A People's History with John McDonnell: Recent Episodes
Claim the Future, John McDonnell
Join John McDonnell, expert historians and activists to analyse and debate the key working class struggles of the last thousand years of UK history. A Claim the Future project, supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
What should the UK government be doing to protect people from the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, both in the UK and around the world, to improve public services and to help tackle the household debt crisis?
Nearly ten million people are heavily in debt in the UK. We are in a personal debt crisis. Rent debt, credit cards, and utility bills have all piled up £2.4 billion owed in energy debt alone. Bad jobs, low wages, and the lack of a proper safety net pushed many people in to debt, and the cost of living crisis has supercharged it.
Additionally, the UK has a role in the debts of some of the 54 countries currently in debt crisis. This is not an accident. For centuries, powerful governments, institutions and corporations have used debt to control and plunder the resources of countries in the global south for their own gain. Debt Justice is a part of a global movement to end unjust debt and the poverty and inequality it perpetuates. Only together can we build a fair economy that serves people and the planet.
Presented by:
- Adrienne Roberts - Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester. She specializes in feminist international political economy with a particular focus on the gendered relations of finance, debt, development, and trade.
- Heidi Chow - Executive Director of Debt Justice. She was a campaigner at Global Justice Now for 13 years, challenging the power and politics of inequality and poverty both in the UK and globally.
The New Thinking Series is a series of discussions in the House of Commons, hosted by John McDonnell MP and Claim the Future, which present innovative ideas to shake up the status quo.
The last decade has seen wages and benefits cut or frozen while the assets and incomes of the rich have grown hugely, with our tax system guaranteeing the rising wealth of the super-rich in particular.
UK private wealth has been growing substantially over time. There is currently no comprehensive tax on ownership of wealth in the UK, but as with other countries there are many taxes which relate to wealth.
This event will discuss proposals for Wealth Taxes; a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT); and more transformative tax measures to tackle today's rampant inequality and economic crises.
The Wealth Tax Commission recommends a one-off wealth tax on high-wealth couples would pay at 1% a year for five years – raising £260billion. A Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) - a super tax levied on the £8 trillion-a-day financial markets could be a significant part of a just taxation system
Presented by:
Arun Advani - Associate Professor in Warwick University’s Economics Department, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a Visiting Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute, and a Commissioner at the Wealth Tax Commission.
Keval Bharadia - A political economist specialising in transformational approaches to development justice. Keval has consulted for international NGOs including Oxfam, Christian Aid and Stamp Out Poverty.
As was requested during the session we are including a link to Keval Bharadia's report and talk, where you can find the figures mentioned and more infomation on Financial Transaction Taxes and fair taxation policies.
We are also sharing a link to the Wealth Tax commission mentioned during Arun Advani's presentation and an intestesting Tax Simulator Tool which shows how much revenue could be raised from reforming the taxation of wealth.
The New Thinking Series is a series of discussions in the House of Commons, hosted by John McDonnell MP and Claim the Future, which present innovative ideas to shake up the status quo.
Featured image John McDonnell speaking as Shadow Chancellor at the Community Wealth Building conference in Preston on 8th February 2018. Photo credit Sophie Brown under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Please note: this session also contained a visual presentations of the graphs and stats to back up Professor Danny Dorling's arguments. We suggest listening to the podcast with the aide of the slides that you can view here.
In this episode Professor Danny Dorling discusses the wide range of inequalities in family incomes and other key measures, and how these have changed over time, using social statistics, graphs and charts to highlight the extent of the crisis.
When there was last a similarly rapid rise in prices, in the 1970s, the UK was one of the most equitable of European countries by income: what will a cost-of-living crisis mean now that we have become one of the most unequal countries? And could one of the implications of the crisis be to help begin to reduce income and wealth inequalities in future?
With contributions from John McDonnell and Ian Byrne MP.
About Danny Dorling:
Danny is a British social geographer and Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford. He has lived all his life in England. In his own words - to try to counter this potentially myopic world view, in 2006 Danny started working with a group of researchers on a project to remap the world to show who has most and least. His work concerns issues of housing, health, employment, education and poverty and he has published more than a dozen books on social inequalities in Britain, on issues of housing, health, employment, education and poverty.
The New Thinking Series is a series of discussions in the House of Commons, which present innovative ideas to shake up the status quo.
For most of human history, the oceans have been seen as a global commons, which belong to us all. But our seas are now being ravaged by exploitation for corporate profit, resulting in a social, economic and ecological crisis that threatens the life support system of Earth.
