In 2011, while working as a City trader, Gary Stevenson joined the ranks of the ultra-rich with a single bonus cheque. Not long after, he was named one of Citibank’s highest-performing traders worldwide. Stevenson made millions for his employer by betting on one thing: that inequality would worsen and living standards would fall. It made him rich, but miserable. Stevenson left his job to campaign on inequality. In this interview with Aaron Bastani, he tells the story of his ascent to the peak of the financial world and reveals the plan to destroy the middle class.

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

Downstream: The Plan is to Make you Permanently Poorer w/ Gary Stevenson

Richard Seymour discusses the resignation of Liz Truss and the ongoing civil war within the Conservative party. We also talked about why Richard characterises the conservatives as a "middle class protest party", and finally we discussed whether or not Labour's impressive poll leads are vindication of the strategy of labour leader Keir Starmer.

Interregnum - After Truss

ACFM reunite for spooky season with one thing on their minds: the horror, the horror!

Nadia, Jeremy and Keir embark on a historical, literary and cinematic exploration of scary stuff. Why do (some) humans love to be terrified? What can horror teach us about the nature of the universe? What do the latest crop of scary movies say about the fears plaguing our society?

From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Jordan Peele's 'Get Out', from H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror to Sigmund Freud's idea of the uncanny, the gang discuss books and ideas spanning several centuries – along with music from Bauhaus, Gravediggaz and Metallica.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Remember you can find the  version of this show on Novara Media's SoundCloud.


Books: Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness / Sigmund Freud – The Uncanny / Susan Hill – The Woman in Black / Stephen King – On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft / H.P. Lovecraft – Various / Paul Santilli – 'Culture, Evil, and Horror’ / Mary Shelley – Frankenstein / Bram Stoker – Dracula / Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto / H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds

Films: Everything Everywhere All At Once / Get Out / Halloween / Invasion of the Bodysnatchers / Night of the Living Dead / Poltergeist / Rosemary's Baby / White Zombie

Music: Dave Matthews Band - 'Halloween' / Bauhaus - 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' / Warren Zevon - 'Werewolves of London' / Jegsy Dodd - 'A Scouse Werewolf in London' / Metallica - 'Enter Sandman' / Ray Parker Jr - 'Ghostbusters' / Gravediggaz - 'Diary of a Madman' / Insane Clown Posse - 'Hocus Pocus' / Black Sabbath - 'Paranoid'

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

ACFM Trip 28: Horror

As Sunak continues to defend Braverman's decisions over Marston, the Home Office is dumping asylum seekers in London without anywhere to stay. How low can this government go?

Plus: Netanyahu is back in power after general elections in Israel; and Matt Hancock's decision to go on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

With Dalia Gebrial and Ash Sarkar.

__________________________________________

Support Novara Media for as little as £1 a month:

https://novaramedia.com/support

TyskySour: Tories Defend Manston Conditions

The welfare state was founded in the postwar period, seemingly as payment for a profound national sacrifice. Strengthening it has been a goal of the Left for decades. The argument is as simple as it is radical: the wealth of the nation must be shared among its people. But where did its wealth come from?

Gurminder K. Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, argues that the wealth of the welfare state was plundered from the British Empire. Colonial subjects were made to pay taxes and give it their work and resources, but they were then refused its help. And now, migration politics in Britain assumes that the descendants of colonial subjects are entitled to nothing.

So if the wealth in the welfare state was stolen, what should the Left now try to do with it?

In this week's Novara FM, Gurminder K. Bhambra takes Eleanor Penny from a history of global plunder to a future of global justice.

Novara FM: History's Biggest Benefits Cheat w/ Gurminder K. Bhambra

After the 2008 financial crisis, a vast number of people were booted from the formal labour market. Many of them ended up in the gig economy: Uber, Deliveroo, Fiverr. Their exploitation at the hands of these platforms is well known, but often overlooked are the processes of racialisation that contribute to this reorganisation of labour power.

In this episode, Eleanor Penny talks to TyskySour co-host Dalia Gebrial about her PhD research into what she terms 'racial platform capitalism'. Looking at Uber drivers and nannies in particular, Dalia explains how 'the racial fix' is used to justify the surveillance and punishment of a disposable workforce, and how Britain's imperial past has produced a lineage of exploitation stretching 'from plantation to platform'.

Dalia's paper, 'Racial platform capitalism: Empire, migration and the making of Uber in London', is available to read online at Sage Journals.

Novara FM: From Plantation to Platform w/ Dalia Gebrial

It's not a matter of life and death – it's much more important. Football elicits some of the most intense emotions we're capable of feeling, from the hug-a-stranger joy of winning trophies to the phone-in misery of relegation. At the end of the day, it's only a game – but maybe games are more important than we think.

To discuss the emotional and social meaning of football, Keir and Tom are joined by writer, filmmaker and Clapton CFC centre-forward Juliet Jacques. They also speak to Novara's labour movement correspondent Polly Smythe about the trade union leader who's become an unlikely cheerleader for the Qatari government.

Keep up with Pro Revolution Soccer, the football podcast that doesn’t leave politics at the turnstile, every Friday until the World Cup final.

Produced by Chal Ravens. Music by Matt Huxley. Design by Pietro Garrone.

Pro Revolution Soccer Ep 4: Why Do We Love Football So Much?

Cutting-edge research has recently revealed that festive movie The Muppet Christmas Carol is actually based on a book. Many are now speculating that there may even be historical context at play. But what could it be? To unwrap the politics of A Christmas Carol, Eleanor Penny is joined by James Butler, co-founder of Novara Media and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. 

Together they discuss the hungry 1840s, deflationary economics, Scrooge's miserly capitalism and why Charles Dickens' conversion story is our most enduring ghost of Christmas past.

Happy Christmas from everyone at Novara Media!

Novara FM: A Christmas Carol w/ James Butler

Peter Hitchens is something of an iconoclast. Among his colleagues on the right, the Mail on Sunday columnist stands out as a heterodox thinker – yet he’s perhaps one of the few who could be described as a genuine conservative. Aaron Bastani meets him to discuss his previous life as a Trotskyist and a Moscow correspondent, and to interrogate his provocative opinions on everything from the second world war and abortion rights to the end of the Soviet Union and why he doesn’t vote.

Downstream: Tories Don't Think w/ Peter Hitchens

In this episode of Geopolitical Economy Hour, economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss inflation: what it is, what causes it, and what are the problems in how the Federal Reserve and other central banks respond to it.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZhZbB0jjDTM

Transcript here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/27/inflation-economists-radhika-desai-michael-hudson

What causes inflation? Economists Radhika Desai & Michael Hudson explain

Biden’s administration used an Air Force F-22 Raptor jet fighter and Raytheon’s Sidewinder missile, to shoot down a meandering Chinese balloon on Saturday. Republicans in Congress called the balloon a “show of force,” and Biden canceled Secretary of State Blinken’s trip to China.

Brian is joined by Dr. Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University, founding director of the Confucius Institute at New Mexico State University, and leading organizer with Pivot to Peace.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Novara FM: History's Biggest Benefits Cheat w/ Gurminder K. Bhambra

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