Category: Political Eh-conomy Radio

With only two days left until Donald Trump’s inauguration, today’s two guests look at the turn to the right that’s already well under way across parts of the global South.

First, I speak with the historian, journalist and author Vijay Prashad about the nationalist Narendra Modi’s economic agenda in India. Vijay’s books include The Darker Nations A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. He teaches history in the northeastern US.

My second guest is Sabrina Fernandez, who discusses the permanent austerity being implemented in Brazil by the draconian Temer government. Sabrian is an activist on the radical left in Brazil and she recently completed a PhD in sociology focusing on the left in Brazilian politics from Carleton University. She spoke with me from Brasilia.

I finished each interview by asking what lessons the lefts of their countries hold for those of us battling an empowered right in the North.

As always, remember to subscribe using the links below the player to get new episodes as they appear (you can also donate to help keep the show going).

Tags Austerity, Brazil, demonetization, India, left in Brazil, left in India, Modi, Temer

Canada Climate change First Nations Political Eh-conomy Radio

#RealChange wearing thin: A look back at Trudeau’s first year

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date December 22, 2016
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We’re one year into Justin Trudeau’s government of #RealChange, yet it’s mostly the rhetoric not the policies that have changed. Some of the shine is finally wearing off. Whether approving pipelines, settting electoral reform up to fail or privatizing airports and transit, the Liberals are showing themselves to be the good capitalist managers they’ve always been, not the anti-austerity crusaders of the last election campaign.

Today, three guests—Derrick O’Keefe, Clayton Thomas-Müller and Luke Savage—take a look back at this first year of the Liberal government and look forward to how opposition to it can develop. Derrick is a journalist, author and editor at Ricochet Media. He’s based in Vancouver and currently working on a book on BC politics and history. Clayton Thomas Muller is a climate campaigner with 350.org based in Winnipeg. Luke Savage works for the Broadbent Institute at its Press Progress media outfit and writes frequently on US and Canadian politics.

All the best to you and yours! Back in the New Year!

Tags anti-austerity, electoral reform, Justin Trudeau, Kinder Morgan, Liberal Party of Canada, pipelines, populism, Privatization

Political Eh-conomy Radio Unions Workers

No shortcuts: Jane McAlevey on organizing that can transform unions and society

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date December 5, 2016
No Comments on No shortcuts: Jane McAlevey on organizing that can transform unions and society

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Today’s epsiode was recorded live at an event with union organizer and author Jane McAlevey in Toronto last week to launch her new book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age. I was honoured to share the stage with Jane and Stephanie Ross, who teaches in labour studies at McMaster, to discuss this important and very readable book that lays out the organizing approach that can save today’s ossified and crumbling labour movement. Stephanie and I took turns asking questions and before we knew it an hour was up!

This is my second interview with Jane; the first is available both as a podcast and transcribed. As always, remember to subscribe using the links below the player to get new episodes as they appear (you can also donate to help keep the show going).

Tags CIO, Jane McAlevey, Make the Road NY, No Shortcuts, union democracy, union organizing, whole worker organizing

Political Eh-conomy Radio USA

Don’t mourn, organize! Sarah Jaffe on organizing before and after Trump

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date November 10, 2016
No Comments on Don’t mourn, organize! Sarah Jaffe on organizing before and after Trump

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You could almost hear the whole world hold its breath as the night of November 8th dragged on and Donald Trump’s march towards the presidency became clearer. While it may be trite, Joe Hill’s famous dictum “Don’t mourn; organize!” rings true today. My guest, journalist and author Sarah Jaffe, is very well placed to help us start thinking about how to do this in the age of Trump.

Her book Necessary Trouble, released just a few months ago, catalogues in great journalistic detail the post-crisis rise of oppositional movements in the US from Occupy Wall Street to the Fight for 15 to Black Lives Matter. The necessary trouble she writes about just took on a new urgency. Sarah gives her account of the present and possible future for nascent left movements and organizations in the US.

Subscribe and donate to help me keep this podcast going.

Tags Black Lives Matter, BYP100, Fight for 15, left organizations, Occupy Sandy, Occupy Wall St, Trump, US movements, US unions

Extraction Latin America Political Eh-conomy Radio

Focus on Latin America: Colombia’s rejected peace and the Pink Tide in trouble

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date October 19, 2016
No Comments on Focus on Latin America: Colombia’s rejected peace and the Pink Tide in trouble

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Political Eh-conomy Radio returns with a new logo, new life and a new episode focused on Latin America. First up: Aaron Tauss, assistant professor of International Political Economy at the Universidad National in Medellin, Colombia. I spoke with Aaron to better understand the devastating and unexpected “No” vote in Colombia’s referendum on a peace deal that would have ended 50 years of civil war. His analysis is deeply rooted in the broader economic forces shaping contemporary Colombia.

Second, I speak with Kyla Sankey, a researcher from the UK who wrote a terrific article for Jacobin on the state of the Pink Tide of left governments that swept Latin America in the early 2000s. Kyla looks at the present problems and future prospects of a Pink Tide limping along as the right has returned to power in Argentina and Brazil, while Venezuela remains mired in political and economic crisis.

Tags Argentina, bien vivir, Bolizia, Brazil, Chavez, Colombia, Ecuador, FARC, Lula, Macri, Morales, peace referendum, Pink Tide, PT, Santos, Uribe, Venezuela, Worker's Party

Europe Government Municipal Political Eh-conomy Radio USA

When the left takes the city

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date August 17, 2016
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This week, the focus is on experience of left parties and organizations at the municipal level. Although the left has still exercised only limited political power in many places since the financial crisis, some cities have seen left projects come to power or build new institutions in interesting ways. My two guests shed light on two examples of municipal socialism in Europe and North America.