Guy Standing’s book, ‘The Blue Commons’, argues the only way forward is to revive the ethos of the sea as a commons, managed for the benefit of all, by those whose lives and wellbeing depend on it. Featuring contributions from John McDonnell, Economist Ann Pettifor, Caroline Lucas MP, Beth Winter MP and Ian Byrne MP.
Guy Standing is a British labour economist, professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London, and a co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network.
The New Thinking Series is a series of discussions in the House of Commons, which present innovative ideas to shake up the status quo.
Exploring the state of the left across Europe, the fight against the rising far-right, the European Union movement and one of its core principles - the concept of free movement and the role it played in the Brexit debate - John McDonnell speaks to Dr Philippe Marlière and Dr Maya Goodfellow.
- Dr Maya Goodfellow is a writer and academic, specialising in the relationships between race, bordering and capitalism. She is currently Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at SPERI, the University of Sheffield. Her first book Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats was published in 2020 and was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. It charts the history of the UK's immigration policy and rhetoric, examining the racialised nature of both, and analyses and challenges the anti-immigration arguments that have been widely accepted in mainstream UK politics.
- Dr Philippe Marlière is Professor in French and European Politics UCL. Philippe completed his MA degree in Law and an MPhil in Politics and Political Science at the University of Lille in France. Before coming to UCL, he was a Research Fellow at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, 1989-93) and at the European University Institute (Florence, 1991-94), where he was awarded a PhD in Social and Political Science (2000). Philippe Marlière was also awarded the Marcel Liebman Chair in political science by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 2007.
Explore the history of anti-colonialism, struggles against neo-colonialism, and the continued fight against global inequality - John McDonnell discusses these themes in-depth with Asad Rehman and Heidi Chow.
- Asad Rehman has worked in the non-government and charity sectors for over 25 years. Today, his expertise puts him at the forefront of the climate justice movement in the UK, and around the world. Previously the head of international climate at major environmental NGO Friends of the Earth, Asad is now the executive director of War on Want, a movement committed towards ending poverty and injustice.
- Heidi Chow is the Executive Director of Debt Justice (formerly Jubilee Debt Campaign) which campaigns to end unjust debt in solidarity with affected communities in the global south and across the UK. Heidi has a long track record of winning public campaigns on economic justice issues and was formerly a senior campaigns and policy manager at Global Justice Now.
Explore the formation, impact and goals of environmental movements globally and how they intersect with the fight against global inequality - John McDonnell discusses these theme in depth with Vijay Prashad and Asad Rehman.
- Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian,editor and commentator. He is an executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. Vijay has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations.
- Asad Rehman has worked in the non-government and charity sectors for over 25 years. Today, his expertise puts him at the forefront of the climate justice movement in the UK, and around the world. Previously the head of international climate at major environmental NGO Friends of the Earth, Asad is now the executive director of War on Want, a movement committed towards ending poverty and injustice.
A discussion on the context and events of the Russian Revolution including the nature of Russian society prior to the revolution; the emergence of the revolutionary movements and the Bolshevik Party; what sparked the revolution and the civil war; and the lasting international impact of the revolution.
John McDonnell speaks to two expert historians and activists: Professor Mary Davis and Paul Feldman.
- Mary Davis is visiting professor of labour history at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has written, broadcast and lectured widely on women’s history, labour history, imperialism and racism. Her published books include "Comrade or Brother? A History of the British Labour Movement 1789-1951" (2009); "Marxism & Struggle" (1998); , "Sylvia Pankhurst: A Life in Radical Politics" (1999) and "Class and Gender in British Labour History" (1999) and "Class and Gender in British Labour History."
- Paul Feldman is a Marxist author, editor and activist and communications editor for the Real Democracy Movement. He has authored or co-authored ‘Time’s Up for Neoliberalism’, ‘Unmasking the State’, ‘A World to Win’ and the 2008 publication ‘A House of Cards – from fantasy finance to global crash’. Paul edited and co-ordinated the 2022 online political education course ‘Rethinking Our Future’.
A discussion on the rise of fascism and the far-right in Italy and Spain, resulting in the brutal regimes of Franco and Mussolini.
This episode explores the conditions that led to their rise and the left struggles in both country during and after the establishment of both fascist regimes - John McDonnell speaks to three expert historians: Jessica Thorne; David Broder andProfessor Paul Preston.
- Jessica Thorne is a Doctoral candidate in History at Royal Holloway, London, researching transnational resistance to Franco's Spain (1950-1975); she is also currently working with Autonomy, an independent, progressive research organisation that focuses on the future of work and economic planning.
