A World to Win with Grace Blakeley

This week, Grace speaks to Aeron Davis, professor of political communication at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and author of the new book Bankruptcy, Bubbles, and Bailouts: An Inside History of the Treasury Since 1976. They discuss the treasury and its role in promoting the financialisation of the UK economy, how it has contributed to various crises over the last 40 years, and its wider relationships with other state institutions. They also discuss the involvement of the treasury in recent governments, and how that might change under the new PM, Rishi Sunak.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Milena Ansari, international advocacy officer at Addameer, the Palestinian prisoner support and human rights organization. They discuss the horrendous practice of administrative detention undertaken against Palestinians by the Israeli state. Palestinians who are suspected of posing a potential threat are detained through a military court without being given any information about the evidence that is held against them, contravening all sorts of human rights including the right to a fair trial.Read more about the recent nineteen-day hunger strike here. This episode was recorded before the strike was suspended on October 13th. Visit Adameer's website to learn more about their campaigns: https://www.addameer.org/You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week Grace speaks to historian David Broder about Italian fascism. They analyse about the recent elections in which the Italian far-right party led by Giorgia Meloni, the Brothers of Italy, came to power. And they discuss the longer-term background of the rise of fascism, which David will be covering in his forthcoming book, Mussolini's Grandchildren.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Ben Tarnoff, author of Internet for the People. They talk about the web's origins, how it was enclosed and privatised, and ways we might work together to build a different model for the internet.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Ruth Wilson Gilmore, prison abolitionist, scholar, and professor of geography at the City University of New York. She is the author of several books, including Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California and, most recently, Abolition Geography: Essays Toward Liberation. They discuss who is profiting from the criminal justice system, how existing institutions within the system serve to support and reinforce capitalist social relations, and what a socialist conception of justice looks like.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Natasha Josette and Olly Armstrong about their community organising project, Breathe. They discuss challenges and opportunities associated with community organising, how it can be linked up with other elements of political strategy like the labour movement and electoral politics, and how you can potentially begin this sort of grassroots work in your own area. You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace is joined by Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith to discuss their book Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism. They discuss why we are working so hard, what kind of work is valued, and what a post-work future might look like.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Andrew Murray, former chair of the Stop the War Coalition, former chief of staff at the Unite trade union, and former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn. We discuss his forthcoming book, Is Socialism Possible in Britain? Reflections on the Corbyn Years, which examines the Corbyn moment within the long history of the Labour Party.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace is joined by James Schneider, former Head of Strategic Communications for Jeremy Corbyn and the co-founder of Momentum, to talk about his book Our Bloc: How We Win. They discuss the challenges facing the left in the UK and around the world—and how we can bring together disparate parts of our movement into a coherent bloc to build power.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. They discuss what "green capitalism" actually is, how it is being embedded in international law, whether or not it is an inherently anti-democratic movement, and how it is linked to issues today like the cost-of-living crisis.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Phil Burton-Cartledge, author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain, about the current leadership contest within the Conservative Party. They discuss why there's a dearth of Tory talent, why both candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are trying to model themselves on Margaret Thatcher, and whether they have any answers to long-term issues facing both the country and the Conservative Party itself.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past. They discuss the renewed focus on inequality in social science and politics more generally, different forms of inequality and how they're linked, and different theoretical approaches to understanding inequality and social class, from Marx to Bourdieu.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Vicky Spratt, author of the book Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain's Housing Emergency. They discuss the multiple problems that tenants in the UK face in accessing and maintaining secure housing and the strategies renters are using to resist the exploitative and extractive practices of landlords.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Eddie Dempsey, Senior Assistant General Secretary of the RMT, about the strike action being taken by the rail union up and down the UK. They discuss the background to the strikes, how the government constructed a railway network that funnels money away from workers towards executives, and the union's "militant, rank-and-file culture of democracy."You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This Week, Grace talks to Ali Milani, author of The Unlikely Candidate: What Losing an Election Taught Me About How to Change Politics. They discuss what it was like running an election in Boris Johnson's seat in 2019, some issues facing the Labour Party, and advice for young activists.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Troy Vetesse and Drew Pendergrass about their book Half-Earth Socialism. They discuss the problems with proposed solutions to climate breakdown like geoengineering, how neoliberals are coping with the recognition that state planning will be necessary to tackle climate breakdown, and how we can build coalitions to make sure that planning is democratic.Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to Left Book Club for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass about their book Half-Earth Socialism. They discuss the problems with proposed solutions to climate breakdown like geoengineering, how neoliberals are coping with the recognition that state planning will be necessary to tackle climate breakdown, and how we can build coalitions to make sure that planning is democratic.Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to Left Book Club for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to David Adler, General Coordinator of the Progressive International, about the ongoing Colombian presidential election and what the results of its first round say about the role of social media platforms like TikTok in the global political discourse.Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Socialism Conference for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Nick Taylor and Sahil Dutta, two co-authors of Unprecedented?: How COVID-19 Revealed the Politics of Our Economy. They discuss the politics behind the economics of COVID—from debt to care to the labor market—and how the pandemic and current cost-of-living crises are likely to reshape the world going forward.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Kojo Koram, lecturer in law at Birkbeck and author of several books, including The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line. We discuss Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's plan to conduct a review on the legalisation of cannabis, the roots of drugs criminalisation, the neoliberal roots of the war on drugs, and why decriminalisation will save lives.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to John Bellamy Foster, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. They discuss Marx's metabolic theory of nature and the "metabolic rift" that shapes the relationship between humanity and nature under capitalism, as well as the ongoing relevance of the theory of monopoly capital put forward by Monthly Review founders Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to brilliant young climate campaigner Mikaela Loach about her work trying to shut down oil production in the North Sea, taking the government to court over fossil fuel subsidies, and the best ways to organise among Gen Z! Mikaela has been involved with campaigns such as Stop Cambo, Stop Jackdaw, and Paid to Pollute.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace is joined by Barnaby Raine, co-author of a recent essay for Salvage magazine analyzing Russia's invasion of Ukraine through the lens of rising nationalism, a feature of global politics especially since the 2008 financial crisis. They discuss this world-historic crisis of capitalism, how it is fueling the growth of nationalist and neo-fascist movements around the world, what that means for world politics, and how the left should respond.Hear the full episode and support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Sam Moore, co-author with Alex Roberts of The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right. Sam and Alex host their own podcast, 12 Rules for WHAT, which focuses on the rise of the far right. They discuss how far-right politicians are weaponising the climate crisis to build support for an extremist, exclusionary politics based on "batteries, bombs, and borders," how this links to a longer history of right-wing environmentalism, and how the left should respond.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace talks to Kojo Koram, who teaches in the School of Law at Birkbeck College and is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, about why the government is trying to change the curriculum to include a more 'balanced' perspective on Britain's empire. We ask who actually benefited from the days of formal empire, how imperialism continues to this day, and why the right are so keen to keep the culture wars alive. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace talks to Kojo Koram, who teaches in the School of Law at Birkbeck College and is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, about why the government is trying to change the curriculum to include a more 'balanced' perspective on Britain's empire. We ask who actually benefited from the days of formal empire, how imperialism continues to this day, and why the right are so keen to keep the culture wars alive. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Sumi Rabindrakumar of the Trussell Trust, a charity that is on the front lines of the cost of living crisis, providing emergency food support to those who need it, as well as campaigning to change government policy with a view to tackling poverty up and down the UK. They discuss the roots of the current crisis, who is being most affected, and what could be done to tackle it.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace chats to David Wearing, post-doctoral researcher at SOAS and author of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain. They discuss Boris Johnson's recent trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and how the global energy crisis is likely to transform world politics.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace and Alfie Stirling, Chief Economist of the New Economics Foundation, dissect the UK Chancellor's spring statement. it looks set to contain very few of the measures that would be necessary to tackle the cost of living crisis (which we discussed last week with Gary Stevenson). Rishi Sunak will say there's no money left to support people forced to choose between eating and heating, but have the Tories grossly underestimated the extent of this crisis, and will it come back to bite them? Check out NEF's report on the subject here: https://neweconomics.org/2022/03/23-4-million-people-unable-to-afford-the-cost-of-livingYou can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

