's 2002 paper on India, Pakistan and the war on terror can be read here:https://www.academia.edu/281710/Tryst_with_Fate_India_and_Pakistan_in_the_War_on_Terrorism_2002_
Natasha Lennard returns to answer listener questions on the escalation of the Gaza genocide, the prospects for a federal ban on abortion in the United States, and whether we are seeing the emergence of a distinctly liberal brand of transphobia in the US. If you'd like to hear this episode in full please consider becoming a £5/pm PTO supporter on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Jake Werner on US-China relations in the context of the trade war. We discussed why Donald Trump has dialled down his rhetoric over tariffs, and why the term "decoupling" hardly captures the severity of what a breakdown of the economic relations between the US and China will look like. We also talked about the prospects of increased military tension, and whether we can expect the development of proxy wars between the two powers as the relationship between the US and China deteriorates further.
Amjad Iraqi returns to PTO to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza - following on from Israel's violation of the ceasefire in late March. We spoke about why the ceasefire was always likely to be violated, the eroding support for continuation of the war within Israel (as the war increasingly comes to be seen as a way of shielding Benjamin Netanyahu from corruption charges) and about the increasing number of Israeli reservists not reporting for duty. We also talked about the deteriorating situation in the West Bank and whether - at this seemingly darkest moment for Palestinian resistance - there are still grounds for hope.
Quinn Slobodian returns to answer questions sent in by listeners in response to our recent episode on Quinn's new book, Hayek's Bastards: The neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right.If you'd like to get access to this and all other episode of PTO Extra! please consider becoming a £5 supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
Quinn Slobodian returns to PTO to talk about his new book 'Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right'. Whilst politicians and thinkers of the new right are typically characterised as fierce opponents of neoliberalism, Quinn explains how the emergence of the populist right developed through a split within the neoliberal movement itself. We talked about the intellectual development of the new right, why their neoliberal heritage is often ignored, and how their racism and obsession with borders - though often seen as merely irrational and atavistic - contains its own form of economic rationality.
Natasha Lennard joins PTO to talk about her recent writing on how the Democrats are making sense of their electoral defeat in November and how the mainstream of the party is adopting conservative social policy while flirting with far-right activists and influencers. We also talked about the enduring and ever more bizarre democrat obsession with civility and bipartisanship.
In the latest episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour comments on the the fallout from the calamitous meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and JD Vance.If you would like to listen to this episode of PTO Extra! please consider becoming a £5 p/m supporter on patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
Hannah Proctor joins PTO to discuss her book Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat. Amongst other aspects of the book, we discussed the practice of Maoist self-criticism and its influence on the American and European New Left, the accounts of women involved in the 1984-85 miners strike following its defeat at the hands of the Thatcher government, and about the Paris Commune of 1871 and the fate of the communards who were exiled to the French penal colony in New Caledonia.
Adam Tooze returns to answer the many excellent questions sent in by PTO supporters.If you would like to listen to this episode of PTO Extra! please consider becoming a £5 p/m supporter on patreon:www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
Richard returns to answer more questions - including on the Gaza ceasefire, bible study in American schools, and what might be learned from Mexico's Morena party.
PTO is joined by the Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. In our conversation we talked about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after fifteen months of war and genocide. We also talked about the military capabilities of Hamas and why Israel was unable to inflict a total defeat on the group. We dicussed how the Trump administration will relate to Israel, and finally Mohammad shared his thoughts on the effects of the international solidarity movement during the genocide. Our conversation was recorded before the ceasefire negotiations accelerated, but plenty of the discussion remains relevant to the current situation.
Will Davies joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the London Review of Books on the UK government's economic agenda. We discussed the policies that Labour has adopted in its attempt to break out of the low growth and low productivity rates that have characterised the UK economy in recent years. We also chatted about the extent to which the Starmer-Reeves project emulates and diverges from the Biden administration's economic policies, and the left de-risking critique of so-called 'modern supply side economics'.
If you would like to listen to this episode of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 patron on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryotherIn today’s episode Richard Seymour responds to listener questions on the overthrow of Assad in Syria, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the significance of widespread public sympathy for Luigi Mangione. We also talked about “normie socialism”, a Soviet counterfactual, and what books Richard has been reading this year. As always, thanks to everyone who sent in a question and for your continued support.
If you would like to listen to this episode of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 patron on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryotherIn today’s episode Richard Seymour responds to listener questions on the overthrow of Assad in Syria, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the significance of widespread public sympathy for Luigi Mangione. We also talked about “normie socialism”, a Soviet counterfactual, and what books Richard has been reading this year. As always, thanks to everyone who sent in a question and for your continued support.
To get access to episodes of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 supporter on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryotherIn this second part of a two-part episode Richard Seymour responds to more of the questions sent in by listeners on the US presidential election and its ramifications. We also talked briefly about the International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.As always thank you so much for your support and to everyone who sent in questions!
To get access to episodes of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryotherIn part one of a two part episode Richard Seymour responds to some of the excellent questions sent in by listeners on the US presidential election and its ramifications. Richard answered questions on the role of social media in the election, the nomination of RFK Jr. to the position of secretary of health and human services, the racial dynamics of Donald Trump's voter coalition, and what to expect from the new administration amongst other topics.
Today we're publishing a crossover episode with our friends at the Macrodose podcast, hosted by James Meadway. In the episode talk about the economics of Donald Trump's election victory and why James lays much of the blame for Kamala Harris' defeat at the door of mainstream economics. We also talked about why Donald Trump did so well amongst young white men, and about what role the Democrats' enabling of the Gaza genocide had in the election results.You can get more excellent economic analysis from James at the Macrodose podcast:https://www.patreon.com/c/Macrodose
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to discuss the extent to which war with China is increasingly being treated as a serious prospect in Washington and the Pentagon. We also talked about how successful, or otherwise, the Biden administration has been in constructing regional alliances against China during the last four years. And we went on to talk about why the Chinese Communist Party leadership's decisions over climate policy dwarf the US presidential election in significance. Finally, we discussed the economic slowdown in the country and Adam explained why he disagrees with analysts who see China's economic problems as primarily a consequence of increasing authoritarianism.
In today's episode Richard Seymour responds to more of the great questions sent in by PTO supporters. Those questions covered topics including degrowth, the extent to which Green party's can be vehicles for radical change, the left's impasse in the UK and Richard's appearance in the audience on BBC Question Time at the tender age of twenty-one.Become a £5 supporter of PTO on patreon to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra:https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
As Israel's genocide in Gaza escalated in the autumn of last year, there was much speculation as to whether we would see mass uprisings in the Arab States of the region. Yet although there have been major Palestine protests in the region, and other acts of solidarity, we have not seen the kinds of uprisings that many hoped for. Nihal El Aasar takes up this question and argues that repression and the threat of violence alone cannot be the sole explanation for the relative lack of public tumult. In our conversation we talked about the Arab Spring, the kind of political subject it brought into being, and the profound effects of the counterrevolution that destroyed the hopes that so many had invested in the Arab Spring. We also talked about how the demoralisation of the Arab publics of the region is critical to the regime of capital accumulation in the Middle East - and Israel's central role in that process.
On the 27th of September Israel dramatically escalated its war on Hezbollah, by assassinating its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Four days later Iran responded to the killing of its long-standing ally by launching a missile attack on Israel - targeting military and intelligence facilities. In today's episode Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Nathaniel George join PTO to talk about whether the killing of Nasrallah - and the wider leadership - represents an existential threat to Hezbollah, and about the group's prospects in combating Israel's ground invasion. We also talked about the effectiveness of Iran's missile strikes and the degree to which Iran has been able to restore any measure of deterrence. We also touched on the dire humanitarian situation in Lebanon, which comes on top of years of grinding economic and political crisis. Finally, we discussed the position of the United States and the apparent appetite in Washington for settling accounts with the America's regional adversaries.
In part one of a two part listener's questions episode Richard responds to questions on Israel's murderous attack on Lebanon, the prospects for Gaza, the appointment of Michel Barnier as French prime minister and psychoanalytic insights into nationalism.Become a £5 supporter of the show at patreon.com/poltheoryother to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra
Jeremy Gilbert returns to PTO to discuss the news that Oasis have announced that they will be reforming to perform a series of gigs next summer. We discussed the reaction to that news, why 90s nostalgia is so prevalent, and why it was that of the various guitar groups of the time, it was Oasis who became so successful in the mid 1990s.
Zionism, and the project of ethnic cleansing and colonial settlement in historic Palestine, is often rightly compared to other projects of European colonialism. But in a recent essay for Parapraxis, my guest Jake Romm argues that Zionism not only has been influenced by the European imperial project, but that it has also been massively shaped by anti-semitism, and that in its recapitulation of anti-semitic stereotypes, and even anti-semitic practice, it makes sense to view Zionism as a species of anti-semitism itself. We talked about how Jake came to this view via Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's The Dialectic of Enlightenment, why he thinks Zionism has always been bent on the destruction of the Palestinian people and could never be content with merely exploiting Palestinian labour. And we also talked about the extreme machismo of Israeli society, and how October 7th was experienced as an emasculating event. Finally, we talked about Israel's likely turn to a permanent occupation of Gaza - and the possibility of the creation of new Israeli settlements in the territory.
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins PTO to discuss the first few weeks of Keir Starmer's Labour government. To get access to this episode of PTO Extra please consder becoming a £5 supporter on patreon:https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
On July 30th, a week of Islamophobic and racist violence broke out in England and Northern Ireland, following a mass stabbing even in the seaside town of Southport in which three children were murdered. The subsequent racist attacks were fuelled by misinformation, spread by far-right groups, that the perpetrator was a Muslim and an asylum seeker. In today's episode Nesrine Malik joined PTO to talk about how best to characterise the week of violence and intimidation, and the degree of culpability of Britain's main political parties in fostering racism and Islamophobia. We also talked about the network of new right wing media organisations, think tanks and influencers and how they synergise with the old and established conservative press.
Richard Seymour returns to the show to respond to more listener's questions and to address the recent outbreak of racist and Islamophobic violence in the UK.Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to all episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour returns to the show to respond to more listener's questions and to address the recent outbreak of racist and Islamophobic violence in the UK.Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to all episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Bue Rübner Hansen joins PTO to talk about his recent essay The New German Chauvinism. In the first part of our conversation we discussed the history of the German-Israeli alliance and how its emergence was far more complicated than is commonly supposed. We discussed the contrasting attitudes to Israel amongst the German public and the political and media class and big business. And we went on to discuss the distinct memory culture around the crimes of Nazism and the Holocaust, that emerged in West Germany during the Cold War and how elements of that culture fostered a political climate in Germany that is, at best, deaf to the suffering of the Palestinians. We also talked about the emergence of the Anti-German current within the German left and how its suspicion of the German working class stemmed from the obliteration of the history of working class opposition to the Nazis.Read Bue's two part essay here:https://lefteast.org/the-new-german-chauvinism-part-i/https://lefteast.org/the-new-german-chauvinism-part-ii/
In today's episode Richard Seymour returns to answer some of the excellent questions sent in by PTO patrons. To become a PTO supporter go to patreon.com/poltheoryother
On January 22nd the new Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh was consecrated in a ceremony led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event kicked off Modi's election campaign that was widely expected to lead to a landslide for Modi and the BJP. Instead, the Hindu nationalist party lost 63 seats and the opposition coalition led by congress made significant gains. In today's episode I spoke with Radhika Desai about the causes of the electoral upset, the image and reality of the Indian economy and what the election results announced in June might mean for Indian Muslims.
Sebastian Budgen returns to the show to discuss the recent shock result in the French legislative elections that saw the left wing New Popular Front win the highest number of seats, beating both Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble and the far-right National Rally, who had been widely expected to emerge with the most deputies in the French parliament.
Today’s show is a crossover episode with our good friends over at the Macrodose podcast, which is hosted by economist James Meadway. In the episode James is joined by Richard Seymour to discuss the upcoming UK general election. We talked about the crisis in the Conservative Party and the prospects of a post-election merger with Nigel Farage's Reform party. We also discussed whether Farage's comments on Ukraine damage his electoral prospects, the likelihood of Labour implementing austerity and why - as James argues - the 4th of July is likely to be the last "normal" general election held in the UK.
Andy Beckett joins PTO to talk about his new book, The Searchers: Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies. The five rebels in question being Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, and Ken Livingstone. We talked about the role of the global tumult of 1968 in the development of the politics of the five, the extraordinary racism that Diane Abbott has faced since entering parliament, and whether the current Labour leadership think there are votes to be gained in joining in in attacks on Britain's most important black politician. We also talked about the importance of Salvador Allende's Popular unity government in Chile to the five and how their admiration for Allende contrasted with their view of the eastern bloc during the Cold War. Finally, we touched on the current conjuncture and what the future might hold for the remaining four rebels.
This week's episode is the recording of our recent live event. Gargi Bhattacharyya, Richard Seymour, and Eleanor Penny were joined by an audience in Finsbury Park, London to discuss the fascism debate, disaster nationalism, and the relationship between fascism and racial capitalism.
James Schneider joins the show to discuss Rishi Sunak's announcement that the UK general election will take place on July 4th, and to talk about his book 'Our Bloc: How We Win' in which James argues for a left bloc - a federated alliance of socialist forces comprising social movements, unions, and the residual left in parliament. In the interview we discussed what such a left bloc could look like and how it might knit together forces with varying political commitments and traditions. We also talked about the unprecedented vacuity of Keir Starmer's political project, and James also gave his thoughts on the domestic significance of the Gaza protest movement.
Israeli universities have long enjoyed a reputation as liberal bastions of freedom and democracy and they enjoy warm relationships with their counterparts in north America and Europe - including the University of Columbia. However, as Maya Wind explains in today's episode, contrary to the depiction of Israeli universities as centres of pluralism and free inquiry these institutions are directly complicit in the project to dispossess Palestinians of their land and rights.In her new book, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Maya reveals how academic disciplines, degree programs, campus infrastructure, and research laboratories all service Israeli occupation and apartheid, while universities violate the rights of Palestinians to education, stifle critical scholarship, and violently repress student dissent.
In today's PTO Extra! Richard Seymour responds to some more excellent listener's questions. We talked about the protests against Israel's genocidal war on Gaza taking place at American universities and the extremely repressive response from university authorities. We went on to discuss the situation regarding Iran and Israel, and Richard responded to questions on the disgracing of Sam Bankman-Fried and the effective altruism movement, the Weather Underground and the relevance of armed militant groups of the 1970s to left strategy today. Finally, we talked about what can be expected from a Labour government in the UK and the prospects for a new left party.
