The revolution will not be podcast: Recent Episodes
Paul
Real Democracy Movement is launching a series of podcasts to discuss current economic, ecological and political disasters.The cost-of-living crisis, mass strike wave, the Enough is Enough campaign and action on climate change show resistance is growing.in the UK and elsewhere.It also shows that the capitalist system is broken.Instead of doom and gloom, speakers will suggest a positive way forward through revolutionary solutions.
As we approach the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, eminent international human rights lawyer and activist Bill Bowring explains what's behind Putin's attack on a neighbouring state. Bill also criticises those on the 'anti-imperialist left' who, he says, long for the certainties of the Cold War and decline to stand with Ukraine. Bill Bowring is professor of human rights and international law at Birkbeck College, University of London, president of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH) and International Secretary of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. He has represented applicants before the European Court of Human Rights in many cases, including against Russia.
State-enforced copyright laws benefit the corporations and in the digital age have led to massive surveillance, argues journalist, blogger and campaigner Glyn Moody. He debunks the argument that copyright protects creators and shows how in fact it leads to widespread poverty. Glyn explains how the digital licence system has undermined libraries and suggests ways creators can take control of their work.
Gerry Gold, co-author of A House of Cards which covers the background to the 2008 financial crash, explains how Chancellor Hunt's emergency budget is about managing the decline of the UK economy and satisfying the financial markets at the expense of the 99%. He locates Hunt's measures within a deepening global crisis of the capitalist system and puts forward an alternative to the profit system.
Leading environmental historian and award-winning author Jason W. Moore challenges the accepted view that climate chaos is the result of human activity in general, aka the Anthropocene. Instead, Jason argues that we live in the Capitalocene era. The ecological crisis , he says, is essentially the outcome of capitalism’s exploitation of unpaid work, women and nature. He elaborates this class-based viewpoint in his ground-breaking book 'Capitalism in the Web of Life'. He explains why nothing meaningful will come out of COP27 in Egypt. Jason, professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Binghampton, believes the climate crisis has brought many things to a head and provides opportunities for a transition beyond the Capitalocene.
With Tory MPs poised to appoint a second Prime Minister in under six months without consulting the electorate, John McDonnell MP says it's leading people to question the whole nature of our democracy. The former shadow chancellor and a member of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee at Westminster, says it can't be right that a small ruling elite can assume office in this way. He calls for mobilisation on a mass scale to demand a General Election and relay the foundations of democracy in the UK.
With the UK government in meltdown and a growing economic and financial crisis gripping capitalism, Corinna Lotz, Gerry Gold and Paul Feldman discuss solutions and how to create system change.
So what is the state? This is a question seldom raised or asked. You’re born and grow up within a state system that’s been around a very long time. Most people take it for granted. It’s a kind of given, a thing that seems to have existed forever – and always will. It’s just there! I set out t to challenge these kind of common assumptions about the state and to reveal, or unmask, its true nature, its purpose, its role in society, how it relates to capitalism