NEW SHOW ALERT! This week, A World to Win is expanding and launching a new format for the podcast. In addition to our regular long-form interviews, every other week Grace will host shorter, more topical discussions with one of a regular group of guests. On this episode, it's Gary Stevenson of Gary's Economics talking about the cost of living crisis—where's it coming from, who is paying for it, and what can we do about it?Check out Gary's articles in openDemocracy, "Who should pay for the COVID crisis?" and "Following the coronavirus money trail." And his YouTube videos, "Inflation - Why We Should Have Seen This Coming" and "How COVID-19 Makes the Rich Richer."You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible. Please excuse some minor issues in our guest's sound due to a technical issue.

NEW SHOW ALERT! This week, A World to Win is expanding and launching a new format for the podcast. In addition to our regular long-form interviews, every other week Grace will host shorter, more topical discussions with one of a regular group of guests. On this episode, it's Gary Stevenson of Gary's Economics talking about the cost of living crisis—where's it coming from, who is paying for it, and what can we do about it?Check out Gary's articles in openDemocracy, "Who should pay for the COVID crisis?" and "Following the coronavirus money trail." And his YouTube videos, "Inflation - Why We Should Have Seen This Coming" and "How COVID-19 Makes the Rich Richer."You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible. Please excuse some minor issues in our guest's sound due to a technical issue.