Paul Rogers returns to PTO to talk about Iran's attack on Israel on the 13th of April - the first such direct operation carried out by Iran. We discussed whether the operation was a failure or a qualified success, and the role of the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan in the downing of Iranian missiles and drones. We also talked about the progress of Iran's programme and how the attacks on the 13th may have distracted attention from the IDF's failure to defeat Hamas in Gaza.Book your spot at the first PTO Live! event on May 16th in London here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disaster-nationalism-politics-theory-other-podcast-live-tickets-883198700087
Since October 7th Israeli politicians, spokespeople, and Israel's supporters have mobilised feminist narratives in defence of the state's genocidal actions in Gaza and sought to portray Palestinian resistance to Israel as suffused with religiously inspired misogyny. In a recent article in Salvage, Sophie Lewis wrote about the way in which Zionist feminists have worked to defend the settler colonial project and how it places them in a long lineage of self-described feminists who have been enthusiastic supporters and participants in imperial conquest. In our conversation we talked about that history, and whether we're seeing a decline in Zionist feminism that parallels the broader crisis of liberal Zionism. Book your spot at the first PTO Live! event on May 16th in London here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disaster-nationalism-politics-theory-other-podcast-live-tickets-883198700087
In part one of a two-part episode Richard returns to give his thoughts on an apparent turn against Israel on parts of the American right, the significance of the protests against Netanyahu within Israel, the role of students in the Palestine solidarity movement, and his view of post-Marxist thought.To get access to the full episode become a £5 PTO supporter on patreon.com/poltheoryother
Yanis Varoufakis joins PTO to discuss his book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. We discussed why Yanis believes capitalism is no longer the appropriate term to describe contemporary economic and social relations. We also talked about the financial crisis, the Covid19 pandemic, and how central bank responses to both crises served to build the power of the tech giants. Finally, we also briefly discussed the situation in Gaza and why Yanis believes reports of the decline of US global hegemony are, for the moment, exaggerated.
If you'd like to hear the rest of this episode of PTO Extra! Please consider becoming a £5 supporter at patreon.com/poltheoryotherRichard Seymour returns to discuss the likelihood of Israel launching its assault on Rafah (in the context of Israel's deliberate starvation of the Gazan population). We talked about the position of the United States and its recent resolution at the United Nations security council and the extent to which - if at all - it represents a shift away from unequivocal support for Israel. We also discussed the decline of liberal Zionism, as Israel increasingly becomes a pariah state, and finally we discussed "normie socialist" and post-left perspectives on the history of Israel-Palestine.
The 1970s is often depicted straightforwardly as the moment when the radical movements of the 1960s fractured, failed, and radicalised in ways that were self-destructive. In The Subversive Seventies Michael Hardt argues that not only is that a much too simplistic understanding of the decade, but that it serves to prevent us from drawing important lessons and inspiration from the radical movements of the 1970s. We talked about popular misconceptions about the movements of the 70s, how to understand the turn towards projects characterised by autonomy and in some cases armed struggle. And finally we also talked about why the emergence in the 70s of a multiplicity of struggles can be seen as a source of strength for the left, rather than evidence of irresolvable division.
Thirteen years have passed since the Arab Spring and the great hopes aroused in 2011 have been overwhelmed by counter-revolution and civil war. And yet, the region is anything but restabilised: Instead of the events of 2011 heralding a brief period of democratic transition akin to earlier developments in East Asia and Eastern Europe they instead, Gilbert Achcar argues, inaugurated a long-term revolutionary process, based in a deep-rooted socioeconomic crisis that is far from played out. In this talk Gilbert assesses the dynamics of MENA region, the factors hindering regional change, and he cautions against overly optimistic readings, while nonetheless arguing that there remain reasons for hope.
In the latest PTO Extra! Richard Seymour returns to answer your questions on the impact of the Gaza protest movement, Israel's eroding international support, what a Trump presidency might lead to in US domestic politics, and where the late Christopher Hitchens' would have positioned himself in the current conjuncture.To listen to this episode become a £5 patron at patreon.com/poltheoryother
Naomi Klein joins PTO to talk about her book, 'Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World'. In the first part of our conversation we talked about why at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, parts of the anti-vaccine movement started to adopt the garb and the language of participants in struggles against racism and the historic crimes of settler colonialism. In the second part we talked about Israel and Palestine and how the notion of 'doppelganger politics' can be applied to the way Israel views the Palestinians. We also talked about how European fascism of the twentieth century is typically portrayed as being the diametric opposite of liberal democracy, in spite of the extent to which Nazism took direct inspiration from both European colonial practices and racial segregation in the United States.To rate PTO on Spotify go here. Or search for 'Politics Theory Other' in the Spotify app. If you don't ordinarily listen to the show on Spotify you may be asked to listen to some episodes first, but all you need to do in that case is to click on a couple of episodes and fast forward right to the end of each, and then you'll be able to rate the show. On the Spotify app you can give your rating by clicking on the three small dots (...) next to the gear wheel symbol on the PTO Spotify page. Thank you!
In today's episode of PTO Extra! Sai Englert, author of Settler Colonialism: An Introduction returns to the show to answer listeners' questions. We talked about whether Zionism is distinct from other forms of settler colonialism, how struggles against settler colonial projects can tie together with socialist demands for the democratisation of the economy, and we also discussed the ruling of the ICJ and the effort to delegitimise and destroy UNRWA, - led by Israel but aided and abetted by the United States and Israel's other allies.
Palestinian-American legal scholar Noura Erakat joins PTO to discuss South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice and the utility of international law in struggles for global justice. With its roots in providing justification for European settler colonialism in the Americas, can International law ever serve the cause of liberatory movements? Is there a danger that in winning legal victories in forums such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, that radical causes - such as the Palestine liberation movement - can come to prioritise endorsement by prestigious multilateral bodies at the expense of other, and potentially more effective strategies? And how strong are the respective cases of South Africa and Israel in their dispute at the ICJ - and what is the legal, political, and moral significance of the case that South Africa has brought? Those are just some of the questions that Noura Erakat addresses in today's episode.
Richard Seymour returns to answer listeners' questions on the history of Yemen and the emergence of the Houthi militia, comparisons made between Israel's actions in Gaza and the Nazi Holocaust, and on the way in which the Trump presidency has influenced the current situation in the Middle East.Listen to the full episode by becoming a £5 patron at https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour on the possibility of Israel's assault on Gaza leading to broader escalation in the Middle East. We talked about the strategic calculations of Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthi militia, and Israel, the possibility of the United States increasing its involvement on Israel's side, and whether the attack on Gaza might destabilise Egypt. And finally we talked about the proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has asked the ICJ for an urgent order declaring that Israel is in breach of its obligations under the 1948 genocide convention.
Israel's assault on Gaza has led to a huge upsurge in discussion of settler colonialism and the extent to which the term accurately describes the Zionist project in Palestine. In Settler Colonialism: An Introduction, Sai Englert provides an authoritative overview of the history of settler colonialism and resistance to it, from the South African anti-Apartheid struggle to campaigns against pipeline construction in North America.In the interview we discuss the history of settler colonialism, from the British colonies in North America to the Portuguese Empire in Brazil, and from Apartheid South Africa to the French settler state in Algeria. We talked about the economic logics that made genocidal campaigns against indigenous societies possible in some contexts, but not in others, and about the surprisingly complex process of racialisation that enabled the plunder of indigenous resources and labour. Finally, we discussed why Israel, contrary to the claims of liberal apologists, belongs firmly in the settler colonial tradition.
Around 2010 I became somewhat obsessed with Japanese pop and ambient music of the 1980s - in particular the Yellow Magic Orchestra, the solo records of the members of the group: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi and music by Akiko Yano, Yasuaki Shimizu and Hiroshi Yoshimura amongst many others. Last year I discovered that this was an enthusiasm shared with architectural historian, and very occasional pop music writer, Owen Hartherley who has since written an article partially on the topic:https://www.jencksfoundation.org/explore/text/japan-at-number-one-ryuichi-sakamoto-s-riot-in-lagosAlthough much of the episode is on the music itself, we also touch on the politics - particularly how these artists were influenced by and reacting to the culture of the 1960s New Left, during the extraordinary economic boom of the 1980s, and how some of these musicians reintegrated the memory of 20th century Japanese imperialism in Asia into their music.If you'd like to explore some of the music we discuss in the episode you can find an accompanying playlist on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eM8f2mq7vJYtYuTDq2EKW?si=7dd8d970fb8d4ad2As well as tracks from the 80s, the playlist also includes some records from the folk rock era of the 1970s, as well as from Vaporwave and Future Funk genres - both of which were influenced by much of the 1980s work that Owen and I discuss.Unfortunately, there are plenty of fantastic records from this era that aren't currently available on the streaming services - including Akiko Yano's best work (especially the album Tadaima) Paradise of Replica by After Dinner, Ichiko Hashimoto's Beauty album, Miho Fujiwara's Heartbeat, Untotooku by Chiemi Manabe and the soundtracks to the animated films Akira and the Wings of Honnêamise amongst others. Do check those out too if you can - many of them are available on YouTube or to purchase from Bandcamp and other such outlets.Owen's article, 1980 in Parallax: Japan at Number One, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s ‘Riot in Lagos’:https://www.jencksfoundation.org/explore/text/japan-at-number-one-ryuichi-sakamoto-s-riot-in-lagosSpotify playlist:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eM8f2mq7vJYtYuTDq2EKW?si=7dd8d970fb8d4ad2
Richard returns to answer listener's questions on the situation in Gaza, the extent to which Joe Biden's support for Israel is about electoral calculations, the anti-Deutsch tendency and the pro-Israel current on the German left, and the threat of a global war, amongst other topics. Thanks as ever for your continued support for PTO.
Palestinian writer and academic Leila Farsakh joins the show to talk about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the parallels Leila sees between the current situation and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. We also talked about the revival of the idea of the one state solution and why Leila believes a two-state resolution to the conflict is no longer feasible. In the interview we touch on Leila's article in The London Review of Books, ‘The Refugee Problem’ and on her book, 'Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-determination beyond Partition'.
Richard Seymour responds to the arguments of Jonathan Freedland and other liberal Zionists who, despite the marginalisation of the liberal Zionist tradition within Israel itself, continue to produce talking points for supporters of Israel and the Western media in their coverage of Israel-Palestine.
A 'start-up country', the world's first 'AI superpower', an 'innovation nation', those are some of the breathless descriptions used by Israeli politicians, security officials, journalists and business leaders to hail Israel's high-tech industry and its synergy with the Israeli military. But on October 7th, Israel's obsession with what Sophia Goodfriend describes as 'techno-solutionism' came back to haunt the country as Hamas succeeded in breaching the Gaza barrier at eighty different points and disabling many of Israel's automated weapons and surveillance systems. In today's episode of PTO Extra! I spoke with Sophia about her recent articles in The Baffler and Foreign Policy regarding Israel's high-tech methods of waging war and how it conducts its illegal and brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
A 'start-up country', the world's first 'AI superpower', an 'innovation nation', those are some of the breathless descriptions used by Israeli politicians, security officials, journalists and business leaders to hail Israel's high-tech industry and its synergy with the Israeli military. But on October 7th, Israel's obsession with what Sophia Goodfriend describes as 'techno-solutionism' came back to haunt the country as Hamas succeeded in breaching the Gaza barrier at eighty different points and disabling many of Israel's automated weapons and surveillance systems. In today's episode of PTO Extra! I spoke with Sophia about her recent articles in The Baffler and Foreign Policy regarding Israel's high-tech methods of waging war and how it conducts its illegal and brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian writer Amjad Iraqi joins the show to talk about where Israel's assault on Gaza is going. We talked about Israel's professed goal to wipe out Hamas in the Gaza strip and what Israel intends to do with the territory and its population after the end of Operation Iron Swords. We also discussed how seriously to take the statements of Western governments who profess to support a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, and we spoke about how liberal Zionism is a phenomenon that exists more in the minds of western policy makers, and liberal journalists, than it does in Israel itself.
Kevin Ochieng Okoth joins PTO to discuss his new book, Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics. We talked about the concept of Afropessimism and why Kevin believes it relies on a fundamentally parochial, US-centric understanding of Blackness and we discussed how it's leading theorists mischaracterise the work of thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, to advance the idea of the impossibility of solidarity between Black and non-black people. We went on to discuss Kevin's idea of Red Africa - a notion inspired by the second wave of radical African liberation movements and thinkers, that were sceptical of the first wave of African socialists, many of whom who had taken the view that traditional communal elements of African culture were inherently socialist. Recorded before the escalation of the Israel-Palestine crisis, we do touch on the question of Palestine regarding Frank B Wilderson III - the most prominent advocate of Afropessimism - and his extraordinary claim that Palestinians have more in common with their Israeli oppressors than they do with black people.
Description: Richard returns to answer questions sent in by listeners on Gaza, Israel and the broader ramifications of the ongoing crisis. Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra! - https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace joins PTO to discuss the dire situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and the dramatic escalation of islamophobia and anti-Arab racism in the United States. In the second half of the episode, international security expert Paul Rogers joins the show again to talk about how Israel is likely to approach its attempt to destroy Hamas, and the risks of regional escalation.If you've been finding PTO useful please do consider becoming a supporter on patreon. £5 supporters get access to episodes of PTO Extra! Including the upcoming episode in which Richard Seymour will be responding to listener's questions regarding the interview on Gaza that we recorded last week.
Richard Seymour returns to PTO to discuss the crisis and background to the crisis in Israel-Palestine. A little over a week ago US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking at the the Atlantic festival, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East which he argued had allowed the Biden administration to focus on issues elsewhere in the world. Referencing the truce in Yemen, a decline in hostility in the US's relationship with Iran and what he characterised as America's stable presence in Iraq - where around 2,500 US soldiers remain - he commented that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”On Saturday Sullivan's comments came back to haunt him as Hamas carried out an unprecedentedly large scale breakout from the Gaza strip and launched attacks on the Israeli military and Israeli civilians that have claimed over 1200 lives at the time of recording. Deaths on the Palestinian side from Israel's predictable assault on Gaza are heading towards parity, and undoubtedly those numbers will escalate dramatically as Israel continues its air campaign and prepares to launch a ground assault. The following interview with Richard Seymour was recorded earlier today - the 11th of October - and before it became apparent that a national unity government would be formed in Israel.
Richard Seymour returns to PTO to discuss the crisis and background to the crisis in Israel-Palestine. A little over a week ago US national security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking at the the Atlantic festival, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East which he argued had allowed the Biden administration to focus on issues elsewhere in the world. Referencing the truce in Yemen, a decline in hostility in the US's relationship with Iran and what he characterised as America's stable presence in Iraq - where around 2,500 US soldiers remain - he commented that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”On Saturday Sullivan's comments came back to haunt him as Hamas carried out an unprecedentedly large scale breakout from the Gaza strip and launched attacks on the Israeli military and Israeli civilians that have claimed over 1200 lives at the time of recording. Deaths on the Palestinian side from Israel's predictable assault on Gaza are heading towards parity, and undoubtedly those numbers will escalate dramatically as Israel continues its air campaign and prepares to launch a ground assault. The following interview with Richard Seymour was recorded earlier today - the 11th of October - and before it became apparent that a national unity government would be formed in Israel.
Owen Hatherley joins the show to discuss his love of 1980s Japanese pop and ambient. Although much of the episode is on the music itself, we do touch on the politics - particularly how these artists were influenced by and reacting to the culture of the 1960s New Left, during the extraordinary economic boom of the 1980s, and how some of these musicians reintegrated the memory of 20th century Japanese imperialism in Asia into their music.Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra! - https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
In 1999 in the wake of the Kosovo conflict Gilbert Achcar published a book titled 'The New Cold War: The World After Kosovo'. At the time, describing tensions between the United States, Russia and China in terms of "a cold war" seemed to many to be outlandish hyperbole, or very premature at best. Now, of course the use of the term to describe the global situation is increasingly commonplace, but if we are indeed in a cold war - the question arises - when did it begin? Should it be dated in Russia's case to the 2008 Georgia war, in China to the rise of Xi Jinping and the repression in Hong Kong - or do we need to think back much further? In today's episode Gilbert Achcar joins the show to discuss his new book, 'The New Cold War: The US, Russia and China - From Kosovo to Ukraine', in which he builds upon his earlier work to argue that the current situation is rooted in events and key decisions made during the 1990s, including the devastating collapse of the Russian economy, the failure to create a new security architecture in Europe after the end of the cold war, and in increasing US-China tensions over Taiwan and other security matters, which were obscured by the deepening economic integration of the two states at the time. In the following interview we discuss these topics, as well as why Gilbert thinks its appropriate to describe Vladimir Putin's regime as neofascist, why recognising NATO enlargement as being a vector for Russian nationalism does not in any way justify the invasion of Ukraine, and we also talked about what Gilbert thinks a more just international order might look like.
