Last month the Progressive Economics 2022 conference, a one-day festival of transformative economic thinking, took place at the University of Greenwich. In a world battered by crises, facing environmental collapse, PEF brought together leading thinkers from across the progressive movement to present the arguments and solutions we need to build a radically better economy. Speakers included Gargi Bhattacharryya, Aaron Benanav, Francesca Bria, James Meadway, Kate Pickett, John Mcdonnell MP, and ...
2022-07-24 09:03:08 +0000 UTC
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Richard Seymour and I discuss the Conservative Party leadership election and the legacy of Boris Johnson. We talked about which conservative candidate has the most dangerous agenda and why it is that both labour and the conservatives seem so intellectually adrift. Finally, Richard explained why the presence of several BAME candidates in the election can't simply be dismissed as mere tory tokenism.
2022-07-16 15:06:02 +0000 UTC
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Christine Berry joins PTO to talk about the paper she recently co-wrote for a special issue of the Journal Renewal along with Laurie Macfarlane, The Conservatives’ political economy: ‘State rentier capitalism’ or old wine in new bottles? Unfortunately, the interview was recorded before the resignation of Boris Johnson, but the paper gives an excellent account of the contradictions of Johnson's economic agenda. You can read the paper 2022-07-13 17:12:17 +0000 UTC
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Richard Seymour on the recent wave of strikes in the UK, and whether the upsurge of industrial action signals the long hoped for revival of Britain's labour movement.
2022-07-02 14:15:32 +0000 UTC
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Sebastian Budgen returns to the show to talk about the second round of the French legislative elections. We discussed the breakthrough of Jean Luc Melenchon's NUPES coalition and the broader prospects for the left following Emmanuel Macron's failure to secure a majority. We also talked about the historic breakthrough of Marine Le Pen's national rally and the breakdown of the so-called Republican front against the far right.
Finally, we talked about where Emmanuel Macron goes from here...
2022-06-22 13:17:29 +0000 UTC
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Anna Della Subin joins PTO to talk about her book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. The book tells the stories of men who have inadvertently been turned into living Gods - from Gandhi and Haile Selassie to Prince Philip and Narendra Modi. In the book Anna shows how deification and violence were intertwined in the colonial enterprise and in the present day cult of the political strong man, yet - she argues - it's also a process that's been central to struggles of libe...
2022-06-13 17:22:33 +0000 UTC
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Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to discuss the upcoming French legislative elections and the prospects for the new left popular union coalition, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise. We talked about the prospects for the popular union and whether Mélenchon becoming Prime Minister is a realistic prospect. We also talked about the creation of the new coalition which includes the french socialists and the greens, hitherto fierce critics of Mélenchon. Finally, we discussed why Mar...
2022-05-29 19:01:46 +0000 UTC
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Paul Rogers returns to the show to discuss the likelihood of a long attritional war in Ukraine and whether Vladimir Putin's Victory Day speech on May the 9th helped us to learn anything at all about Russian intentions. We also talked about whether it's plausible that at some point China might pressure Putin to end the conflict, and finally we discussed the prospects of a negotiated peace.
2022-05-18 17:16:13 +0000 UTC
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Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleksiy Radynski joins PTO from Kyiv. We talked about the current situation in the city and the popular mood in Ukraine. We went on to talk about Oleksiy's article 'The Case Against the Russian Federation' which appeared in E-Flux magazine. Oleksiy described the key features and history of Russian nationalism and why it is that Vladimir Putin, and the clique around him, repeatedly misunderstand the political realities of Ukraine.
2022-05-17 11:21:11 +0000 UTC
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The 2nd of May marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of New Labour's coming to power and the election of Tony Blair as prime minister. Jeremy Gilbert returned to PTO to talk about how he viewed the New Labour project at the time, and about how the Blairites succeeded in winning support within the party, despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm for their neoliberal policy agenda. We also talked about why Jeremy disagreed with Stuart Hall's analysis that saw New Labour as a hybrid project - containi...
2022-05-09 12:08:05 +0000 UTC
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Richard Seymour discusses his new book, The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism. We talked about why the Marxist left for a long time gave relatively little attention to the ecological crisis and about Richard's own turn towards environmental writing. We also talked about the process of the earth's disenchantment in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it made possible capital's hyper exploitation of the natural environment.
2022-05-03 10:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Dorit Geva joins PTO to talk about the recent re-election victory of Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Dorit's article, 'Orban’s Ordonationalism as Post-Neoliberal Hegemony' which is published in the journal Theory, Culture and Society. We discussed why Orban secured such a convincing electoral victory in spite of the opposition's highlighting of government corruption and Orban's friendly relations with Vladimir Putin. We went on to talk about the innovative character of Orban's post-ne...
2022-04-21 10:44:47 +0000 UTC
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Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the first round of the French presidential election, and the prospects for the second round vote later this month. We discussed what Marine Le Pen may have learned from her heavy defeat in 2017, how Eric Zemmour's far-right candidacy affected the campaign and why the left can take some heart from the impressive result for Jean-Luc Melenchon - that came close to pushing Le Pen and the national rally into third place.
2022-04-12 19:16:55 +0000 UTC
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Richard Seymour responds to the excellent questions sent in by listeners - on topics ranging from the left's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the relationship between psychological injury and physical ailments, and the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy. Here's the tweet from Richard mentioned in the first question:
https://twitter.com/leninology/status/1508821706860...