- David Broder is a historian who writes about Italian politics for a number of publications. He is Europe editor at Jacobin magazine and author of Mussolini's Grandchildren: Fascism In Contemporary Italy.
- Paul Preston is the School Professor for the Department of International History in the London School of Economics. Teaching in British and Spanish Universities, Paul has also published books including: The Spanish Civil War, Reaction, Revolution and Revenge; Franco: A Biography; The Spanish Holocaust. Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain; A People Betrayed. A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874–2018
On the background to and the formation of the Attlee Government in 1945.
With Francis Beckett, author, journalist, biographer and historian; Rebecca Long-Bailey, Member of Parliament for Salford and Eccles, and former Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; and Paul Dimoldenberg, Labour Councillor in Westminster since 1982 and author of 'Building the New Jerusalem'.
Explore the rise of the trade union movement and eventual foundation of the Labour Party in 1900, with John McDonnell and three expert historians and activists: Matthew Worley, Simon Hannah and Baroness Pauline Bryan.
- Matthew Worley is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading, where he focuses on twentieth-century British culture and politics, with a particular interest in the British labour movement.
- Simon Hannah is a writer, labour activist and trade unionist, and the author of “A Party with Socialists in It - A History of the Labour Left”, published by Pluto Press.
- Baroness Pauline Bryan is a Scottish writer and socialist campaigner. She is part of the Red Paper Collective and a founding member of both the Keir Hardie Society and the Campaign for Socialism.
The Chartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s was the first mass movement driven by Britain’s working classes. But how and why did the movement arise? What was society really like for working people at the time? And what were the lasting impacts and implications of the Chartists’ struggle?
Explore this fascinating area of our history with John McDonnell and three expert historians: Emma Griffin, Katrina Navickas and Rob Sewell.
- Emma Griffin is a Professor of Modern British History at the UEA. She is the author of several books, editor of the Historical Journal, President of the Royal Historical Society and a frequent contributor to radio and television.
- Dr Katrina Navickas is a researcher and teacher of the history of protest and collective action at the University of Hertfordshire, and author of works including “Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1947”.
- Rob Sewell is the author of “Chartist Revolution”, a Marxist analysis of the Chartist movement in 19th century Britain.
What caused the English Civil War (1642–1651)? What was society like for working people in this period? And what impact did the Civil War have on society then - and now, more than three centuries on?
Explore this fascinating area of our history with John McDonnell and three expert historians: Ann Hughes, John Rees and Ted Vallance.
- Ann Hughes is a Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University, a historian of early modern England with particular interests in the culture, religion and politics of the English civil war (or English Revolution).
- John Rees is a research fellow at Goldsmiths University, a political activist and a writer, whose works include "The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England".
- Ted Vallance is a Professor of early modern British political culture at Roehampton University. His areas of interest include political and religious radicalism, and he is the author of books including "The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England" and "The Glorious Revolution: 1688 - Britain's Fight for Liberty".
What caused the people's revolts? What was society really like in this period? And what were the lasting consequences for working people in Britain?
John McDonnell explores this area of our history with historians Martin Empson, Ted Vallance and Justine Firnhaber-Baker, and a more recent employer of camp tactics in Climate Camp and Occupy, Joe Ryle.
- Martin Empson is an author and activist living in Manchester. His book "Kill All the Gentlemen" is a history of class struggle and change in the English countryside. It takes the long view of rural history, tracing the role of rural rebellion and resistance in the development of the modern countryside. Beginning with the 1381 Peasant's Rebellion, it looks at events as wide-ranging as the Pilgrimage of Grace, Robert Kett's Rebellion, Captain Swing, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the rise and fall of agricultural trade unionism. These are put into the context of the development of capitalism and the end of feudalism.
- Ted Vallance is Professor of early modern British political culture at Roehampton University. His areas of interest include political and religious radicalism (including its subsequent influence and public memory), questions of allegiance/obedience/loyalty, the role of the conscience and the use of casuistry in political debates, and the emergence of the public and public opinion.
- Justine Firnhaber-Baker is a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews. Her work focuses on power and politics in both institutional ways (kingship, lordship, communities) and in social relationships and interactions, like wars, revolts, and lawsuits, using archival sources to explore questions about legitimate authority, the conceptual constitution of the community, and the use of violence.
- Joe Ryle is Campaign Officer for the 4 Day Week Campaign and a political activist who participated in Climate Camp and Occupy.