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to respond to the many excellent questions sent in by listeners.Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to this and other episodes of PTO Extra! Go to patreon.com/poltheoryother to sign up.We talked about Perry Anderson's take on Adam's work in the New Left Review, why Adam - despite his engagement with Marxist thought and frequent appearances in left media and events - defines himself as a left liberal rather than a socialist. We also talked about his view of the significance of the US inflation reduction act, and the dire state of the UK economy. We went on to talk about the economic and social crisis in Lebanon and why Adam thinks the situation in the country and the broader region does not get the attention it deserves.
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to respond to the many excellent questions sent in by listeners.Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to this and other episodes of PTO Extra! Go to patreon.com/poltheoryother to sign up.We talked about Perry Anderson's take on Adam's work in the New Left Review, why Adam - despite his engagement with Marxist thought and frequent appearances in left media and events - defines himself as a left liberal rather than a socialist. We also talked about his view of the significance of the US inflation reduction act, and the dire state of the UK economy. We went on to talk about the economic and social crisis in Lebanon and why Adam thinks the situation in the country and the broader region does not get the attention it deserves.
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to respond to the many excellent questions sent in by listeners.
Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to this and other episodes of PTO Extra! Go to patreon.com/poltheoryother to sign up.
We talked about Perry Anderson's take on Adam's work in the New Left Review, why Adam - despite his engagement with Marxist thought and frequent appearances in left media and events - defines himself as a left liberal rather than a socialist. We also talked about his view of the significance of the US inflation reduction act, and the dire state of the UK economy. We went on to talk about the economic and social crisis in Lebanon and why Adam thinks the situation in the country and the broader region does not get the attention it deserves.
Jacqueline Rose returns to the show to discuss her new book, The Plague: Living Death in Our Times. We talked about what the Covid-19 pandemic revealed about contemporary society and whether the the initial wave of global solidarity provoked by the crisis was purely a mirage. We also talked about the Ukraine crisis - how Jacqueline connects the themes of war and pandemic in the book - and how Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion has had the troubling consequence of appearing to redeem the foreign policy and security establishments of the United States and Britain. We also talked about the philosopher and mystic Simone Weil, and her refusal to adopt a position of heroic innocence when supporting the allied cause during WWII. And finally, we talked about Sigmund Freud's concept of the death drive - and how it was informed by his own encounter with a pandemic - the so-called Spanish flu that took the life of his daughter Sophie in 1920.
Richard Seymour responds to questions sent in by listeners on subjects ranging from conspiracy theory, the ferocity of anti-communist rhetoric on the right - in spite of the absence of a global communist movement - to the history of the eastern European left since the end of the Cold War.
Richard Seymour responds to questions sent in by listeners on subjects ranging from conspiracy theory, the ferocity of anti-communist rhetoric on the right - in spite of the absence of a global communist movement - to the history of the eastern European left since the end of the Cold War.
Amber Husain joins PTO to talk about her new book, Meat Love: An Ideology of the Flesh. We talked about whether it's possible for there to be such a thing as 'ethical meat', why Amber thinks veganism need not be solely about lifestyle and personal consumption choices - as is commonly argued by left critics of veganism, and we also talked about King Charles, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalll and other lovers of small scale animal farming, and how they invoke notions of love and care, classical tragedy, and the timeless circle of life to argue for the continued consumption of animal flesh.
Adam Shatz joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination'.
We talked about why Adam, though a huge admirer of Edward Said and his classic work Orientalism, feels that some of the work subsequently inspired by Said has failed to give a well rounded picture of middle eastern societies in all their complexity. We also talked about why Adam thinks that there can be value in reading reactionary writers whose politics we might abhor, and why nuance and complexity are not the enemies of radical political commitment. Finally, we discussed the ways in which early experiences of trauma can be the starting point for creativity.
On the 23rd of June, following months of increasing tension between the Wagner Group and the Russian Ministry of Defence, Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his rebellion. Prigozhin's forces quickly took control of the head quarter's of Russia's Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, after which an armoured column of Wagner troops advanced towards Moscow.
In today's episode of Interregnum I asked Richard Seymour about Prighozin's background in crime and his early business ventures, the founding of the Wagner Group, the scope of its operations and its reputation for appalling violence. And we also talked about why Richard thinks Prighozin can accurately be described as a fascist. Finally, Richard addressed the claim, made by some analysts that the abortive rebellion actually leaves Putin in a stronger position.
David Wearing joins PTO to discuss his article 'The myth of the reforming monarch: Orientalism, racial capitalism, and UK support for the Arab Gulf monarchies'
We talked about the nature of Britain's relationship with the Gulf states, and why it's a mistake to see Western support for brutal, absolutist authority in the region as simply self-consciously cynical realpolitik. And we also talked about the nature of the Sportswashing debate and what's missing from mainstream discussion of the purchase of football clubs such as Manchester City, Newcastle United and Paris St. Germain by the gulf states.
If you enjoyed this episode please consider rating the show on Apple podcasts, or whichever podcast app you use. The show's music and graphic design is produced by Planet B.
The recent National Conservatism conference in Britain brought together an array of politicians, journalists, and academics of varying stripes of conservatism, but united by their hostility to so-called woke politics. I spoke to Aurelien Mondon about his recent article in Jacobin, Right-Wing Grifters Love to Say They’re “Canceled” — but Get All the Elite Support They Want, in which Aurelien provided ten rules for making a successful career in the anti-woke grift. We talked about some of those rules, and the extent to which liberal media outlets that have provided platforms for the Matt Goodwins and Jordan Pertersons of this world might now be regretting doing so. We also talked about the extent to which the 'war on woke' is a rehashing of traditional conservative themes, and Aurelian addressed the claim that, in spite of being sometimes poorly paid and living in rented accommodation, left wing academics and cultural producers can plausibly be described as being part of a 'New Elite' that dominates our politics.
Hil Aked joins PTO to talk about their new book, Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity, the first book length treatment of the pro-Israel lobby in Britain.We talked about the strategies that Israel and pro-Israel organisations in Britain have adopted to deflect criticism of the ongoing occupation and the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and their efforts to undermine the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Hil explained why they characterise contemporary Zionism as a "social movement from above" and how apartheid-era South Africa was a forerunner for some of the public relations techniques adopted by Israel and its outriders.We also talked about John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt's 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign policy and where Hil's analysis differs from theirs. We also discussed the pitfalls of writing on this topic at a time of increasing anti-semitism. And finally, we talked about why parliamentary support for Israel was once stronger within the Labour party than the Conservatives, and what the role of the Labour and Conservative friends of Israel groups is today.
Richard Seymour discusses the protest movement in Israel that has emerged in response to the plans of the most right-wing Israeli government in history to dramatically curtail the power of the judiciary and further empower the executive. We discussed the makeup, social base and ideology of the parties in the coalition government, why the Israeli protest movement and liberal Israelis remain anchored to an ethno-nationalist politics (in spite of their opposition to the government) and we also talked about the Palestinian Authority - increasingly a misnomer as the PA's already minimal public support further erodes and as it starts to lose control of parts of the West Bank.
Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the protest movement in France, sparked by Emmanuel Macron's pension reform bill. We talked about why the new bill has encountered such broad opposition in the country, and why it is that Macron has been so intransigent over a policy that is opposed by around two thirds of the French public. We also discussed the tactics of the French unions, the increasing involvement of young people in the protest movement, and the extent to which Marine Le Pen's far right National Rally is benefiting from the situation - despite opposition to the new pension law being led by the left.
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to discuss the key causal factors that allowed fascism to emerge in the early twentieth century and whether conditions that would enable fascism on the interwar model exist today. We also talked about whether describing the Bolsanaros, the Le Pens and the Orbans of this world as fascist may be analytically wrong but tactically effective, and about how close the Latin American dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s are to the fascist model.Links:Adam's chartbook post:https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-166-19222022-the-centenaryEurotrash podcast episode:https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-6-sex-fascism-73970252Adam on The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy:https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/adam-tooze-on-nazi-ideology-and-the-german-war-economyAdam on Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy:https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/adam-tooze-on-shutdown-how-covid-shook-the-worlds-economyPart one and two of Adam on Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World:https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/20-adam-tooze-on-crashed-how-a-decade-of-financial-crises-changed-the-worldhttps://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/23-adam-tooze-on-crashed-how-a-decade-of-financial-crises-changed-the-world-part-2
Richard Seymour returns to respond to listener's questions on the recent episode on the so-called lockdown sceptics. We talked about the leaking of former UK health secretary Matt Hancock's pandemic whatsapp messages, and whether they vindicate the arguments of lockdown critics such as Isabel Oakeshott. Amongst the other excellent questions sent in, Richard responded regarding the the widely cited Cochrane study that challenged the efficacy of mask wearing, the motivation of self described socialists who are apparently comfortable aligning themselves with the libertarian right, and also the US department of energy's recent statement on the lab leak theory of Covid19's origins.
Paul Rogers returns to talk about the Ukraine war, one year after the beginning of the Russian invasion. We discussed why the Russian military have been so unsuccessful in their aims and whether the extraordinary scale of Russian casualties will undermine support for Putin within Russia. We also talked about whether Ukrainian strategic goals align totally with those of the US and NATO states, and if there is any plausibility to the idea of a negotiated settlement. Finally, we talked about why there is much less clear cut support for Ukraine in the global south.
Dhirendra K. Jha joins PTO to talk about his book, Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India. We talked about Godse's childhood and how is belonging to the elite Brahmin class facilitated his shift from an anti-imperialist position in the decades before independence, to a visceral hatred of Muslims and of Gandhi, who the Hindu nationalists blamed for partition and the creation of Pakistan.We also discussed Godse's relationship with Vinayak Sawarkar - the ideological founder of Hindu nationalism and the chief early propagator of the idea of Hindu Rashtra - the concept of India as a fundamentally Hindu nation - as opposed to a secular state of all its people.We went on to talk about how Italian fascism and German Nazism inspired the RSS, and finally we discussed the increasing rehabilitation of the reputation of Godse amongst Hindu nationalists, including BJP members of the Indian parliament.
James Meadway breaks down the news that the UK narrowly avoided dipping into recession at the end of last year, a deeper dive into what that actually means for people in the UK in real terms and how all this is hurting your local pub .
Richard Seymour discusses his recent blogpost on the so-called lockdown sceptics, and in particular the work of Toby Green and his book 'The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left'. We talked about the straw man arguments, factual inaccuracies and conspiratorial thinking that characterise the book and the lockdown sceptic literature more generally. We also talked about why parts of the left have been receptive to some of this work and also what to make of the alliance between some self-styled anti-woke leftists and religious conservatives.
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new figures that signal positive news for the US economy (0:48), how good news for the US might be bad news for the rest of the globe (6:09) and the recent record-breaking profits made by fossil fuel producers (10:55).You can register here (https://bit.ly/3YAtp5J) for a free ticket for the launch of The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it), a vital book James has co-authored with Doug Nicholls and Professor Costas Lapavitsas.
Richard Seymour discusses his recent blogpost on the so-called lockdown sceptics, and in particular the work of Toby Green and his book 'The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left'. We talked about the straw man arguments, factual inaccuracies and conspiratorial thinking that characterise the book and the lockdown sceptic literature more generally. We also talked about why parts of the left have been receptive to some of this work and also what to make of the alliance between some self-styled anti-woke leftists and religious conservatives.
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the UK’s recording-breaking wave of strikes (0:42), how these compare to other strike movements around the world (4:43), and a new report from the BBC that finds issues with the “impartiality” of its economics reporting (12:32).
In this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the shift away from the dominance of the dollar (0:41), what this means for US economic power (3:13), and a call from noble-prize winning economist Jospeh Stiglitz to tackle wealth inequality (11.26).
Polly Smythe, the labour movement correspondent for Novara Media joins PTO to talk about how strikes achieve their aims and the importance - or otherwise - of public support. We also discussed the new anti-strike law being brought in by the Conservative government, what its consequences may be, and whether it will have the chilling effect on industrial action that the Sunak government hopes for. Finally, we talked about the prospects for the current public and private sector strikes in Britain and whether either the unions or the government have a path to victory.
On this week’s episode of Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down talk of a “poly crisis” at the World Economic Forum in Davos (00:50), the threat of default as the US breaches it’s debt ceiling (06:03), and a new report from the think tank Autonomy exploring the future of work in an era of climate breakdown (12:38).
James Meadway returns to discuss his predictions for the world economy in the year ahead, and why the notion of the polycrisis - while in some ways useful - fails to reckon with the fact that in a world of increasingly frequent severe weather events, climate disasters, and greater interstate rivalry, the notion of any kind of time-bounded crisis is increasingly at odds with reality. We talked about the prospect of debt defaults in the global south, why mainstream economics is failing to factor the deteriorating ecosphere into its modelling, and finally we talked about the UK and the question as to whether or not the country is now in a unique moment of economic decline.
In the latest episode of MACRODOSE, James Meadway breaks down a new IMF forecast that predicts China’s economic downturn, a set of predictions for our economic future from multinational asset manager Blackrock, and asks what’s happening to the wealth of the tech billionaires?
Jane Hayward returns to PTO to discuss the situation in China following the scaling back of the zero-covid measures and the resulting decline in public protests. We talked about the apparent scale of the covid-outbreak in the country, and the effects upon the Chinese health system. We also talked about the way in which Western media have, with little comment, dropped the prior narrative of the protests as representing a new Tiananmen square moment.Become a £5 supporter on patreon to access this and other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
On this week’s MACRODOSE James Meadway takes a look at a new House of Lord’s report on economic inactivity (0:52s), the financial waste of covid contracts (7:03) and an unexpected move by Japan’s central bank (12:16).
Richard Seymour discusses Britain's fraying public infrastructure and the wave of strikes that are taking place, including the first ever nationwide strike by NHS nurses. We chatted about the extent to which the public perceive the UK as being in a state of increasing decline, the state of the trade unions, and how current industrial action compares with the so-called winter of discontent of 1978-79. Finally, we talked about how the Conservative government, and the Labour opposition, are responding to a revivified labour movement.
On this week’s episode James Meadway breaks down the public sector pay dispute (0.50s), Sunak’s move to further deregulate finance (8:27), and the interest rate hikes by central banks (14:10)
Jane Hayward joins PTO to talk about the protests in China that have resulted in Xi Jinping's loosening of the country's zero covid strategy. We talked about the widespread grievances and sporadic protests that have taken place in China over the last decade, and the particular importance of the recent worker protests at the giant Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou. We also talked about why it might be that the Chinese state has failed to provide adequate vaccine coverage - especially for the elderly population. And finally we talked about Western media coverage of the situation.