2022-04-05 09:07:25 +0000 UTC
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Kojo Koram returns to PTO to talk about his new book, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. We chatted about how the British empire and its legacy continues to structure the UK and world economies, and why the supposed opposition between critics of Britain's imperial inheritance and the material concerns of ordinary working class people - ignores the way the economic innovations of empire and decolonisation - from tax havens and outsourcing, to the corporate form, its...
2022-03-30 09:38:41 +0000 UTC
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On Monday I'll be putting listener's questions (and a few of my own) to Richard Seymour. Topics will include last week's Interregnum episode on self-help culture, Richard's recent article in the New Left Review on Ukraine and Western media, and the cost of living crisis. If you have a question for hi...
2022-03-25 14:33:38 +0000 UTC
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In the second episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour discusses his recent article, 'The cruelties of self-help culture'. We talked about the magical thinking propagated by what Richard calls "the success wing of self-help literature" and why its claim that success depends almost solely on individual effort is so appealing. We also talked about the history of self-help culture ...
2022-03-18 13:30:06 +0000 UTC
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Despite India's deepening alliance with the United States, and the country's regional rivalry with China, the Indian government has refused to join condemnation of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Ravinder Kaur joins PTO to talk about India's tacit alliance with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, how Russian weaponry continues to be the primary source for India's military, and why there is a striking degree of support for Russia within the country.
2022-03-13 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Historian Evan Smith joined PTO to talk about the history of the Revolutionary Communist Party and the LM network, and the journey of its members from trotskyist revolutionary politics to the particular brand of libertarianism they espouse today.
2022-03-09 10:37:14 +0000 UTC
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James Meadway returns to PTO to talk about his recent article on the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the Putin regime's invasion of Ukraine. We discussed the special significance of targeting the Russian central bank, and the likely consequences for the Russian economy. We also talked about the extraordinary dangerousness of the situation, given the r...
2022-03-01 17:56:52 +0000 UTC
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In the first episode of Interregnum, a new fortnightly show with author Richard Seymour, we talked about the objectives of the Russian invasion, and what Vladimir Putin's broader geo-strategic goals are. And we also discussed his extraordinary claim that the invasion is in part aimed at the "denazification" of Ukraine. Finally, we talked about the risk of direct Western military intervention.
We spoke to each other on Thursday afternoon, before Russian troops had entered Kyiv and befor...
2022-02-25 13:21:27 +0000 UTC
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Paul Rogers joins PTO again to talk about his recent article in Open Democracy: Who would benefit from Russia going to war with Ukraine? We chatted about the Russian military build up on Ukraine's borders and whether this portends an imminent invasion. We also talked about the arms industry and how the nexus between arms companies, states, and research institutions encourages pol...
2022-02-12 13:17:59 +0000 UTC
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Camila Vergara joins PTO to talk about Chile's new left wing government and the new president elect, former student leader Gabriel Boric. We talked about what to expect from the new government in the context of a divided congress, how the protest movements that first emerged in 2011 has given rise to both the election of the new government and the constitutional convention - which has been tasked with re-rewriting the Pinochet era constitution. We also talked about the presidential campaign o...
2022-02-09 09:08:41 +0000 UTC
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Sebastian Budgen returns to answer the excellent questions that were sent in by listeners on the recent episode about Eric Zemmour - as well as on French politics more generally. We talked about Zemmour's relationship to other currents in far-right European politics, his somewhat surprising position on Israel and Zionism, and we also talked about Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the French left.
2022-01-30 17:02:04 +0000 UTC
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Sebastian Budegn will be returning to PTO to respond to your questions on the recent episode on Eric Zemmour. As well as questions on Zemmour, please feel free to send in questions on French politics and the upcoming presidential election more generally. If you have a question then please comment below, or email politicstheoryother@gmail.com with 'listener quest...
2022-01-19 10:58:05 +0000 UTC
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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.
2022-01-17 17:40:02 +0000 UTC
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Phil Burton-Cartledge returns to PTO to discuss the idea of Jeremy Corbyn founding a new political party to the left of labour, and in the second part of the interview we discussed the latest revelations about lockdown breaking parties in Downing Street - and whether Boris Johnson is running out of road.
2022-01-12 14:53:02 +0000 UTC
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Lea Ypi returns to respond to listener's questions on the recent episode on her new book, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.
2022-01-04 14:21:03 +0000 UTC
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Richard Seymour returns to PTO to talk about the omicron variant and why he believes Covid19 will be a crisis of a decade, rather than years. We also talked about whether the British government will ever move beyond just vaccines and lockdowns in its pandemic response, and make a serious effort to adapt our infrastructure and health system. We also talked about the failure of the global vaccination effort, and finally we discussed the question of vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations.<...
2021-12-21 10:14:27 +0000 UTC
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Jason Hickel returns to PTO for the second part of a two part interview on his book, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. We talked about the concept of 'green growth', and why the notion of decoupling growth from intensive resource use is ultimately unconvincing. We also chatted about the Green New Deal and whether it is compatible with the politics of degrowth. And finally we talked about Jason's argument that a green energy and resource transition, if undertaken with no...
2021-12-18 12:22:41 +0000 UTC
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