First, Yusef Quadura describes the experience of Barcelona en Comu. In 2015, this new left coalition took control of the municipal government in Barcelona. Led by the housing activist Ada Colau, the party did what Podemos couldn’t do nationally and garnered enough support to govern with the intention of implementing a left program, at least at the municipal level. To get a sense of the plans, accomplishments and challenges faced by Barcelona en Comu just over a year into its mandate, I spoke with Yusef, a member Barcelona en Comu’s international group. Yusuf is also part of the party’s co-ordinating committee in the Gracia district, where we met and talked over coffee (excuse the ambient noise), and a substitute counsellor for the Gracia district council.

My second guest is Kali Akuno, a leader within Cooperation Jackson, a municipal organization far beyond just a political party in Jackson, Mississippi. Although the group elected the radical Chokwe Lumumba as mayor of Jackson in 2014 (before he died tragically only a year into his term), electoral politics is only a small, supporting part of Cooperation Jackson’s mission. Kali describes what this network of worker-run cooperatives, party and movement congealed into one is up to and some of challenges it faces.

Tags Ada Colau, Barcelona en Comu, Cooperation Jackson, Kali Akuno, left politics, municipal socialism

Ideology Political Eh-conomy Radio UK

The improbable rise of Jeremy Corbyn

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date July 7, 2016
2 Comments on The improbable rise of Jeremy Corbyn

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So far this week, Jeremy Corbyn has caused over 100,000 new members to join the UK Labour Party he leads, has apologized for a war he opposed from the beginning and appears to have survived a coup attempt on his leadership. And despite his backstabbing MPs, he’s one of the few party leaders left standing after the Brexit referendum.

Given all this mayhem on the British political scene, I figured it would be a good time to speak with the writer Richard Seymour, author of the recently-released Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics. Richard regularly publishes in major UK and international media; his previous books include Against Austerity, Unhitched, and The Liberal Defense of Murder. He’s long been one of the best voices on British politics on the left.

Our conversation focused on the roots of Corbyn’s sudden rise to power, both within the Labour Party and politics in the UK more broadly, the failure of today’s Blairite coup plotters and the prospects of a long-term shift in ideology effected by Corbynism.

Tags Blairite, Brexit, Corbynism, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour coup, Richard Seymour, social democracy

First Nations Political Eh-conomy Radio Racism

Canada’s spring of occupations

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date June 7, 2016
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Welcome back to the first podcast episode after a two-month hiatus! This week, three guests talk about two significant occupations of public space that have happened in Canada in the interim: the Black Lives Matter occupation of police headquarters plaza in Toronto and the occupations of Indigenous and Northern Affairs offices across the country.

In this first half, I speak with journalist Desmond Cole about the Black Lives Matter occupation of the police headquarters plaza in Toronto. Activists took over the plaza for two weeks in March and April over continuing police brutality and lack of unaccountability. Desmond reported regularly from the camp and spent several nights there. Aside from his column in the Toronto Star and his other print and radio work, he is also currently writing a book about black history and black politics in Canada.

The second half features my conversation with two activists and organizers behind Occupy INAC in Regina, Robyn Pitawanakwat and Susana Deranger. Susana is a veteran of the long struggle for justice for Canada’s First Nations, an activist for over 40 years in Saskatchewan. Robyn is from a younger generation, though as the daughter of a long-time Indigenous activist, she too has deep roots in the same fight. The Colonialism No More camp has been up for 50 days in front of Indigenous and Northern Affairs office in Regina. It started as part of a wave of occupations of INAC offices across the country in response to the state of emergency in Attawapiskat over youth suicide.

Tags Andrew Loku, Attawapiskat, Black Lives Matter, BLM TO, Colonialism No More, occupation, occupy, Occupy INAC, TRC

Political Eh-conomy Radio

Podcast returns soon

I’ve been very busy with writing and other things the past couple months, which has meant the podcast has unfortunately taken a back seat. There haven’t been new episodes for a couple months. Apologies to regular listeners, but it will rise from its slumber soon. Look out for it!

Economic theory Housing Political Eh-conomy Radio USA Welfare state

Defending Bernie-nomics and debunking the housing market

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date February 29, 2016
3 Comments on Defending Bernie-nomics and debunking the housing market

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This week, I interview two guests on fairly different topics linked by the fact that they both give very effective debunkings of some mainstream economic thinking. First, I speak with JW Mason, economics professor at John Jay College in New York City, about the debate that has erupted around Bernie Sanders’ economic program. JW argues convincingly that the criticism of Sanders from mainstream liberal economists is about managing and keeping a lid on regular people’s expectations for the economy. The critics are effectively saying “this is the best we can do” even when millions are condemnded to poverty and shitty jobs. Be sure to check out his posts (1, 2 and 3), which are among the best on this debate.

Second, I speak with Nathan Tankus, a writer also based in New York City, on why housing is so unaffordable in large cities even amidst massive condo building booms. Nathan goes through the history of his Chelsea neighbourhood in NYC and its long process of gentrification as a way of drawing some conclusions about why the housing market is so screwed up. It turns out this market doesn’t work like the model described in Economics 101 textbooks. For further reading on the topic, Nathan suggests Bob Fitch (especially The Assassination of New York), Doug Henwood and Michael Hudson.

Tags Bernie Sanders, Chelsea New York, diminished expectations, expansionary policy, gentrification, growth and distribution, High Line, housing market, left neoliberals, Sanders economics program