On this week’s episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the G7-backed price cap on Russian oil (1.46), the warning from the National Farmers' Union that Britain is sleepwalking into a food crisis (5.37), and the results of an experiment in a 4-day working week (11.27).
Jeremy Gilbert returns to PTO for the final part of our conversation on his new book, co-authored with Alex Williams, Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (and How We Win it back). In this part of our conversation we talked about some of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's key concepts, including the assemblage and multiplicity, and how their ideas inform Jeremy and Alex's understanding of political change and left strategy.
On this week’s episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the strikes that are spreading across the U.K, from the railways, to teachers to nurses and oilworkers (0.49s). We take a historical view on this new wave of industrial action (7:10), and then reflect on the U.K’s worsening energy crisis, examining how record levels of debts could push households over the edge this winter (10:55).
On the first episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the the OECD warning that the UK’s growth prospects are the worst of all the G7 countries (1:06); the austerity 2.0 measures of Rishi Sunak’s government (6:05); and the new IMF report on inflation, which debunks the idea that advanced economies, like the UK, are experience rising prices due to an increase in worker pay (13:05).
Richard responds to the questions that were sent in by listeners on the seeming demise of Twitter, the Democrats' surprisingly strong showing in the US mid-terms, and Cop27 and where the global climate movement goes from here.
Richard responds to the questions that were sent in by listeners on the seeming demise of Twitter, the Democrats' surprisingly strong showing in the US mid-terms, and Cop27 and where the global climate movement goes from here.
Nancy Fraser joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do About It'. In the book, Nancy argues that we need to move away from seeing capitalism solely in economic terms, and instead reckon with how capital is always reliant on cannibalising the non-economic, from the natural environment to providers of care and social reproduction, and from the political sphere to racialised populations subject to brutal expropriation outside of the wage system.
Richard Seymour on why Lula's margin of victory was so narrow in Brazil's presidential election and how it is that Jair Bolsonaro maintained such substantial support, despite Brazil's poor economic performance and his disastrous handling of the covid-19 pandemic. We also talked about what to expect from Lula's third term in office, both domestically and regarding Brazil's foreign policy.
Narges Bajoghli returns to PTO to talk about the ongoing protests in Iran, which erupted in mid-September following the killing of the twenty-two year old Mahsa Amini, by officers of the so-called guidance patrol. We talked about why Amini's death has sparked such wide scale opposition to the Iranian regime, and the class composition and geographical spread of the protests. We also talked about how the regime is seeking to portray the protest movement as being instigated by foreign powers, and finally we talked about how the left should respond to those who seek to weaponise the cause of women's rights in Iran to justify Islamophobic politics or to advance geopolitical objectives.
Richard Seymour discusses the resignation of Liz Truss and the ongoing civil war within the Conservative party. We also talked about why Richard characterises the conservatives as a "middle class protest party", and finally we discussed whether or not Labour's impressive poll leads are vindication of the strategy of labour leader Keir Starmer.
In part two of our three-part interview on Jeremy's new book - co-written with Alex Williams - Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back) we discuss what Jeremy and Alex call 'actually existing neoliberalism' - the distinct form of the ideology fostered by the hegemony of finance and Big Tech through the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. We also discussed how neoliberal ideology was propagated, as much through material practices as through the mass media, and we touched on the transformative effects of neoliberal ideology on music culture.
Last month historian David Broder joined the show to talk about Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy's election victory. Today David has kindly returned to answer some of the excellent questions sent in by listeners. Before putting those questions to David, I began by asking him to comment on developments in Italy since the election and I asked him for his thoughts on how the expected coalition of Meloni's Fratelli D'Italia, the Lega led by Matteo Salvini, and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia seems to be shaping up.
Jeremy Gilbert returns to PTO to talk about his new book - co-authored with Alex Williams - Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back).
In part one of our three part conversation we talked about Antonio Gramsci's notion of Hegemony and how, in the view of Jeremy and Alex, we live in an era in which an alliance between big tech and finance structures the global economy and whose values suffuse the cultural field. We talked about why tech and finance play the leading role in the global economy, in a way that does not characterise the energy sector or other extractive industries. We also discussed why - in contrast to tech and finance - neither the New Left of the 1960s, nor the New Right associated with the Reagan and Thatcher administrations got the world they wanted by the century's end, even if they achieved certain partial victories. We also talk about why Jeremy and Alex argue that the left should appeal to people on the basis of shared collective interests, rather than on the basis of moral values.
In today's episode Richard Seymour responds to the UK government's partial u-turn on its disastrous mini-budget, and discusses why Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have demonstrated such political ineptitude since Truss came to power.
Historian of Italian politics David Broder returns to PTO to discuss the victory of Giorgia Meloni, who is set to lead the most right-wing government since World War II. We talked about the history of the Brothers of Italy and their neofascist roots, and why the far left achieved such a poor result in the election.
Earlier this month, the people of Chile voted to reject the new draft constitution that promised to be the most progressive constitution of any country on the planet, and which was the fruit of the popular uprisings in the country that in December also swept the left wing approved dignity coalition into government. Earlier this year I spoke with Camila Vergara, who argued that for all the potential benefits of the new constitution, it also risked canalising popular ferment in the country in ways that were more acceptable to the chiles economic and political elite, and she also expressed serious reservations about Gabriel Boric's new government, which even before the electoral victory had tacked to the centre in order to win business confidence and support within Chile's divided congress. In today's conversation we talked about why Chileans voted to reject the draft constitution, the failure of the government to popularise understanding of what the new document actually contained, and we also discussed the scale and effectiveness of the right's campaign of misinformation.
Richard Seymour on Britain's new prime minister, Liz Truss. We talked about how she might govern, her likely response to the cost of living crisis, and how she is far from the obsessive ideologue she's portrayed as in some quarters. We also talked about the devastating floods in Pakistan, and about the death and legacy of the late Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Arun Kudnani joins PTO to talk about his article, The Racial Constitution of Neoliberalism which appeared in the Race & Class journal. We talked about how neoliberalism has generated novel forms of racism that cannot be understood simply as residual phenomena from the pre-neoliberal era, why it was that the key neoliberal thinkers were as fixated on defeating leftist movements in the global south during the Cold War as they were on defeating the European and American Labour movements, and finally we talked about whether it is possible to imagine a form of capitalism that is able to dispense with racialisation.
David de Jong joins PTO to talk about his extraordinary new book, Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties, which tells the story of how German tycoons made billions during the Nazi era and WWII and how many of those industrialists and financiers and their heirs continued to be central figures in first the West German Economy and then the reunited Germany. We talked about the Quandt family - for decades the controlling interest behind BMW - and their intimate links to Hitler's inner circle. And we also talked about why German businessmen who were directly implicated in the persecution and murder of European Jewry were largely able to maintain their business empires after the war.
Sophie Lewis returns to PTO to discuss the US Supreme Court's decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade. We talked about why millions of Americans already lived in a post-Roe situation - with abortion services made punitively difficult to access. We also talked about the weaknesses of the original Roe vs. Wade ruling, whether the Supreme Court's decision may herald a breakdown in support for American institutions amongst American liberals and we also discussed Sophie's article in the Nation, in which she argued that we should not shy away from thinking of abortion as an act of killing, but should instead see it as an act of violence that is entirely appropriate, regardless of the circumstances, since no one should surrender their bodily autonomy be coerced into performing care work.
Government intervention is back in a big way, as countries turn back on years of free market ideology to actively support national industries in an increasingly competitive and unstable world. The session presents the case for an active industrial strategy to meet social and economic goals.
Chair: Patrick Allen Speakers: Paul Sweeney, David Edgerton, Michael Jacobs
Covid-19 accelerated the digitisation of our economy, as more and more activity has moved online. But the technologies we have threaten an uncertain future at best: unemployment, huge inequalities of wealth and power, and a lack of democratic oversight. What might we expect, and what are the alternatives? In this panel discussion Dalia Gebrial, Aaron Benanav and Ursula Huws grapple with these questions about our digital future.
Last month the Progressive Economics 2022 conference, a one-day festival of transformative economic thinking, took place at the University of Greenwich. In a world battered by crises, facing environmental collapse, PEF brought together leading thinkers from across the progressive movement to present the arguments and solutions we need to build a radically better economy. Speakers included Gargi Bhattacharryya, Aaron Benanav, Francesca Bria, James Meadway, Kate Pickett, John Mcdonnell MP, and David Edgerton amongst many others. PTO was pleased to be an official media partner of the event and in the coming weeks we'll be posting some of the excellent panel discussions that took place at the event. First up, is a session on the Cost of Living Crisis. In the panel discussion James Meadway, Susan Newman, and Rupert Russell discuss the causes of price rises, the disastrous effects of conventional policy responses, and what the real solutions are to high inflation.
Richard Seymour and I discuss the Conservative Party leadership election and the legacy of Boris Johnson. We talked about which conservative candidate has the most dangerous agenda and why it is that both labour and the conservatives seem so intellectually adrift. Finally, Richard explained why the presence of several BAME candidates in the election can't simply be dismissed as mere tory tokenism.
Richard Seymour on the recent wave of strikes in the UK, and whether the upsurge of industrial action signals the long hoped for revival of Britain's labour movement.
Sebastian Budgen returns to the show to talk about the second round of the French legislative elections. We discussed the breakthrough of Jean Luc Melenchon's NUPES coalition and the broader prospects for the left following Emmanuel Macron's failure to secure a majority. We also talked about the historic breakthrough of Marine Le Pen's national rally and the breakdown of the so-called Republican front against the far right.
Finally, we talked about where Emmanuel Macron goes from here, and whether or not his Ensemble coalition will be able to ally with the conservative Republicans, in order to pass legislation.
Anna Della Subin joins PTO to talk about her book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. The book tells the stories of men who have inadvertently been turned into living Gods - from Gandhi and Haile Selassie to Prince Philip and Narendra Modi. In the book Anna shows how deification and violence were intertwined in the colonial enterprise and in the present day cult of the political strong man, yet - she argues - it's also a process that's been central to struggles of liberation. In our conversation we focussed on the chapters of the book on Haile Selassie and the emergence of the Rastafari in Jamaica in the 1930s, and on the history of deification in the British Raj - regarding both the colonial authorities and the iconic leaders of the independence movement.
Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to discuss the upcoming French legislative elections and the prospects for the new left popular union coalition, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise. We talked about the prospects for the popular union and whether Mélenchon becoming Prime Minister is a realistic prospect. We also talked about the creation of the new coalition which includes the french socialists and the greens, hitherto fierce critics of Mélenchon. Finally, we discussed why Marine Le Pen's National Rally and Eric Zemmour's Reconquête party have failed to make an electoral pact - and why this is likely to lead to a poor electoral result for the far right.
Become a £5 support of PTO to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleksiy Radynski joins PTO from Kyiv. We talked about the current situation in the city and the popular mood in Ukraine. We went on to talk about Oleksiy's article 'The Case Against the Russian Federation' which appeared in E-Flux magazine. Oleksiy described the key features and history of Russian nationalism and why it is that Vladimir Putin, and the clique around him, repeatedly misunderstand the political realities of Ukraine.
The 2nd of May marked the 25th anniversary of New Labour's coming to power and the election of Tony Blair as prime minister. I spoke to Jeremy Gilbert about how he viewed the New Labour project at the time and about how the Blairites succeeded in winning support within the party, despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm for their neoliberal policy agenda. We also talked about why Jeremy disagreed with Stuart Hall's analysis that saw New Labour as a hybrid project containing both neoliberal and social democratic threads. And finally, Jeremy explained why, in spite of the defeat of the Corbyn project he believes the broad left is in a much stronger position than it was a decade ago.
Richard Seymour discusses his new book, The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism. We talked about why the Marxist left for a long time gave relatively little attention to the ecological crisis and about Richard's own turn towards environmental writing. We also talked about the process of the earth's disenchantment in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it made possible capital's hyper exploitation of the natural environment.
Dorit Geva joins PTO to talk about the recent re-election victory of Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Dorit's article, 'Orban’s Ordonationalism as Post-Neoliberal Hegemony' which is published in the journal Theory, Culture and Society. We discussed why Orban secured such a convincing electoral victory in spite of the opposition's highlighting of government corruption and Orban's friendly relations with Vladimir Putin. We went on to talk about the innovative character of Orban's post-neoliberal rule which involves not merely erosion of democratic norms but also the combining of certain elements of a neoliberal marketisation agenda with efforts to promote national capital at the expense of foreign corporations and the radical centralisation of state power.
Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the first round of the French presidential election, and the prospects for the second round vote later this month. We discussed what Marine Le Pen may have learned from her heavy defeat in 2017, how Eric Zemmour's far-right candidacy affected the campaign and why the left can take some heart from the impressive result for Jean-Luc Melenchon - that came close to pushing Le Pen and the national rally into third place.
Richard Seymour responds to the excellent questions sent in by listeners - on topics ranging from the left's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the relationship between psychological injury and physical ailments, and the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy.
Kojo Koram returns to PTO to talk about his new book, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. We chatted about how the British empire and its legacy continues to structure the UK and world economies, and why the supposed opposition between critics of Britain's imperial inheritance and the material concerns of ordinary working class people - ignores the way the economic innovations of empire and decolonisation - from tax havens and outsourcing, to the corporate form, itself - continue to structure all of our lives.
In the second episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour discusses his recent article, 'The cruelties of self-help culture'. We talked about the magical thinking propagated by what Richard calls "the success wing of self-help literature" and why its claim that success depends almost solely on individual effort is so appealing. We also talked about the history of self-help culture and the significance of Samuel Smiles, the Victorian liberal reformer and author of the 1859 book Self Help: Illustrations of Character and Conduct. Finally we discussed Richard's plans to write a self-help book from the left.
Despite India's deepening alliance with the United States, and the country's regional rivalry with China, the Indian government has refused to join condemnation of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Ravinder Kaur joins PTO to talk about India's tacit alliance with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, how Russian weaponry continues to be the primary source for India's military, and why there is a striking degree of support for Russia within the country.
James Meadway returns to PTO to talk about his recent article on the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the Putin regime's invasion of Ukraine. We discussed the special significance of targeting the Russian central bank, and the likely consequences for the Russian economy. We also talked about the extraordinary dangerousness of the situation, given the raising of the alert status of Russia's nuclear forces, and the apparent absence of any face-saving way in which Vladimir Putin could deescalate. We also discussed China's gradual distancing from Russia since the start of the invasion.
In the first episode of Interregnum, a new fortnightly show with author Richard Seymour, we talked about the objectives of the Russian invasion, and what Vladimir Putin's broader geo-strategic goals are. And we also discussed his extraordinary claim that the invasion is in part aimed at the "denazification" of Ukraine. Finally, we talked about the risk of direct Western military intervention.
Paul Rogers joins PTO again to talk about his recent article in Open Democracy: Who would benefit from Russia going to war with Ukraine? We chatted about the Russian military build up on Ukraine's borders and whether this portends an imminent invasion. We also talked about the arms industry and how the nexus between arms companies, states, and research institutions encourages policy makers to see military solutions to all security problems. Finally, we discussed Labour leader Keir Starmer's recent article in The Guardian in which he lauded NATO and condemned the Stop the War Coalition.
