Tribune Radio

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.

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.

On this week's podcast, Grace Blakeley 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 becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies 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 becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies 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 call ‘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 on the planet.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to producer Sarah Hurd for filling in this week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Grace speaks to Kyle Lewis and Will Stronge, authors of Overtime: Why We Need a Shorter Working Week. They discuss the centrality of struggles over working time to the history of class struggle, why the shorter working week should be a central demand of labour movements today, and how we need to reimagine work to build a more just and sustainable world.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

Grace speaks to Shon Faye, writer, artist, comedian, and author of the forthcoming book The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice. They discuss the prevalence of transphobia in the UK, why the transgender issue is also a class issue, and how socialists can and should support the fight for trans rights.You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks with Ashok Kumar, senior lecturer of political economy at Birkbeck and author of Monopsony Capitalism: Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age. They discuss how global value chains have been reshaped under monopsony capitalism, how these changes have affected the power of workers all over the world, and how the Covid-19 pandemic will impact these trends. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks to Nick Hayes, author of The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us. They discuss the radical history of English trespassers, how the enclosure of common land formed the foundations of English capitalism, and how we can fight to enforce our rights to the commons and our right to roam against the Conservatives' assault on our basic freedoms. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks to Adrienne Buller and Ben Braun. Adrienne is a senior research fellow at the think tank Common Wealth, and Ben is a political scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. They recently co-authored a paper entitled ‘Under new management: Share ownership and the rise of UK asset manager capitalism‘. With Grace, Adrienne and Ben discuss the rise of the big three asset managers, who really makes the big decisions in today's corporations, and whether workers can ever hope to use their power as shareholders to change capitalism. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour Party and current Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. They discuss how to fight inequality and climate crisis in the wake of the pandemic, and his new book, Go Big: How to Fix Our World. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Linsey McGoey, professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World and No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy. They discuss how politicians make use of ignorance and uncertainty, the difference between ignorance and deliberate misinformation, and why, if ‘knowledge is power', ignorance is too. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks to Peter Mitchell, author of Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves, which considers how the memory of empire continues to inflect British culture and politics. They discuss how imperial nostalgia manifests itself in our politics today, the role of the Labour Party in supporting these trends, and how the Left should respond to emotive calls for a return to a better age. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks to Alexander Zevin, assistant professor of history at City University of New York, an editor at New Left Review, and author of Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist. Their conversation covers a host of interesting questions, including about the liberal ideology, whether it's in crisis – and where the liberal rules-based world order goes next. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Amelia Horgan, Philosophy PhD candidate researching the politics of work and author of Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism. They discuss the changing nature of work in the UK and around the world, how these trends have been impacted by the pandemic, and whether it's possible to imagine ‘good work' under capitalism. (Note there's the occasional snag in our guest's sound because of some internet trouble.) You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace speaks with Jason W. Moore, environmental historian and professor of sociology at Binghamton University, about capitalism and climate breakdown. They discuss his brilliant books, Capitalism in the Web of Life and Capitalocene or Anthropocene?, and ask what Marx can teach us about the multiple, overlapping ecological crises our planet is currently facing. Find Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oikeios For access to the full episode, support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/aworldtowinpod

In this episode, Grace talks to writer and activist Hadas Thier about her excellent book A People's Guide to Capitalism, in which she provides a concise and readable introduction to Marxist thought. They discuss key concepts like capital, class, and imperialism, and apply them to the current crisis gripping the capitalist world system. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace speaks to Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic and author of the excellent new book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet and How We Fight Back. She’s also the co-author of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style, and A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal. They discuss Biden’s climate plan, the Green New Deal, and whether fossil fuel executives should be tried for crimes against humanity. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, Grace talks to Palestinian activist Akram Salhab on his experience living and organising in Palestine, what’s going on in Sheikh Jarrah, and the heroic efforts of Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation – as well as what socialists around the world can do to support them. We encourage our listeners to donate to charities supporting Palestinians on the ground. You can donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians here. You can also support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

