Politics Theory Other

Iran and Israel - stepping back from the brink? w/ Paul Rogers

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 nuclear programme and how the attacks on the 13th may have distracted attention from the IDF's failure to defeat Hamas in Gaza. 2024-04-23 05:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Israel and the history of imperial feminism w/ Sophie Lewis

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...

Richard Seymour responds to listeners questions (part one)

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.

Late capitalism or technofeudalism? w/ Yanis Varoufakis

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 ...

Questions for Richard Seymour

Richard will be returning soon to answer more listeners questions. You may like to ask him about the recent episode on Gaza (and on "normie socialist" or "post-left" takes on the situation) but as always Richard is happy to answer questions on a wide range of political topics.

As usual please send your questions to politicstheoryother@gmail.com or respond below the line here.

We'll be recording on the 8th so please try to send in your question before then. Thanks as ever for s...

Interregnum - Israel's drift towards pariah status

Richard 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 d...

The seventies and us w/ Michael Hardt

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...

The crisis is permanent - MENA after the Arab Spring w/ Gilbert Achcar

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 th...

Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions

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.

Listeners questions for Richard Seymour

Richard will be returning to respond to listeners questions once more. Topics you may want to ask Richard about could include the prospect of an Israeli assault on Rafah, the significance (or otherwise) of the change of tone by the United States and other Western powers towards Israel, and the continuing threat of broader regional war. You may also like to ask Richard about the prospects for Biden and Trump in the next presidential election or about the current situation of the Ukraine war. &...

Settler colonialism and doppelganger politics w/ Naomi Klein

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 Is...

Sai Englert responds to listener's questions

In today's show 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 S...

On some (not so nice) new PTO followers...

Yesterday, I was alerted to the fact that on Spotify PTO - which previously had a rating of around 4.5 stars - is now rated an average of just 1.6! There's no way to know for absolute certain, but it seems highly likely that this was a coordinated effort by supporters of Israel to downvote PTO in order to game the algorithm (lower ranked shows are less likely to be recommended on the platform or show up in search results).

It would be hugely appreciated if you could gi...

Israel in the dock w/ Noura Erakat

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 ...

Listener's questions for Sai Englert

Sai Englert will be returning to PTO soon to answer your questions regarding the recent episode on his book, Settler Colonialism: An Introduction. As well as taking questions on the history of settler colonialism, Sai is also happy to answer questions on the current situation in Palestine.

As usual, please comment below the line or send your questions to politicstheoryother@gmail.co...

Richard Seymour on the Houthi militia, Gaza, and a second Trump presidency

Richard returns to answer listener's 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. 

Listener's questions for Richard Seymour

Later this week Richard Seymour will be returning to PTO to answer patron's questions. Feel free to ask anything relating to the recent episode on regionalisation of the Gaza war and South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ, but as usual Richard is happy to respond to questions on a wide range of other topics.

Please send post your question below the line here, or email politicstheoryo...

Interregnum - Gaza, regional war, and Israel in the dock

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 t...

Settler colonialism - from Columbus to Gaza w/ Sai Englert

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 co...

Defining genocide w/ Omer Bartov

 A noted historian of the Holocaust, Omer Bartov is also one of the world's leading authorities on genocide. In our conversation we discussed the history of the idea of genocide as well as its application to Israel's assault on Gaza. Unfortunately, we had something of a disaster with the recording of this episode and more than half of the interview was lost, and for various reasons it wasn't possible to re-record. So the following is a truncated version of our conversation that focusses ...

Richard Seymour on Gaza, the anti-Deutsch, and threat of global war

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.

Listeners' questions for Richard Seymour

Richard Seymour will be returning to respond to your questions once more. You may like to ask him about Israel's expansion of its assault to southern Gaza, or something on our recent episode on liberal Zionism, or the broader geopolitical consequences of the situation in the Middle East. Richard has also written on Javier Milei’s victory in the Argentinian presidentia...

Parallels and contrasts - the Gaza crisis and the 1973 war w/ Leila Farsakh

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, 2023-12-05 10:58:30 +0000 UTC View Post

PTO Extra! - The apologetics of liberal Zionism w/ Richard Seymour

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.

PTO Extra! - Israel's techno-solutionism w/ Sophia Goodfriend

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 a...

Israel's war on the Palestinians w/ Amjad Iraqi

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...

Red Africa w/ Kevin Ochieng Okoth

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 Re...

Interregnum - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions on Gaza

Richard returns to answer questions sent in by listeners on Gaza, Israel and the broader ramifications of the ongoing crisis.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza w/ Lara Friedman and Paul Rogers

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.

Listener's questions for Richard Seymour

This Sunday Richard will be returning to answer your questions on the situation in Gaza and the broader regional and international ramifications. If you have a question for him please comment below, or email politicstheoryother@gmail.com with 'Seymour Listener's Questions' in the subject line. Please free also to respond to Richard's comments from the most recent episode. Thanks as ever for your support...