Become a £5 support of PTO to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Camila Vergara joins PTO to talk about Chile's new left wing government and the new president elect, former student leader Gabriel Boric. We talked about what to expect from the new government in the context of a divided congress, how the protest movements that first emerged in 2011 has given rise to both the election of the new government and the constitutional convention - which has been tasked with re-rewriting the Pinochet era constitution. We also talked about the presidential campaign of Boric's opponent, the far-right José Antonio Kast - who, despite losing the election, has displaced the less extreme conservative currents in Chilean electoral politics.
Sebastian Budgen returns to answer the excellent questions that were sent in by listeners on the recent episode about Eric Zemmour - as well as on French politics more generally. We talked about Zemmour's relationship to other currents in far-right European politics, his somewhat surprising position on Israel and Zionism, and we also talked about Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the French left.
To listen to this episode of PTO Extra! Please consider becoming a £5 supporter of the show on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Sebastian Budgen joins PTO to talk about the rise of Eric Zemmour - the new star of the French far right and a candidate in April's presidential election. We discussed Zemmour's career in journalism, and why he is able to attract support from both Le Pen voters and more mainstream conservatives. We also talked about the strategic logic behind Zemmour's efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the collaborationist Vichy government of WWII.
Richard Seymour returns to PTO to talk about the omicron variant and why he believes Covid19 will be a crisis of a decade, rather than years. We also talked about whether the British government will ever move beyond just vaccines and lockdowns in its pandemic response, and make a serious effort to adapt our infrastructure and health system. We also talked about the failure of the global vaccination effort, and finally we discussed the question of vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations.
Become a £5 PTO patron to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Jason Hickel returns to PTO for the second part of a two part interview on his book, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. We talked about the concept of 'green growth', and why the notion of decoupling growth from intensive resource use is ultimately unconvincing. We also chatted about the Green New Deal and whether it is compatible with the politics of degrowth. And finally we talked about Jason's argument that a green energy and resource transition, if undertaken with no challenge to the growth imperative of capitalism, could pave the way for radically increased exploitation of workers.
Boris Johnson's grip on power seems more precarious than at any other point during his time in office. PTO spoke to Will Davies about whether we're at the beginning of the end of the Johnson era, and why Will compares Boris Johnson to a financial asset - and his allies and supporters to investors.
Lea Ypi joins PTO to talk about her new book Free: Coming of Age at the End of History. It tells Lea's story of growing up in Stalinist Albania, the end of communist party rule in 1990, and the country's slide into violent chaos in 1997. We talked about Albania's isolation during the cold war after schisms with first the Soviet Union, and then with China, and how the regime made sense of Albania's place in the world. We also discussed Lea's childhood and her reaction to learning that her parents were not the communist true believers she'd thought them to be. Finally, we talked about Lea's views on what liberalisation meant for Albania and why her experience of the post-communist transition left her profoundly sceptical about liberal notions of what constitutes a truly free society.
Part two of Richard Seymour responding to listener's questions, including on Amia Srinivasan's work, and also on critiques of psychoanalysis - a practice that plays a very important role in Richard's writing.
Become a £5 PTO patron to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Jason Hickel joins PTO to talk about his book, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. In part one of the interview we discussed the comprehensive and all-encompassing character of the ecological crisis which extends well beyond the issue of CO2 emissions. We also talked about the violent emergence of capitalism, and how that process entailed the radical transformation of human subjectivity and how humans relate to the natural world. Finally, we talked about the emergence of GDP as an indicator of societal progress and well being.
Richard Seymour, who was recently on the show to discuss supply chains and the ecological crisis, returns to respond to the excellent questions sent in by listeners. We talked about how the left should respond to the issue of consumerism and Richard's opinion of Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain. And we also talked about the question of constitutional politics with regard to popular movements in Chile and more broadly.
Become a £5 PTO patron to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Kate Crawford joins PTO to talk about her book, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. We talked about why some proponents of AI are so convinced - against so much evidence - that systems of machine learning will truly be able to replicate human intelligence, and how the extraordinary material impacts of AI systems - from rare earth mining to electrical power needs - tend not to be discussed. We also talked about the early history of statistical analysis and the new discipline's relationship to eugenics. And finally we discussed how workplace surveillance systems, in spite of their apparent novelty, are in some ways replicating the practices of managerial control of the early factory system.
Richard Seymour joins PTO to talk about the uptick in the UK's Covid-19 cases and death toll, and why the government scaled back public health regulations so dramatically. We also talked about his recent articles on the supply chain and fuel crisis - both in the UK and abroad - and how they portend a future of climate related disruption.
Become a £5 PTO patron to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour joins PTO to talk about his recent articles on the supply chain and fuel crisis - both in the UK and abroad - and how they portend a future of climate related disruption. We also talked about the significant uptick in the UK's Covid-19 cases and death toll, and why the government scaled back public health regulations so dramatically.
Become a £5 PTO patron to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Andy Beckett joins PTO to talk about the recent Conservative and Labour Party conferences and whether the supply chain and fuel crises might finally undermine support for Boris Johnson's government. We also chatted about why Keir Starmer seems to have made so little effort to make political capital out of the government's current difficulties.
Amia Srinivasan joins PTO to talk about her new book, The Right to Sex. We spoke about whether it's legitimate to interrogate our sexual desires and to think about how desire is shaped by patriarchy, racism, capitalism, and heteronormativity. We also talked about why Amia takes the case of so-called incels as the way into discussing those questions. Finally, we considered the anti-pornography critique of Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and whether their work can be generative in spite of its obvious drawbacks and failings.
Ines Schwerdtner and Adrian Daub join PTO to talk through the Bundestag election. We talked about the election results and the partial revival of the SPD. We also talked about the permutations of possible governing coalitions, and the unusual extent of the red scare tactics deployed by the CDU and the other parties of the right against Die Linke and the SPD. Finally, we chatted about the legacy of Angela Merkel and why Germany's longest serving chancellor since Helmut Kohl is so admired by liberals abroad and whether her reputation for competence and fairness is deserved.
Paul Rogers and David Brophy join PTO to talk about AUKUS, the new security pact between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. We spoke about the significance of Australia acquiring nuclear powered submarines through the deal, the fallout from the cancellation of Australia's prior deal with France, and finally we discuss how the deal will be perceived in Beijing amid rising tensions between the US and China.
James Meadway joins PTO again to respond to listener's questions on the recent episode on the end of neoliberalism. We chatted about who might be the winners of a post neoliberal settlement, whether neoliberal ideology is compatible with a more state directed economy, and why James believes we will likely see a shift in power towards workers in the coming years.
Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO extra, as well as extended versions of the regular show:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Adam Tooze joins PTO to talk about his new book, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy. We talked about the problems and pitfalls of writing instant history, why 'shutdown' is a more useful way of thinking about how governments and ordinary people responded to the Covid19 crisis than 'lockdown'. And finally, we chatted about why China's radical efforts to suppress the virus in Wuhan, Hubei province and beyond was not as typical of the regime as is commonly supposed.
Timothy Nunan joins PTO to talk about the current situation in Afghanistan, the refugee crisis in the country, the US media discussion around the American withdrawal, and what descriptions of Afghanistan as 'a graveyard of empires' or a 'second Vietnam' obscures regarding the history of the country in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Juliet Jacques joins PTO to talk about her debut collection of short stories, Variations. Inspired by found material and real-life events, the book explores the history of transgenderism in Britain, from the time of the Oscar Wilde trial to the second decade of the 2000s. We talked about why Juliet chose to use fiction to address the history of trans, the feelings of responsibility that come with describing the experiences of characters based on the lives of real people who lived, loved and suffered, and we also talked about the work of the sexologist Havelock Ellis who plays a prominent part in one of the stories.
Paul Rogers returns to PTO to respond to listener questions on the situation in Afghanistan and the implications of the Taliban's victory. Become a $5 supporter on patreon to access this and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Paul Rogers joins PTO to talk about the Taliban's advance across Afghanistan and the possibility of an imminent takeover of the capital Kabul. We spoke about why the Taliban have been so successful against the more numerous and better equipped and supported Afghan government forces, what the Taliban's victory might mean for India, Pakistan and China, and finally we discussed how history will judge Western military intervention in the country.
Owen joins PTO to respond to listener questions on our recent discussion on Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances, a career spanning new collection of his writings.
Become a £5 PTO supporter on patreon to get access to all episodes of PTO Extra! https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
James Meadway joins PTO to talk about his forthcoming article for Open Democracy on the end of neoliberalism. We talked about why James believes that we're witnessing a transition away from neoliberalism and towards what some are calling authoritarian capitalism, why the left needs to focus more on the high point of globalisation of the early 2000s when thinking about neoliberal forms of governance rather than the late 1970s and 1980s, and we also talked about how the platform tech giants may have been nurtured within the neoliberal system but that their revenue models point to a quite different regime of capital accumulation.
Benjamin Bratton joins PTO to discuss his new book, The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World. We talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic could transform our sense of human subjectivity, how to think about planning at a planetary scale - in a way that neither falls prey to techno utopianism, nor retreats into a romantic localism. We also talked about what the pandemic means for populism, and why taking an epidemiological view of society will aid us in dealing with future crises. And finally we also discussed the unfortunate response of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben to the pandemic and why the dominance of the baby boomers in academia has led to an overemphasis on what Benjamin describes as a "negative biopolitics" that can only see governance and systems of mapping and planning in sinister, authoritarian terms.
Margret Grebowicz joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Mountains and Desire: Climbing vs. The End of the World'. We talked about how the notion of the boho climbing rat, who forgoes a normal life and conventional ideas of success has given way to the idea of the modern climber as emblematic of entrepreneurial achievement and heteronormativity. We also talked about Free Solo, the 2018 documentary on Alex Honnold's attempt to free climb the vertical rock face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, and how the documentary illuminates the themes of Margret's book.
Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to respond to listener questions on our recent discussion about the Labour Party. We talked about whether Jeremy holds a "stagist" approach to political consciousness and social change, what the far more positive public discussion around migration in Scotland suggests about possibilities elsewhere in the UK, and what - if anything - Labour can do to win over the support of home owning retirees.
Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/52563776
Owen Hatherley joins PTO to discuss a new career spanning collection of his writings, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances. We talked about the early 2000s blogging scene as a reaction to New Labour, Owen's writings on music and how Black Box Recorder's work seemed to anticipate the world of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. And finally, we talked about Owen's review of K-Punk - the collected writings of Mark Fisher - and the strange phenomenon of American leftists seeing Fisher as a "class first" social democrat, shorn of his theoretical touchstones.
With the prospect of another potential Labour by-election defeat in Batley and Spen next month, Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to talk about the prospect of the Labour Party facing further erosion in its support and whether the Keir Starmer project is even about winning elections or if the goal is simply to defeat and marginalise the Labour left.
Jacqueline Rose joins PTO to talk about her new book, On Violence and on Violence against Women. We discussed how psychoanalysis can help us grasp the mental states that make male violence possible, where Jacqueline parts company with the radical feminist perspectives of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, and how the experience of trans women illuminates more broadly the nature of male violence against women. Finally, we talked about the violent history of South Africa - from the the colonial and apartheid eras up to the present day.
Rana Barakat joins PTO from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to talk about the current humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the significance of the recent general strike and the protests amongst Palestinians within the 1948 borders, and what Israel's escalation of violence may mean for Netanyahu's efforts at normalising Israel's relations with Arab states in the region.
Jacqueline Rose joins PTO to talk about her new book, On Violence and on Violence against Women. We discussed how psychoanalysis can help us grasp the mental states that make male violence possible, where Jacqueline parts company with the radical feminist perspectives of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, and how the experience of trans women illuminates more broadly the nature of male violence against women. Finally, we talked about the violent history of South Africa - from the the colonial and apartheid eras up to the present day.
At the end of the 1980s, China's leaders came close to implementing the kind of economic shock therapy reforms that a few years later caused a social and economic catastrophe in the former Soviet Union and much of eastern Europe. A moment of enormous significance for Chinese and world history, Isabella Weber explains how and why China came to the brink of initiating an economic "big bang", and why ultimately the leadership chose to pursue a gradualist process of market reform instead.
Later this month Isabella will be taking part in the book's official launch, along with James Galbraith, Branko Milanović and Bin Wong. You can register here if you would like to attend:
https://tinyurl.com/4ybec9z2
Alex De Waal joins PTO to talk about his new book, New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease. We discussed the history of pandemic disease control, from the cholera outbreaks of the 19th century to HIV/AIDS and the Covid19 crisis. We chatted why the war on disease narrative is so unhelpful, how colonial era vaccination programmes spread HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and why the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 is so little discussed and written about, despite its extraordinary death toll.
Earlier this month rioting broke out in loyalist communities in several towns and cities in Northern Ireland - the worst such violence for years. PTO spoke to Daniel Finn about his recent article for the London Review of Books on the causes of the disturbances.
Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/50112410
Robbie Shilliam joins PTO to talk about his article, 'Enoch Powell: Britain’s First Neoliberal Politician' which appeared in the New Political Economy Journal. We spoke about how Enoch Powell, far from being a political throwback was in fact a key figure in the emergence of neoliberalism and Thatcherism, and how his politics presaged the Brexit project. We also chatted about how Powell, in contrast to many conservatives became hostile to nostalgia for the British Empire and how he believed that an independent Britain, neither ruling an empire, nor becoming part of the embryonic European Union would find its proper place in the world.
Earlier this month the UK government published the latest defence review, titled 'Global Britain in a Competitive Age'. PTO spoke to international security analyst Paul Rogers about the defence review, and the government's move to increase the UK's nuclear stockpile by 40%. We also talked what the review tells us about the UK in a post-Brexit world and finally what the review means for the government's relations with China.
Owen Hatherley, Juliet Jacques, and Alberto Toscano join PTO to talk about Adam Curtis's new BBC series Can't Get You Out of My Head. We chatted about Curtis' politics, the changes in his documentary style since the early 1990s, and why he avoids talking about neoliberalism.
Melissa Gira Grant and Chardine Taylor Stone join PTO to discuss police and male violence and the murder of Sarah Everard. We talked about the importance of not seeing Wayne Couzen's role as a police officer as merely incidental to the murder of Everard and we also talked about why carceral feminist approaches that seek to combat male violence through the police and the courts are doomed to fail. We also talked about the social media reaction to the initial vigil for Sarah Everard on Clapham common and how the struggle against police violence and violence against women in general requires the building of a mass movement of collective struggle that cuts across different identities.
Emma Dowling joins PTO to talk about her new book 'The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It'. We chatted about the scale of the care crisis today, how social reproduction theory can help us to make sense of the crisis, and we also talked about how conservatives conceive of care and of how they believe practices of care should be undertaken.
On Friday the UK's supreme court ruled against allowing Shamima Begum, the young British woman who in 2015 travelled to Syria to join ISIS, to return to the UK to contest the Home Office's removal of her citizenship. PTO spoke to Nisha Kapoor about the Supreme Court's decision, the question as to whether Begum was groomed by traffickers and we also talked about the dangerous precedent that the normalisation of citizenship revocation represents.
Become a £5 PTO supporter on patreon to get access to this episode:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Gavin Mueller joins PTO for part two of our conversation on his new book, 'Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites were Right About Why You Hate Your Job'. We talked about Taylorism and the deskilling of workers, how automation was used by American military planners during the Vietnam war in order to maintain control of the increasingly mutinous US Army, and finally we talked about why - in spite of how the increasing deployment of deskilling technologies made working conditions worse and more dangerous - many union leaders in both the United States and Europe supported the imposition of these new technologies.