In a week that saw Keir Starmer’s Labour tank in the local elections, Grace speaks to two brilliant local leaders who managed to defy the downturn. Matthew Brown is leader of Preston City Council and the driving force behind the Preston Model, as well as the co-author of Paint Your Town Red, which you can buy now from Repeater Books. Paul Dennett is the city-mayor of Salford, and a frequent contributor to Tribune, including a recent piece on why socialist Salford bucked the trend in the elections. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

Grace talks to Alex Press, staff writer at Jacobin, about Amazon’s ruthless exploitation of its workforce, its deeply embedded culture of union busting, and its avoidance of basic labour regulation in its mission to become the ‘everything store’ — as well as how workers are coming together to resist the company. You can read Alex’s recent work on Amazon and unions here, here, and here. A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

This week, Grace talks to author, writer, and organiser Harsha Walia on her book Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. They discuss the nature and location of the border, its functionality to global capitalism and imperialism, and how the Left can organise to resist right-wing populism in the age of nationalism and climate breakdown. A reminder that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer, Conor Gillies, and Tribune’s designer Kevin Zweerink for their work on this episode. This podcast is supported by the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

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.

This week, Grace talks to Mat Lawrence, director of the think tank Common Wealth, and Laurie Layborn Langton, author and researcher, about their new book Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown. Planet on Fire argues that ‘the political status quo has no answer to the devastating and inequitably distributed consequences of the climate emergency’ and, in this episode, the guests discuss the multiple overlapping ecological, economic, and political crises the world is facing in the era of environmental breakdown, as well as how the Left should respond. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Doug Henwood, Marxist, journalist, host of the Behind the News podcast, and author of many books, including the classic Wall Street: How it Works and For Whom. They discuss Biden’s stimulus package, his corporate tax hikes, and what’s been going on in US stock markets – as well as how workers can organise in the post-Covid economy. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

Before the container ship crisis in the Suez Canal, Grace spoke with Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. They discussed the fascinating architecture and infrastructure that underpins the backbone of capitalism—global shipping—and what it tells us about state power, corporate sovereignty, and imperialism – as well as how those networks are adapting to China’s increasingly assertive economic expansion. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, as the anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic by the WHO approaches, Grace talks to Dr. Eugene Richardson, Assistant Professor of Global Health at Harvard and author of Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health. Eugene previously worked in Sierra Leone and the DRC supporting the response to the Ebola outbreak. They discuss the ways in which an unequal, unsustainable capitalist world system reproduces massive economic, political, and health inequalities, and what we can do about it. Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

This week, we have a special International Women’s Day episode of A World to Win, in which Grace talks to Kristen Ghodsee, Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of many books, including Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism and Other Arguments for Economic Independence. The interview was recorded on International Women's Day. Kristen skilfully deconstructs liberal, corporate, and NGO feminism, and helps us to think about how the feminist movement is about supporting everyone to build stronger, happier, healthier relationships and rediscover our unalienated humanity in the process. You can read Ghodsee’s article mentioned in the interview here. You can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Sarah Jaffe, journalist and author of Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone. They discuss Joe Biden’s first weeks as president, the impact of Covid-19 and climate breakdown in the US, and how the world of work is changing for the worse as a result of the pandemic – as well as how we might resist it. Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.

In this week’s episode, Grace talks to Moses Khisa, Assistant Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University and a research associate with the Centre for Basic Research in Kampala. They discuss the recent elections in Uganda, in which President Yoweri Museveni won his sixth term against populist challenger and former popstar Bobi Wine, and place them in the context of Uganda’s long slide towards authoritarianism and the failed neoliberal reforms of the 1990s. Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

This week, Grace talks to Ellen Clifford, author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe (ZED Books, 2020), who is on the steering committee of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). They discuss successive UK governments’ breaches of the human rights of disabled people, how the Left can be made a more inclusive space for disabled activists, and how the pandemic has affected the lives of disabled people after a decade of austerity. Remember that you can support our work on the show by becoming a Patron. Thanks to our producer Conor Gillies and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for making this episode possible.

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.