Bhaskar Sunkara joins me to talk about the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin and collusion between the far right and the police, whether the frightening prospect of a second Trump administration makes a rerun of the 2016 election result less likely - in spite of Joe Biden's underwhelming policy platform - and we also talked about the prospect of the American right breaking from its relative economic orthodoxy and moving towards advocacy of a meaningful industrial policy.

#96 Is Trump's America a failed state? w/ Bhaskar Sunkara

During Jeremy Corbyn’s time as Labour leader, much attention was part to the economic vision that the party developed for the United Kingdom, but less to his personal interest in the arts, and how that shaped both Labour’s cultural policy, and their programme as a whole. In this interview, Juliet talks to Jeremy about his interest in the socialist cultures that formed around the 20th century Labour Party and the Popular United government in Chile, the arts policies the party developed under his leadership, the concept of cultural democracy and his determination to unlock the creative potential of the UK’s young people, #Grime4Corbyn and Culture for Labour in the 2017 and 2019 election campaigns, what the reaction to his fondness for James Joyce’s Ulysses says about the British media, how socially engaged artists might react to the 2019 election defeat and the job losses amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, and plenty more.

A full list of references for the programme can be found via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/suite212, and is available to $3 subscribers.

Suite (212) - series 3

The Arts for All: An interview with Jeremy Corbyn

Adom Getachew and Branko Marcetic join PTO to talk about the US election results, why the 'blue wave' failed to materialise and how Joe Biden will govern with a Republican senate and a republican majority on the supreme court.

#101 What happened to the 'blue wave'? w/ Adom Getachew and Branko Marcetic

The votes are still being counted, but it now looks certain that Joe Biden will be the next president of the USA. Despite the predictions of liberal pundits, though, the Biden landslide didn't emerge. Why? What does the US look like after four years of Trump? Has American political culture changed – and is it permanent? And what hope does the fledgling left in the US have? James Butler is joined by two leading writers and theorists of the American left, JoAnn Wypijewski and Vivek Chibber, to answer those questions. 

JoAnn's latest book, What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo, is available from Verso Books. The two essays discussed in the episode can be found online: 'The Politics of Insecurity' at the New Left Review, and on the politics of the Brett Kavanaugh appointment at the Verso website. Vivek Chibber's work on class politics can be found at Catalyst. 
https://novaramedia.com/?p=27339

Novara Media Podcast

#NovaraFM: After Trump

You're probably tired of hearing about 'fake news.' You probably think everything that needs to be said about it has been said. What if you were wrong? What if those arguments had barely scratched the surface? James Butler is joined by Marcus Gilroy-Ware to delve behind the facade of fake news and uncover what lies beneath: from a hollowed-out democracy, to the clash of reason and emotion, to the question of conspiracy theory – and what it might really tell us. 

Marcus Gilroy-Ware's After the Fact: The Truth About Fake News is available now. https://novaramedia.com/?p=27624

#NovaraFM: Maelstrom: Politics in the Post-Truth World

London is red. In both 2017 and 2019, the capital city went overwhelmingly red – a story repeated in other English cities, but especially pronounced in London. Yet the left has rarely had much interest in London's socialist story, preferring to deride the capital as a decadent seat of power or a parasitical drain on the rest of the country. But London has a deep, long history as a laboratory of struggle and a crucible of socialist experiment – and once had a city government so radical that Thatcher had to abolish it. Owen Hatherley joins James Butler to argue that it's time to reclaim the Red Metropolis. Red Metropolis is available from Repeater Books now. https://novaramedia.com/?p=27841

#NovaraFM: Red Flag, South Bank

Brett Christophers joins PTO to talk about his new book, Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? We chatted about the extraordinary dominance of monopolistic rent-seeking in the UK economy, why the concept of rentierisation is more useful and accurate than the notion of financialisation when talking about the trajectory of the UK and world economies, and we also talked about how and why entrepreneurialism and competitiveness are values that are taken up far more by ordinary people in the labour market than by UK business.

You can listen to the extended version of the episode by becoming a £3 supporter on patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44326998

#103 Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? w/ Brett Christophers

Everyone's heard about the rise of the robots: they're going to put us out of jobs, Skynet is going to usher in a miserable dystopia, or a friendly AI will automate everything we hate, freeing us to live a life of luxury. But what if both of these accounts are wrong? A deeper look at the actual consequences of automation might suggest something quite different is happening. The gains in productivity automation is supposed to make don't appear: a decade of stagnation tells us quite otherwise. So what have the automation theorists got wrong? And if the robots aren't going to usher in utopia, how might we build it with our own hands? James Butler is joined by Aaron Benanav, author of Automation and the Future of Work, to discuss. Endnotes has recently published an account of the 2019-20 'non-movements' on its website. https://novaramedia.com/?p=29114

#NovaraFM: After the Robots: Aaron Benanav on Work, Automation and Utopia

I am utterly gutted by the recent passing of Leo Panitch, who was the editor of The Socialist Register and a mentor to so many people like me, so I did what odd-ball podcast hosts do and I turned to the mic to get out my feelings about his legacy and what he meant to me. After a 25-minute eulogy, I replay a B-Side chat that I did with Leo back in 2017. I tricked him into talking about his life by asking him questions about people who were near and dear to him, like Ralph Miliband, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, and so on. 

Rest well, Leo. And may the rest of us re-engage with his work and legacy.

*** Support this socialist media project by becoming a patron today: HTTP://www.patreon.com/deadpundits ***

Remembering Leo Panitch: 50 Years on the Socialist Left

Micah Uetricht joins us to talk about Mike Davis's project and, accordingly, how his writings map on to some interesting rifts inside the socialist movement today. 

Find Micah's essay here: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/mike-davis-old-gods-set-night/

*** Support this project of political education by becoming a patron today: http://www.patreon.com/deadpundits ***

Mike Davis and the Socialist Project w/ Micah Uetricht

We all dream of a better world. In fact, all politics of emancipation – all serious politics of the left – is rooted in claims about a better world and a vision of the future. Why, then, do so many leftists disdain "making recipes for the cookshops of the future"? Did Marx really think we couldn't – or shouldn't – think of a new world? And what lessons might this argument have for liberation movements today? Peter Hudis has written on Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, and is general editor of the Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg. He joins James Butler to explore the relationship of alienation to the way we think about the future, Marx's humanism, and what connects a 19th century anarchist with today's mealy-mouthed social democratic tinkerers. https://novaramedia.com/?p=31404