On the 1st of February, the Burmese military launched a coup d'état against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy which had been returned to power in November in a landslide victory. Alleging electoral fraud, the Tatmadaw's leader Min Aung Hlaing promised that military rule would last for one year and then be followed by new elections. The coup has perplexed outside observers since Aung San Suu Kyi had done little during her time in office to threaten the power of the Tatmadaw and had defended the military's atrocities against the Muslim Rohingya people in Rakhine State. To make sense of the coup I spoke with journalist Carlos Sardiña Galache.
Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this episode:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Kate Aronoff joins PTO to talk about what can be expected from the Joe Biden administration in the United States, both domestically and on foreign policy. We discussed the scale and scope of the administration's stimulus package, where the Republican party goes next after its defeat at the polls in November, and we also talked about why - in spite of Biden's impressive rhetoric on climate and the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline - the US fossil fuel industry expects a good year ahead under the new Democratic administration.
With support for Scottish independence at an all time high, and with Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party predicted to win a landslide in May's Scottish parliamentary elections, PTO spoke to Rory Scothorne about whether independence really is inevitable, how the UK government will try to prevent the break up of the union, what the economic argument for Scottish independence looks like post-Brexit, and we also talked about the increasing fractiousness of the SNP.
Become a £5 supporter on patreon to access the full episode:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/47289458
Gavin Mueller joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job'. In the first part of our conversation we talk about the history of the Luddites, why their reputation for conservative technophobia is undeserved and how their struggles to resist the imposition of new deskilling technologies are relevant to the contemporary workplace. We also talked about the problems of leftwing techno-utopianism.
With the UK Office of National Statistics reporting that covid-19 related deaths in the UK have exceeded 100,000, PTO spoke to Richard Seymour about why the UK government's covid response has been so disastrous. We also talked about why the UK vaccination has not been characterised by the vacillation and delay that has been associated with so much else of the British government's reaction to the pandemic. And finally we talked about impact of the covid crisis on the prospects for the breaking up of the union and the likelihood of Scottish independence.
To listen to this episode of PTO Extra! please consider becoming a £5 supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Ravinder Kaur joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India'. We spoke about how in both India, and around the world ethnonationalism in alliance with domestic and international capital seeks to rebrand entire nations as attractive investment opportunities. We talked about who and what is left out of the airbrushed picture of the branded nation, why it is that nationalism and capitalist globalisation are not antithetical as was commonly supposed in the 1990s, and we also talked about how India's democratic history and self-portrayal as open and convivial is used to favourably contrast India with China, even in the era of Hindu nationalism.
Andreas Malm joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'How To Blow Up a Pipeline'. We chatted about why the climate movement is so fiercely committed to nonviolence, how that hinders climate activism, and how the advocates of nonviolence edit the history of popular struggles and liberations movements in order to downplay the importance of the more militant wings of those struggles.
Alison Phipps joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism'. We chatted about the MeToo movement and what it reveals about the mainstream of feminist politics, how violence against women is necessary to the project of capitalist globalisation and how the image of the imperilled white woman has been central to the project of empire both formal and informal.
Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to discuss why the Corbyn and Sanders projects ultimately foundered. We talked about the significance of personality and strategy versus deeper historical tendencies, and why the Corbyn leadership seemed to prefer a critique of austerity to a broader attack on the neoliberal era. Our discussion was prompted by Jeremy's article in Open Democracy, 'We lost because we weren’t big enough'.
In the final episode of the second season of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro speaks to Laurie Macfarlane about the necessity of an economic journalism that challenges the status quo.
Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter join PTO to talk about whether Joe Biden's election victory represents a comprehensive repudiation of Trumpism, what we can expect from the Republican Party after Trump, and we also chatted about the significance of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Marcela Mora y Araujo and Jonathan Wilson join PTO to talk about the late Diego Maradona and the outpouring of grief that greeted his death in Argentina and around the world. We also talked about the darker side of Maradona, his mistreatment of the women in his life in particular and the tangled question of whether one can separate the art from the artist.
Brett Christophers joins PTO to talk about his new book, Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? We chatted about the extraordinary dominance of monopolistic rent-seeking in the UK economy, why the concept of rentierisation is more useful and accurate than the notion of financialisation when talking about the trajectory of the UK and world economies, and we also talked about how and why entrepreneurialism and competitiveness are values that are taken up far more by ordinary people in the labour market than by UK business.
You can listen to the extended version of the episode by becoming a £3 supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/44326998
Sophie Lewis joins PTO to talk about her article in The Nation, 'Covid-19 Is Straining the Concept of the Family. Let’s Break It'. We chatted about how the Covid19 pandemic has underscored how dependent the nuclear family is upon the labour of others, and why the family is being called into question by mainstream political commentators. We also talked whether the call for family abolitionism is strategically the right call to be making, and whether instead the left ought to demand the extension of the beneficial aspects - of at least some families - to everyone.
Become a £3 PTO supporter to access the extended version:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/102-what-covid-w-44040794
Adom Getachew and Branko Marcetic join PTO to talk about the US election results, why the 'blue wave' failed to materialise and how Joe Biden will govern with a Republican senate and a republican majority on the supreme court.
Barnaby Raine joins PTO to talk about the EHRC report into antisemitism and the Labour Party, the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the party, and what the affair tells us about the treatment of antisemitism in the UK in 2020.
Grace Blakeley joins PTO to talk about the current state of the UK economy, whether the era of austerity is over, and why even in the face of a no deal Brexit the UK is unlikely to experience an attack of the bond market vigilantes. We also talked about Grace's excellent new podcast, 'A World To Win'.
Owen Hatherley and Kojo Koram join PTO to talk about Owen's essay, 'A Study in the Politics and Aesthetics of English Misery'. In the essay Owen reflects on the generational divides that have emerged over the course of the last two UK general elections by charting the musical evolution of The Smiths. Comparing Morrissey’s political trajectory to those of many voters throughout the North of England, Owen investigates the roots of the North’s departure from anti-Thatcherite collectivism to nationalist reaction. You can find the essay in 'Futures of Socialism: The Pandemic and the Post-Corbyn Era', edited by Grace Blakeley.
Lola Olufemi joins PTO to talk about her new book, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. We chatted about the history of black feminist organising, the problem with mainstream liberal feminism, and the generational divide in feminist circles over trans rights.
Richard Seymour joins PTO to discuss the recent anti-lockdown protests in London, the broader phenomenon of covid denialism, and whether the emergence of anti-political currents - combined with the left's decline with the defeat of the Corbyn project - is laying the basis for the emergence of fascism. We also talked about how Donald Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis might effect his electoral chances.
In a special episode - recorded for The World Transformed festival 2020 - Tobita Chow and David Brophy discuss how the socialist left should think about China, how to characterise China's economy and mode of governance, and what to make of the emerging Cold War between China and the United States and US allies.
Will Davies joins PTO to talk about the possible emergence of a UK equivalent of Fox News, what that might do to UK politics, and why breaking into broadcasting is so important for right wing media owners such as Rupert Murdoch. We also talked about whether in the years preceding the Brexit vote the left should have paid more attention to the ideology and attitudes being fostered by people such as Paul Dacre, former editor for the Daily Mail - rather than the more obvious faces of the neoliberal economic revolution of the 1980s and 90s.
Kate Soper joins me to talk about her new book, 'Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism'. We chatted about why a transition to a sustainable, post-growth economy need not mean privation and a reduction of pleasure but instead an increase in human flourishing. We also talked about why consumerism should be seen neither as an expression of sovereign public choice, nor as mere surrender to the manipulations of the advertising industry.
Nesrine Malik joins PTO to speak about the confected media furore over the BBC proms and what it tells us about the UK's culture wars. We also talked about the trajectory of the right wing press and how the left can best respond to the right's cultural turn.
Bhaskar Sunkara joins me to talk about the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin and collusion between the far right and the police, whether the frightening prospect of a second Trump administration makes a rerun of the 2016 election result less likely - in spite of Joe Biden's underwhelming policy platform - and we also talked about the prospect of the American right breaking from its relative economic orthodoxy and moving towards advocacy of a meaningful industrial policy.
Britain is officially in its deepest recession since records began following the unprecedented economic shutdown in response to the Covid19 pandemic. In the past six months, the UK has shed close to three quarters of a million jobs - a grim foretaste of what could be the kind of mass unemployment not seen in the UK since the 1980s. PTO spoke to James Meadway about why Britain's recession is more severe than those faced by comparable economies, whether central bank economic crisis fighting measures may lay the basis for a financial crisis, and why the Government could be forced to extend the furlough scheme beyond the autumn.
Become a PTO supporter on Patreon to get access to the full episode:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Haim Bresheeth-Zabner joins me to talk about his new book, 'An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Force Made a Nation'. We discussed how the the Zionist project in Palestine depended upon the erasure of the culture of the Pre-WWII Jewish diaspora, why it is that Israeli military operations command near unanimous support within Israel, and how Israel's economy has become massively dependent on its military industrial complex and permanent conflict.
Read more about the book here:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3168-an-army-like-no-other
In late March PTO spoke to Adam Tooze whilst he was in New York as the Covid19 crisis was escalating. In today's episode we return to some of the issues we discussed back then, including the pandemic's role in the rise of China, the increasing entwinement of government and private corporations in the United States and Europe and the return of austerity politics.
What will come after the capitalocene - and is that even the right term to describe our geological era? Rosie Warren joins me to talk about 'The Tragedy of the Worker: Towards the Proletarocene' - an essay coauthored by Rosie that considers the entwined processes of climate change and the proletarianisation of the world's population. We talked about the debate over whether to describe our geological age as the anthropocene or the capitalocene and we also discussed Walter Benjamin's notion of capitalism as a "cultic religion".
On Sunday Alexander Lukashenko, ruler of Belarus since 1994 claimed a landslide victory in the country's presidential election with an implausible 80% of the vote. Large protests broke out in the wake of the announcement of the result. I spoke to Nelly Bekus about Lukashenko's rise to power, how Belarus differs from other post-Soviet states in its relationship to the Soviet era, and how Covid19 and its economic impact helped spark the protests.
On Monday the Nobel laureate, and co-architect of the Northern Ireland peace process John Hume passed away at the age of 83. A giant of the political scene in Northern Ireland he was most well known for his role in the Good Friday Agreement that brought the so-called Troubles to a close and for his commitment to nonviolent support for a gradualist route to a united Ireland. I spoke to Daniel Finn, author of 'One Man's Terrorist: A Political History of the IRA' about Hume's legacy, the simplistic contrast made between the politics of Hume and supporters of the armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland and the class and generational factors that informed Hume's political outlook.
To get access to this episode sign up as a $5 supporter on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Tobita Chow and Jake Werner join me to talk about the roots of the increasingly antagonistic relationship between China and the United States, the reasons for bipartisan consensus on China's increasing technological prowess, and the specific character of anti-Chinese racism in the United States. We also talked about how the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 signalled China's deepening integration into the US-led international order
Rachel Shabi joins me to talk about her recent article in the New York Review of Books - 'The Pro-Privatization Shock Therapy of the UK’s Covid Response'. We talked about why the UK Government's response to the coronavirus pandemic was so heavily dependent on outsourcing to private corporations, and whether the UK's very heavy Covid19-related death toll will eventually erode public support for the Conservative government.
In the latest episode of #RedHacks - a series of conversations on journalism in the neoliberal world - Joana Ramiro talks to filmmaker and writer Ana Naomi de Sousa about being a non-white journalist in an industry stymied by privilege.
Astra Taylor and Troy Vettese join me to talk about their recent article in the Guardian in which they argue that the principal driver of zoonotic diseases is the factory farming of animals and that the covid19 pandemic shows that we need to transition away from a meat-centred global food system. We also talked about an article Troy co-wrote in Jacobin, entitled The Climate Crisis and COVID-19 Are Inseparable.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-food-animals
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/climate-change-crisis-covid-coronavirus-environment
On the 30th of June the city of Leicester, in the East Midlands of the UK was put back into lockdown following a spike in Covid-19 cases. The new outbreak of the virus put the spotlight on the garment district of the city - where the new outbreak may have emerged - much of which is characterised by extremely exploitative labour practices in small factories serving giant online retailers such as Boohoo and major high street brands. I spoke to Ashok Kumar about the reshoring of garment production in the UK, how Covid-19 has affected and changed the manufacturing of clothes in both the global north and south, and how fast fashion helps to prevent increased investment in technology and serves to maintain labour-intensive forms of production.
Andreas Malm joins me to talk about his new book, 'Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century'. We talked about why in the case of Covid19 most of the rich countries of the north were able to make the kinds of decisive interventions that seem to elude them when it comes to climate change. And we also talked about the experience of the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war, and why war communism is a better model for the kind of mobilisation needed in the climate crisis than the usual invocation of the ramping of up of industrial production by the Western allies during WWII.
Award-winning author, broadcaster and academic Gary Younge joins me to talk about his experience of reporting on racism in the United States for the Guardian, the current Black Lives Matter movement in the US and abroad, and why comparisons between BLM and the civil rights movement are misplaced.
To get access to this episode become a $5 PTO supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
On Monday evening soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army clashed on their disputed border in the Ladakh area of Kashmir in the Himalayas. Reportedly fighting with rocks and iron bars, no shots were fired but the Indian Army reported twenty deaths on its side and also claimed casualties on the Chinese side. I spoke to Arif Rafiq about what we know about the clashes between the two regional powers, how China perceived India's annexation of Jammu and Kashmir last year, and how US support for India may facilitate increasing Chinese dominance in Asia.
To get access to this episode become a $5 PTO supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Vivian Gornick joins me to talk about her classic book, 'The Romance of American Communism'. We spoke about her experience of growing up amongst communists and socialists in the Bronx in the 1930s, how she sought to counter simplistic depictions of the lives of American communists and how - in spite of its authoritarianism - the American Communist Party enabled ordinary men and women to feel connected to a larger human project.
Nikhil Pal Singh joins me to discuss the massive protests against police violence in the United States that emerged in response to the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. We talked about why the protests are so large and so diverse and the movement's demands for the abolition or defunding of the police.
Adam Hanieh joins me to talk about the challenges Covid-19 and the debt crisis pose to countries in the global south, how western economic and military intervention has undermined state capacity needed to combat the pandemic, and finally we discussed Adam's argument that the crisis may paradoxically be in certain respects beneficial for the oil majors and the richest oil producing countries - in spite of last month's collapse in oil prices.
Our conversation was prompted by two articles by Adam for the Verso books blog:
This is a Global Pandemic – Let’s Treat it as Such https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4623-this-is-a-global-pandemic-let-s-treat-it-as-such
When Oil Markets Go Viral https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4651-when-oil-markets-go-viral
Troy Vetesse joins me to discuss the sixth mass extinction event and how Karl Marx's concepts of real and formal subsumption are relevant to the ecological crisis. We also spoke about how the Covid19 pandemic illuminates Troy's argument. Our conversation was prompted by Troy's essay, 'A Marxist Theory of Extinction' from issue 7 of the journal Salvage.
Holly Buck joins me to discuss her new book, After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration. We talked about why we may have little choice but to undertake geoengineering to avert the worst of the climate crisis. We also discussed the question of whether climate change is innately difficult for human beings to comprehend, and whether avoiding the worst effects of climate change will entail moving beyond capitalism.