This week Grace talks to Susanne Soederberg, Professor of Political Economy in Global Development Studies at Queen's University, Canada about her book Urban Displacements: Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism. They discuss the class roots of the global housing crisis and the emergence of resistance to the cycle of debt, eviction, and homelessness in some of Europe's major cities. Susanne can be found on Twitter @soederberg1.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, about their new report "Inequality Kills," which you can read here: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-killsThey discuss why inequality has increased so much over the course of the pandemic, how this increase in inequality is affecting our democracies and our ability to tackle issues like the pandemic and climate breakdown, and what we need to do about it.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, about why the government is trying to take away the firefighters' right to strike, how FBU members are organising to resist these pressures—as well as fighting for fair wages and better conditions—and the impact of austerity on the fire service and its members.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace talks to Rupert Russell about his book Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World, in which he applies insights from chaos theory to the world economy. He looks at how apparently random movements in prices, often driven by speculation in the Global North, can create tectonic shifts that multiply around the world.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week Grace speaks with Laurie Penny about their new book, Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback. They talk about the roots of the resurgence of violence against women, what it means to build a culture of consent, and how women can organize to resist their oppression and exploitation.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò about his two new books, Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else). We discuss what "identity politics" actually means, why it's so often contrasted to "class politics," and what socialists need to do to create inclusive, sustainable social movements.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace talks to Emma Dowling about the crisis of care facing the world economy, and why this crisis poses a threat to capitalist social relations. They discuss the commodification and financialisation of the care sector, the challenges of organising, and what it would look like to genuinely democratise care work. Emma Dowling teaches at the University of Vienna and is the author of The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? The book is coming out in paperback in February 2022.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, associate professor of sociology at UCL, about his book Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialised World. They talk about the formation of a new kind of subject – homo speculans – and how mutual cooperation in the context of the deep and pervasive uncertainty that characterises life under financial capitalism is building new communities and new forms of resistance to financialisation.Find information about Aris's LRB event with Grace on January 17 here: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/eventsYou can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Adele Walton speaks with George Monbiot, political journalist and author of This Can't Be Happening. They discuss how the Tories are cracking down on democracy with new policing legislation—and how people might resist this authoritarian "step over the brink."You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Adele Walton speaks with Rupa Marya and Raj Patel about their new book Inflamed. They discuss how the system of colonial capitalism reproduces health inequalities globally and how we ought to transform health care and medicine for health justice.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/Aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Adele Walton, filling in for Grace Blakeley, speaks with Asad Rehman, director of War on Want and organiser for climate, racial, economic and social justice. They discuss how global inequality is reproduced by colonial legacies, the impact of structural adjustment plans, and the need for an anticolonial climate justice movement.You can support our work on the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Adele Walton, filling in for Grace Blakeley, speaks with Heidi Chow, executive director at Jubilee Debt Campaign, which works to end poverty, inequality, and exploitation caused by unjust debt. They discuss the neocolonial nature of debt, how debt reproduces global inequality and poverty, the legacy of Thomas Sankara, and more.You can support our work on the show by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and the author of a brilliant new book, with the brilliant late David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything. In this episode, David and Grace talk about literally everything—human history, human nature, and how to change the world.You can support our work on the show by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace speaks to Neil Vallelly, author of Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness. They discuss the role of utilitarian thinking in the development of capitalism, how utilitarianism has collapsed into "futilitarianism," and the impact this pervasive sense of futility is having on our sense of individual and collective wellbeing.You can support our work on the show by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Chris Saltmarsh, co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal and author of Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice. We discuss what the Green New Deal should look like, who should pay for it, and how we should mobilise to win it.You can support our work on the show by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace speaks to Holly Jean Buck, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Buffalo about her new book Ending Fossil Fules: Why Net Zero Is Not Enough. They discuss the meaning of net zero, the different trajectories we might use to get there, and how these different paths might ease or exacerbate other ecological, social and political challenges the world faces today.You can support our work on the show by subscribing to our Patreon, where you'll get access to full-length versions of the interviews. Thanks to producer Conor Gillies and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Phil Jones, researcher at Autonomy and author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism. They discuss whether what we refer to as automation actually relies on the proliferation of poorly paid microwork around the world, who does this work under what conditions, and how workers can start to organise to resist their exploitation at the hands of some of the most powerful companies in the world.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week and to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Senator Nina Turner, the former Ohio Senator and Democratic Nominee for Ohio Secretary of State who also served as co-chair of Bernie Sanders' 2020 Presidential Campaign. Grace spoke to Senator Turner at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton about organising within the Democratic Party, the future of the US left under Biden, and what lessons we can all learn from the defeats of the past few years—as well as how to make sure we don't give up hope.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod, where you'll also get access to full versions of the interviews.A production note: Because of a technical issue, we had to switch to an imperfect back-up recording about twenty minutes into the episode.

Grace speaks to Geoff Mann, Professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University and author of In the Long Run We Are All Dead: Keynesianism, Political Economy and Revolution and, with Joel Wainwright, Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future. They discuss capitalism, state power and climate breakdown, whether the pandemic has ended neoliberalism, and why democracy is so important to anti-capitalist struggle today.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod, where you'll also get access to full versions of the interviews.

This week, Grace speaks with Phil Burton-Cartledge, lecturer in sociology at the University of Derby and author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain. We discuss whose interests the Tory Party really represents, how the party works, and why, contrary to appearances, the Tories are in decline.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/aworldtowinpod, where you'll also get access to full versions of the interviews.