Politics Theory Other

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 Marine Le Pen's National Rally and Eric Zemmour's Reconquête party have failed to make an electoral pact - and why this is likely to lead to a poor electoral result for the far right. Become a £5 support of PTO to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

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.

The 2nd of May marked the 25th anniversary of New Labour's coming to power and the election of Tony Blair as prime minister. I spoke to Jeremy Gilbert 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 containing both neoliberal and social democratic threads. And finally, Jeremy explained why, in spite of the defeat of the Corbyn project he believes the broad left is in a much stronger position than it was a decade ago.

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.

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-neoliberal rule which involves not merely erosion of democratic norms but also the combining of certain elements of a neoliberal marketisation agenda with efforts to promote national capital at the expense of foreign corporations and the radical centralisation of state power.

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.

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.

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, itself - continue to structure all of our lives.

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 and the significance of Samuel Smiles, the Victorian liberal reformer and author of the 1859 book Self Help: Illustrations of Character and Conduct. Finally we discussed Richard's plans to write a self-help book from the left.

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.