In the latest episode of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro talks to Novara Media co-founder Aaron Bastani about the importance of independent grassroots media.
Philip Mirowski, joins me to discuss why the Covid-19 pandemic is more opportunity than threat to neoliberals and whether - as in the wake of the financial crisis - neoliberal doctrines will survive, and even thrive in the wake of the coronavirus-induced global economic crisis. We also discussed how Philip defines neoliberalism and why the worst political and economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis are yet to come.
Narges Bajoghli and Arron Merat join me to discuss the coronavirus crisis in Iran, what the Covid-19 pandemic means for the stability of the Iranian regime, how US sanctions have compounded the suffering of ordinary Iranians, and what relations between China and Iran might look like after the end of the lockdown.
RedHacks returns with Joana Ramiro in conversation with Suzanne Wrack. They spoke about Suzanne's experience of entering journalism via architecture, football as a socialist sport and turning her passion into a career.
You can listen to other episodes of #RedHacks here:
https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/sets/redhacks
Adam Tooze joins me to discuss what covid-19 means for the world economy, how the Trump administration has missed the boat on containing mass contagion in the United States, and why the row in the Eurozone over so-called coronabonds reveals an existential threat to the survival of the European Union.
Will Davies joins me to discuss whether or not the coronavirus crisis heralds the break with neoliberal capitalism that many expected in the wake of the financial crisis, why the Anglo-American response to the covid-19 pandemic seems to differ from the response seen in mainland Europe and East Asia, and we also talked about how the media has covered the government's approach to the crisis. You can read Will's recent article in the London Review of Books, which we discussed in the interview here:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n07/william-davies/society-as-a-broadband-network
Paul Mason joins me to discuss the COVID-19 crisis, the UK government's response, the failure of senior journalists to hold the government to account and why the crisis may lead to a profound transformation of the global economy. We also discussed an article he published today -Day One of the UK's suppression strategy:
https://paulmason.substack.com/p/day-one-of-uks-suppression-strategy?fbclid=IwAR2IZCzgpr9-gw23yDNugVaJd6tN2E2xJ_B06S_ossyCrlHCwe4SZFSBRrUc
Judith Butler joins me to discuss her new book, 'The Force of Nonviolence'. We spoke about how the concept of self-defence raises the question of what the individual sovereign subject is, how some populations are interpellated as grievable - whilst others are not - and finally we spoke about the relevance of Sigmund Freud's 1918 essay, 'Mourning and Melancholia' to a utopian, militantly nonviolent politics.
Milan-based journalist Antonella Serrecchia, and Jacobin's Europe editor David Broder join me to discuss the lockdown in Italy - imposed by the Italian government in response to the escalation of the coronavirus outbreak. We discussed the pressure on the Italian health system, the economic consequences of the crisis, and how the far-right Lega have instrumentalised the situation for their anti-migrant politics.
Jodi Dean and Adom Getachew join me to chat about Super Tuesday, whether the left underestimated Joe Biden, and the implications of Biden's comeback for Bernie Sanders' campaign.
Owen Hatherley joins me to discuss his recent article on Keir Starmer and the Labour leadership contest. You can read the piece here:
https://medium.com/@owenhatherley/theres-a-starmer-waiting-in-the-sky-f2d26a9c4e97
Leo Panitch joins me to chat about the causes of Labour's defeat in the 2019 general election, the weaknesses of the labour movement beyond the party, and whether a Keir Starmer victory in the Labour leadership contest would portend a march back to the so-called political centre.
Lisa Wedeen joins me to discuss her new book, Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria. We spoke about the strategies the Syrian regime has adopted in order to maintain a degree of public support, the neoliberal turn of Syrian society under Bashar al-Assad, how authoritarian leaders exploit digital media to create uncertainty, and the relevance of Louis Althusser's concept of interpellation to the regime's endurance.
To get the extended version of this interview please sign up as a PTO supporter at:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
The New Left Review's Daniel Finn joins me to discuss Sinn Féin's electoral breakthrough in the Irish general election. We spoke about the decline of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, why Ireland's economic recovery did not help Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael, and why Sinn Féin's association with the republican cause in Northern Ireland no longer puts off young Irish voters.
To get access to this episode become a $5 supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Len McCluskey joins me to talk about his new book, 'Why You Should Be A Trade Unionist'. We spoke about his own experience of becoming involved in the labour movement, what the unions could be doing to combat the conservative press, and we also talked about the Labour leadership contest and Len's position on freedom of movement.
Thea Riofrancos joins me to discuss the shambolic Iowa caucus, the significance of the strong showings of Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden's poor performance. We also chatted about media narratives and centrist panic at the prospect of Sanders winning the nomination.
To get access to this episode become a $5 supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Achin Vanaik joins me to discuss Hindu nationalism in India, the BJP's anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, the lockdown in Kashmir, and India's economic slowdown.
Lara Friedman joins me to discuss the so-called Trump peace plan and the Israel-Palestine conflict. We spoke about the extent to which the plan diverges from previous American policy, and the ideological framework of its creators. Lara is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace based in Washington DC.
Financial Times journalist Tom Hancock joins me from the city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. We spoke about the situation in the city, the response of the Chinese government to the crisis and how it compares to the SARS outbreak of 2002. We also discussed the broader political significance of the outbreak and the public mood in Wuhan and China more broadly.
Tom Blackburn joins me to chat about the Labour leadership contest, why Keir Starmer is the front runner, the importance of open selection, and what Jess Philipps' brief campaign tells us about the Labour right. If you'd like to hear the full interview please consider becoming a $5 PTO supporter on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Rhian Jones joins me to discuss her article in Tribune Magazine, An Enterprise Allowance of the Left: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/10/an-enterprise-allowance-of-the-left
which looks at the disappearance of working class voices from the arts and how the left might rebuild working class culture. We talked about how Britpop positioned working class people as uneducated and hostile to musical experimentation, the creation of institutions of cultural production and care by working class communities in the early and mid-twentieth century, and finally we chatted about why Grime was able emerge in spite of the decline of sites of working class cultural production.
Maya Goodfellow joins me to discuss her new book, 'Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats'. We talked about the historical roots of the hostile environment policy, the punitive, cruel and deliberately confusing character of Britain's immigration system, how viewing migrants as 'economic assets' feeds into anti-migrant politics, and we also chatted about how New Labour's policies on migration and asylum laid some of the basis for the Conservative's migration policies.
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins me to discuss the Conservative's electoral victory and why he believes that the 2019 election result does not simply cancel out the long term problems the Conservatives face.
International security expert Paul Rogers joins me to discuss why the United States carried out the assassination of Qassem Suleimani and whether the attack will spark a broader regional war. We also discussed the historical roots of Iran's defence doctrine of hybrid, asymmetric warfare, and why Britain would be very likely to assist the American military in any large scale military confrontation.
Richard Seymour joins me to discuss the reasons for Labour's electoral defeat and why the left overestimated Labour's chances. We also chatted what we can expect from Boris Johnson's government and the broader issue of 'disaster nationalism'. Finally, we spoke about the likely outcome of the Labour leadership race.
Sivamohan Valluvan joins me to discuss his new book, 'The Clamour of Nationalism, Race and Nation in Twenty-first-century Britain'. We spoke about why the current era is better characterised as a reactionary nationalist one, rather than as a populist moment, and we spoke about the flirtation of parts of the European left with an anti-migrant politics. We also spoke about the differences and affinities between neoliberalism and conservatism and why we may be witnessing a disarticulation of those political tendencies.
David Wearing joins me to discuss the defence, security and international trade policies of Labour and the Conservatives, and why the election result is a matter of life and death for many people beyond Britain's borders.
Adrienne Buller joins me to discuss the climate emergency and the general election. We spoke about the policy platforms of the parties, the recent Channel 4 climate change debate and what it tells us about public discourse around climate, and finally we chatted about whether the 'Green Industrial Revolution' is the right framing for mobilising around the climate crisis.
James Meadway joins me to discuss whether the Conservative manifesto and its limited spending promises will prevent the Tories taking Labour seats in the Midlands, the north of England and Wales. We also spoke about the usefulness of opinion polling, why the Liberal Democrats are once again failing to disrupt the two-party duopoly, and the role of the media in the election and whether the UK is becoming a 'Managed Democracy'.
Thea Riofrancos joins me to discuss 'A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal' a new book co-authored by Thea. We spoke about why the New Deal is the right framing for a project to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis, why environmental victories are necessarily entwined with the struggle against inequality, and the importance to the climate movement of forging alliances across borders and through supply chains and how to achieve rapid roll out of renewable technologies without compounding environmental devastation and injustice at sites of rare earth mineral extraction.
Will Davies joins me to discuss conservative's response to Labour's policy on free full-fibre broadband, whether Boris Johnson really is the great campaigner his admirers claim he is, and we also discussed Labour's messaging around taking on billionaires.
Paulo Gerbaudo joins me to discuss online campaigning, the recent cyber attack on Labour's campaigning platforms, the contrasting effectiveness of the Labour and Tory digital campaigns in 2017, and we also chatted about whether social media platforms have an inherent right-wing bias.
Jake Werner joins me to discuss the ideological makeup of the Hong Kong protest movement, the material and cultural grievances that gave rise to the movement, the increasing nationalism of the Chinese ruling elite, how Chinese economic development can be characterised as "cheating at a rigged game" and, finally we discussed the increasing likelihood of armed conflict between China, the US and US regional allies.
Articles by Jake that we discussed included:
A Global Path through the Hong Kong Dilemma: Towards a New Internationalism: https://madeinchinajournal.com/author/jake-werner/
Why Confrontation With China Threatens the Progressive Agenda:
https://www.thenation.com/article/china-schumer-kanna/
China Is Cheating at a Rigged Game:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/08/china-is-cheating-at-a-rigged-game/
Momentum co-founder Emma Rees joins me to discuss Momentum's Plan to Win the General election and the inspiration for Momentum's 'distributed Organising' model.
You can read the plan here:
plantowin.peoplesmomentum.com/
Kicking off the second series of #RedHacks, Joana Ramiro chats with independent journalist Sarah Jaffe about the pressing need for more reportage in an era of endless commentary, being accountable as a journalist and the fallacy of journalistic impartiality.
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins me to discuss conservative party strategy in the 2019 election. We spoke about Boris Johnson's re-heated Mayism, the likely effects of a significant Brexit Party vote on Tory prospects, and the division of labour between the Conservatives and the Tory-supporting press.
Corey Robin joins me to discuss his recent article in Dissent magazine on the memoirs of Barack Obama's White House staffers, the legacy of the Obama administration, and what separates the Obama/Clinton wing of the democrats from the new insurgent democratic left.
You can read Corey's article here:
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts
Sound by @japinto
Eleanor Penny joins me to reflect on the coming General election campaign. We talked about whether this will be the Brexit election we were promised in 2017, why Labour is behind in the polls, and what to expect from the Liberal Democrats.
Earlier this month, and to coincide with Black History Month Jeremy Corbyn called for schoolchildren to be taught about the British Empire and the history and legacy of colonialism. To discuss the teaching of empire and migration in UK schools I spoke to Kimberley McIntosh, co-author of the report, 'Teaching Migration, Belonging, and Empire in Secondary Schools', published by the Runnymede Trust.
Sound by @japinto
Jeremy Gilbert joins me to discuss the concepts of Acid Communism and Acid Corbynism and why transforming human subjectivity through practices of collective joy derived from the 1960s counterculture is so important to building a successful left project.
Sound Recording: @JAPinto
Beth Stratford joins me to discuss the crisis of UK land ownership and housing and the solutions outlined in the Land for the Many report, co-written by Beth. We also discussed the tabloid media's hysterical reaction to the report.
You can read the full report here:
https://landforthemany.uk/
Sound: @japinto
Richard Seymour joins me to discuss Brexit and the machinations of the Johnson administration, the electoral strategy of the Labour Party, and whether the fraction of capital that supports a hard Brexit will be able to subordinate business more broadly to their project.
Subscribe as a $5 patron for access to all PTO Extra! episodes and extended versions of the regular show: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Quinn Slobodian joins me to talk about neoliberalism as a project of institutional design, the significance of the Hapsburg Empire to the neoliberal concept of double government that came to be instantiated in such institutions as the WTO, the IMF, and the EU and we also talked about whether capital's solution to the collapse in consent for neoliberal governmentality could be something even worse.
In the first #RedHacks live event Joana Ramiro chats with Owen Jones, Kimberly McIntosh, and Simon Childs at The World Transformed festival in Brighton about the problems facing journalism and how both the general public and those working in the media can start bringing in change to a fundamentally neoliberal industry.
Sound Recording: @JAPinto Live Sound: James Tranmer @ Green Door Store
Kojo Koram joins me to discuss the history of the war on drugs, the role of drug prohibition in the production of racism after the end of formal imperialism, the central role of the United States in the emergence of the global war on drugs, and the possibility of the Boris Johnson government returning to a more punitive approach to drug prohibition.
Our conversation was prompted by the new book The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line which was edited by Kojo and is out now from Pluto Press.
Sound by @japinto
Alex Niven joins me to talk about the erosion of support for the Labour Party in the north of England, the causes of that decline and how the Labour Party and the broader left might seek to reverse it. Our conversation was prompted by his recent article in Tribune:
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/08/has-labour-lost-the-north
Sound by @japinto
James Meadway, former economics advisor to John McDonnell joins me to discuss whether the Johnson government's move to prorogue parliament is really part of a strategy to achieve no deal, why the opposition to the government needs to move from parliamentary tactics and judicial reviews to mass protest and direct action, and we also discussed the likely consequences of a No Deal Brexit, and why it is that capital has been unable to exert authority over the Conservative Party.
Lida Maxwell joins me to discuss her new book, Insurgent Truth: Chelsea Manning and the Politics of Outsider Truth-Telling. We discussed the contrasting nature of the disclosures of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden and the way Manning's leaks placed her outside the lineage of respectable whistleblowing. We also talked about the relationship between Manning's gender identity and how her experience of living under Don't Ask Don't Tell in the US military informed her broader critique of American foreign policy. And we also chatted about the post-truth era and whether a return to the certainties of the pre-financial crisis period is possible.
Richard Seymour joins me to discuss his new book, The Twittering Machine. The title is taken from Paul Klee's 1922 painting in which the the bird-song of a diabolical machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Richard argues in the book that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with so-called social media. We spoke about the nature of social media addiction, the way in which the platforms incite users into performing unpaid labour, and how we might conceive of repurposing the architecture of the internet to more useful and humane ends.
Natasha Lennard joins me to discuss her book, 'Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life'. We spoke about whether or not Donald Trump and the movement that has coalesced around him ought to be characterised as fascist, we also talked about the contributions of Wilhelm Reich, Michel Foucault, and other figures in the anti-psychiatry movement to theorising fascism. We discussed the legitimacy and history of anti-fascist violence and its treatment by the media, and finally we spoke about Natasha's writing on suicide and how the act of suicide brings into question capitalism's positing of the idea of the sovereign individual.
Andy Beckett joins me to explain why he believes, despite being in power on both sides of the Atlantic, conservatism is in decline and how conservative ideology is proving itself unable to adjust to the challenges of the 21st century. The interview was prompted by Andy's long-read in the Guardian, ‘A zombie party’: the deepening crisis of conservatism':
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/28/a-zombie-party-the-deepening-crisis-of-conservatism
Christopher Connery joins me to talk about the nature of the Chinese economy following the initiation of market reforms from the late 1970s, the compatibility between authoritarianism and neoliberalism, and we also discussed the legacy of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The interview was prompted by Christopher's excellent article on neoliberalism in China which you can find in the Jan-Feb issue of the New Left Review:
https://newleftreview.org/issues/II115/articles/christopher-connery-ronald-coase-in-beijing
In the season finale of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro talks to Trashfuture podcast host Riley Quinn.
Frances Ryan joins me to discuss her new book, 'Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People'. We spoke about the impact of austerity on people living with disability, the way in which New Labour's support for means testing and conditionality paved the way for the coalition government's welfare cuts and we also talked about the current situation of disability rights activism.
Leo Panitch joins me to discuss his recent article in Tribune Magazine on Ralph Miliband's classic work, The State in Capitalist Society. We discuss Miliband's theory of the state, his criticism of liberal pluralist accounts of the industrialised democracies, his debates with Nicos Poulantzas, and the relevance of his work to the Corbyn project. You can read Leo's article here:
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/06/milibands-masterpiece
In the latest episode of #RedHacks, Joana Ramiro talks to writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques.
Sound by @japinto
Listen to other episodes in the series here: soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/sets/redhacks
Alexander Gallas, author of 'The Thatcherite Offensive: A Neo-Poulantzasian Analysis' joins me to discussed the degree of popular support for the political and economic project of the Thatcher government, the debates between Stuart Hall and Bob Jessop on the nature of Thatcherite hegemony, and we also chatted about the way in which the New Labour era can be seen as a consolidation of Thatcherite neoliberalism.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam joins me to discuss the organisational model of XR. We also chatted about the booklet Roger has written on the strategy of XR - 'Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse'. And finally we also discussed the criticism XR has come in for regarding its tactics of mass arrest and a perceived failure to properly engage with people and communities of colour.
Christine Berry discusses 'People Get Ready: Preparing for a Corbyn Government' a new book authored by Christine together with Joe Guinan. We spoke about the likely backlash a Corbyn government would face from the business class and transnational finance and what strategies the Labour movement can adopt to defeat its opponents. We also chatted about the possible lessons for the left from the Thatcher government's victory over the unions and the labour movement in the 1980s as well as Labour's programme for economic democracy.
You can read an extract from People Get Ready on the Tribune Magazine website: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/05/what-a-corbyn-government-would-mean
Adom Getachew joins me to discuss the liberation struggles of anti-colonial movements in Africa and the Caribbean in the twentieth century and the way in which they sought to construct a new global order that might secure real independence in the international system.
We spoke about those efforts, as well her characterisation of the League of Nations, and associated figures, such as US president Woodrow Wilson, as essentially racist and counter revolutionary in nature, as well as the way the invasion of Ethiopia, by Mussolini's Italy in 1935 was articulated in ways that presage the modern era of humanitarian intervention.
Owen Hatherley joins me to discuss the music and life of the late Scott Walker. We spoke about his journey from teen heartthrob with the Walker Brothers, to the creator of some of the most challenging music in the history of pop. We discuss the big band, crooner tradition that Walker emerged from, the radical break in his work with 1978's Nite Flights and the political pessimism of his later records. To accompany the episode here is a playlist of Walker's work:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xEf8KGVxK6IRpKSLc6FOS
Hilary Aked on Islamophobia and the European counter-jihad movement, its entwinement with state run counter extremism programmes, and its relationship with the traditional far right. Hilary is the co-author of a recent report on the topic from Spinwatch.org:
http://powerbase.info/images/6/6c/Aked-Jones-Miller-Counterjihad_report-2019.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3AeljMjU0o8Vxv1qOtGks2YFTmjzkQ0srJAJgfAC7KeQs7YwOQ8Sm6tyA
Support Politics Theory Other via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother // Follow the show on Twitter and Facebook: @poltheoryother
Dawn Foster joins PTO to discuss her Tribune article on religion and socialism. We spoke about the relationship between Marxism and religion, how secular and religious leftists can work together in the fight against poverty, and the legacy of so-called 'new atheism.'
Read Dawn's article here: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/love-thy-neighbour?fbclid=IwAR3ON8P4afFNwwH7E2eikqfk9Cx7Cs2k1jmoT4I0s363MfD-AIpEUa5ZzF4
Ash Sarkar joins me to discuss the causes of the Brexit vote, the case for Lexit, the strategy of the People's Vote campaign and the prospects for Change UK.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode, please consider becoming a PTO supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Corey Robin joins me to discuss the history of conservative thought, the significance of Donald Trump's presidency, and Ayn Rand's contribution to conservatism and the reasons for her immense popularity in the United States.
Bridget Anderson joins me to talk about how the idea of the migrant is mediated through race and class, the case for No Borders, and the way in which the mobility of populations within nation states was viewed as a threat in the pre-capitalist era. We also touch on Brexit and the case of Shamima Begum.
In the third episode of #RedHacks, Joana Ramiro talks to New Statesman deputy editor George Eaton.
Sound by @japinto
Listen to other episodes in the series here: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/sets/redhacks
David Edgerton joins me to discuss his new book, 'The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History'. We spoke about British declinism, the way declinist narratives structure understandings of modern British history and the political uses to which declinism has been put, both on the left and the right and by the architects of the Brexit project.
Kojo Koram joins me to discuss the politics of the Tory Brexiteers. We spoke about why it is that the prospect of trading on WTO terms is so attractive to the European Research Group, and the strange parallels between Tory Brexiteers and bourgeois nationalists in the global south during the colonial era. We also discussed the idea of a progressive English nationalism.
Our conversation was prompted by Kojo's articles in Dissent Magazine, the Guardian, and the Nation:
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/britains-brexit-blindness
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/19/wto-brexit-trade-uk-economy
https://www.thenation.com/article/brexit-sovereignty-imperial-violence/
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins me to discuss the newly formed Independent Group, the politics of the MPs that make up the new organisation, the role of anti-semitism in the resignation of the ex-Labour contingent, and how the Labour leadership ought to respond to the creation of the group.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
In the second episode of #RedHacks, Joana Ramiro talks to campaigning photojournalist Jess Hurd.
Sound by @japinto
Listen to other episodes in the series here: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/sets/redhacks
Bruce Fink, the world's leading authority on Lacanian psychoanalysis joins me to discuss the work of Jacques Lacan, the nature of the Lacanian project and the 'return to Freud', and his perspective on the medicalisation of mental distress.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
David Wearing joins me to discuss the strategic and economic relationship between the UK and the states of the Arabian Gulf, the role of Britain in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, and the role of the west in the emergence of monarchical authoritarian rule in the region.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Sophie Lewis joins me to discuss her new book, 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family' and her recent article in New Socialist, ‘Labour Does You’: Might thinking through pregnancy as work help us radicalise the politics of care?
We spoke about reproductive technologies, the surrogate nature of all pregnancies, the need to reconceive of pregnancy as work, and the demand for the abolition of the nuclear family.
You can read more about Sophie's new book on the Verso Books website:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2951-full-surrogacy-now
And you can read her recent article in New Socialist here:
https://newsocialist.org.uk/labour-does-you-might-thinking-through-pregnancy-work-help-us-radicalise-politics-care/
In the first episode of #RedHacks, a series of conversations about journalism in the neoliberal world, Joana Ramiro chats with renowned broadcaster and author Paul Mason.
Sound by @japinto
Dan Hind joins me to discuss his essay, 'The Constitutional Turn: Liberty and the Cooperative State'. We spoke about the need to reform Britain's unwritten constitution, what a project to democratise British society might look like, and even whether that might be desirable in the era of so-called populism.
You can read Dan's article here: https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/constitutional-turn-liberty-and-cooperative-state
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Joni Alizah Cohen joins me to discuss the relationship between transmisogyny and anti-semitism in Nazi ideology and the theoretical work of the Marxist historian Moishe Postone.
Our conversation was prompted by Joni's article, 'The Eradication of “Talmudic Abstractions”: Anti-Semitism, Transmisogyny and the National Socialist Project':
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4188-the-eradication-of-talmudic-abstractions-anti-semitism-transmisogyny-and-the-national-socialist-project#_ftn16
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
James Butler of Novara media joins me to discuss Brexit, the likelihood of a no deal, what a second referendum might look like, and how the left should theorise the European Union.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Thea Riofrancos joins me to discuss her review in n+1 of Chantal Mouffe's new book, 'For a Left Populism'. As well as discussing Mouffe's work we talked more generally about populism in the United States and Europe, the nature of the Trump project, and the necessity of a left populism.
You can read Thea's review of Mouffe's book here:
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/populism-without-the-people/
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Sebastian Budgen joins me to discuss the Yellow Vests protests in France. We talked about the social composition of the movement, its relationship to established political forces, the heavy handed response of the government, and the absent strategy of the Macron project.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Aeron Davis joins me to discuss his new book, 'Reckless Opportunists: Elites at the End of the Establishment'. We discussed the changing face of British elites, the self-destructive character of neoliberalism, and the risk averse nature of the UK business class.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour joins me to discuss the prospects for Theresa May's Brexit Deal, the People's Vote campaign, and the nature of the European Union.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Will Davies joins me for the second part of our discussion on his new book, 'Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World'. We spoke about the role of neoliberalism in the rise of contemporary populism, the military logic of the internet, and the nature of the Corbyn project.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Rodrigo Nunes joins me to discuss Jair Bolsonaro's election victory in Brazil. We discussed Bolsonaro's background, the composition of his electoral coalition, the mistakes of the Brazilian worker's party, and the nature of the contemporary far right.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and other PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother
Nisha Kapoor joins me to discuss her new book, 'Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism'. We spoke about Islamophobia, the War on Terror, the adoption of counterinsurgency tactics in the UK, and the government's 'Prevent' counter-terrorism programme and its effects on Britain's Muslim population.
If you would like to hear the extended version of this episode and future PTO shows, please consider becoming a supporter:
https://www.patreon.com/join/poltheoryother?
Will Davies joins me to discuss his new book, 'Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World'. We spoke about the declining public trust in experts, the blurring of the distinctions between war and peace, the increasing irrelevance of macroeconomic indicators, and the rise of populism.
Adam Tooze joins me for part two of our discussion on his new book, 'Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World'. We spoke about the Brexit vote, Emmanuel Macron's EU reform agenda, the prospects for a radical Labour government, and why it is that Marxists keep claiming Adam (a self-described liberal) for one of their own.
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon:
www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Part one of the interview:
https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/20-adam-tooze-on-crashed-how-a-decade-of-financial-crises-changed-the-world
Tom Mills joins me to discuss the problems of the UK media, the Labour Party leadership's proposals for media reform, and the media class's aversion to workplace democracy.
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon: www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Sophie Lewis joins me to discuss trans-exclusionary radical feminism and her article 'SERF ‘n’ TERF: Notes on Some Bad Materialisms':
http://salvage.zone/in-print/serf-n-terf-notes-on-some-bad-materialisms/
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon: www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
PTO proper will be back next week, but in the meantime just a short note from me to ask listeners to consider supporting the show. If you would like to donate in order to keep the PTO show on the road please visit the Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Adam Tooze joins me to discuss his new book, 'Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World'.
Part two: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/23-adam-tooze-on-crashed-how-a-decade-of-financial-crises-changed-the-world-part-2
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Richard Seymour joins me to discuss the ongoing anti-semitism controversy in the Labour Party. We discussed the scale and nature of modern anti-semitism, the Labour Party's new code of conduct on anti-semitism, and the media campaign against the Corbynite left.
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon:
www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=1735316
Jacob Mukherjee joins me to discuss the UK housing crisis, the challenges in organising private renters, the exploitation of recent migrants by landlords, and the political class's response to the housing crisis.
If you enjoy this episode please consider donating via Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=1735316
Grace Blakeley joins me to discuss the neoliberal financialisation of the UK and world economies, the coming reckoning with the UK's current account deficit, and how we can wrest control away from the City and fund a real industrial strategy.
You can read Grace's report, On Borrowed Time: Finance and the UK's current account deficit here:
https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/on-borrowed-time
If you enjoy the show please consider donating via Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins me to discuss the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, Brexit and the European Union, and the long-term decline of the Conservative Party.
Kate Pickett joins me to discuss her new book - co-authored with Richard Wilkinson - The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-being, the follow up to the acclaimed The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.
Adam Tooze joins me to discuss his book 'The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy'. We discussed the entwinement of Nazi ideology and economics, the explanation for the apparent irrationality of German military strategy, the comparative backwardness of the German economy in the pre-war period, and the question of 1930s parallels in the post-financial crash era.
Catarina Príncipe joins me to discuss the state of Portuguese social democracy, the myth of Portuguese anti-austerity policy, and the broader crisis of the Eurozone.
Jo Littler joins me to discuss the history of meritocratic discourse, how the term meritocracy is deployed in the post-Black Lives Matter and MeToo era, and the explanation for the enduring unpopularity of Charles Windsor.
Ed Rooksby joins me to discuss socialist strategy, Syriza, Nicos Poulantzas' theory of the state and the Corbyn moment in Britain. Ed's recent article in the journal Critique formed the basis of our discussion, you can read the article here:
https://edrooksby.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/structural-reform-the-problem-of-socialist-strategy-today/
This week I’m joined by Professor Jeremy Gilbert to discuss Maurizio Lazzarato's 'Experimental Politics'. We talked about Lazzarato's intellectual background, the treatment of continental theory in the anglophone world, and the relevance of Lazzarato's work to the British political context.
You can listen to Lazzarato's recent lecture (mentioned in the show) here:
https://culturepowerpolitics.org/podcasts/
Wendy Liu joins me to discuss startup culture, the platform economy and the Labour Party's approach to big tech.
David Broder joins me to discuss the Italian President's rejection of the Lega's choice for finance minister, the prospect of new elections, and Italy's increasingly precarious membership of the Eurozone.
This week I’m joined by Alex Nunns, author of The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's Improbable Path to Power to discuss the Labour Party after the local elections, the balance of power within the PLP, and the prospects for a new centrist party.
This week I'm joined by Catherine Rottenberg to discuss her work on neoliberal feminism. We talked about the work of neoliberal feminists Sheryl Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter, the role of neoliberal feminism in legitimating Western imperialism, and the meaning of the #MeToo movement.
This week I'm joined by Will Davies to discuss the Windrush scandal, neoliberal governmentality, and the politics of the British Home Office.
This week I'm joined by David Broder to discuss last month's Italian elections, the decline of the political centre and the rise of the populist right, and the prospects for the Italian left.
This week I'm joined by Patricia Reed to discuss the Manifesto on Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation, which Patricia co-authored as a member of the Laboria Cuboniks collective.
You can read the manifesto here: http://www.laboriacuboniks.net/
This week I'm joined by Dr. Jamie Allinson to discuss the current situation in Syria, the recent Western air strikes, the role of the Kurdish YPG, and the significance of Iranian and Russian backing for the Assad regime.
This week I'm joined by Richard Seymour, author of Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics, to discuss left anti-semitism, the media's campaign against Corbyn, and the role of Israel-Palestine in the affair.
Richard recently wrote a long read on the subject for Jacobin magazine:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/04/labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-antisemitism-jewdas