On political capitalism and social justice.
We continue our interview with Dylan Riley, discussing the limitations of ‘social justice’. Both woke and social-democratic demands today hinge on a notion of fairness. How realistic is it to petition the state to apportion justice in this way?
Together with Robert Brenner, Dylan Riley has advanced the thesis that we are entering an age of 'political capitalism' in which the state becomes central for guaranteeing the rate of return. ...
2023-01-10 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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In honour of the publication of the Italian edition of The End of the End of History, Alex Hochuli will be in conversation with the book's translator, Mattia Salvia (Iconografie).
Join us on Thursday 12 January at 19h00 at Santeria Paladini 8 (event in English & Italian)
2023-01-04 19:58:26 +0000 UTC
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On 'degrowth communism'.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Why the rage for degrowth now? With deindustrialisation, energy rationing and severe pressure on standards of living, it looks increasingly like degrowth is official policy.
Yet its advocates, drawing from the work of radicals like Mike Davis, John Bellamy Foster, Jason Hickel, and Kohei Saito, would argue that ecological Marxism or degrowth communism is wholly different from stagnant capitalism. How much continuity is there betwe...
2023-01-03 12:25:53 +0000 UTC
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On atomisation and association.
Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone came out 22 years ago and the structural changes he identified then – increasing atomisation – have only worsened. Everyone now blames the internet, and though it may have accelerated some aspects, the problem goes deeper. The social consequences – loneliness, mistrust, depression – are widely discussed, but the political ones less so.
Does the decline of associationalism open the door to aut...
2022-12-20 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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On the global left after the Cold War.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Has the left declined, been defeated, or is it dead? Is the continuity with the Old and New Lefts of the 20th century, or should we understand 1989 as marking a definitive break?
We use a long essay by Swedish Marxist sociologist Göran Therborn in the latest New Left Review as a plank to examine these questions. Therborn tries to present a synoptic analysis of where the left is, globally speaking, almost a...
2022-12-13 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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On your questions & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We debate what kind of work 'shared-labour socialism' would involve in a complex society, and what role 'dispossession' or 'expropriation' has in the contemporary economy. Plus: strategies on Ukraine – backing independence, guerilla warfare, and what an 'anti-NATO' stance actually looks like; and whether the forces exist for exiting the EU.
Fill out our 2022 Listener Survey! 2022-12-06 14:26:20 +0000 UTC
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It's time for the 2022 Bungacast listener survey. We want to know what you thought about the world in 2022 - and about what we do, so we can improve.
Answer the survey via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XNLTVLB.
It is open to all, whether you've only listened to Bungacast a couple of times, or you're a long-t...
2022-12-06 12:42:23 +0000 UTC
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On "techno-feudalism".
In the Bungacast Reading Club for patrons, we've been discussing various works on "neo-feudalism" - a thesis that tries to explain capitalist stagnation and inequality by arguing that we are moving beyond capitalism – toward something worse.
In this free episode, we discuss one of the most thoroughgoing critiques of this thesis: Evgeny Morozov's "2022-11-29 13:19:07 +0000 UTC
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The next Reading Club in the Techno-Feudalism section will be recorded this Wednesday, 30 November. We will be discussing Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism - focusing on the Introduction and Conclusion.
Send in your questions by 4pm GMT on Wednesday - or post them here in the comments.
2022-11-28 10:39:15 +0000 UTC
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On imperial rivalry in the Sahel.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The interview with Yvan Guichaou continues, discussing naturalisation of forever war in the West, and the long-term legacy of French military intervention in the Sahel. What is the situation on the ground for Malians? What has Russia's involvement been, and is there a continuation of its Cold War stance? And is “imperialism” the right way to understand what’s going on?
Readings:
On Mali and the Sahel.
French president Emmanuel Macron declared the end of Opération Barkhane on 9 November 2022, bringing to an end to nearly 10 years of French military intervention in Mali. But what is the legacy of the French Forever War in the Sahel, and what happens next?
Sahel expert Yvan Guichaoua joins us to talk about French defeat in the war on terror, the continued French military presence in the region, the growing extent of jihadi power, as well as the crisis...
2022-11-22 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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A special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
Previously released in 2021 only to subscribers, we're now re-releasing the series as a single-episode megamix. (Patreon sets file size limits so this is a lower-quality version. For HQ, get the version on all other platforms)
- Part 1: (00:00:00)
- Part 2: (00:38:11)
- Part 3: (01:07:54)
- Part 4: (02:50:32)
- Part 5: (03:59:24)
Part 1:
W...
2022-11-15 07:00:06 +0000 UTC
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On your questions & criticisms.
[Patreon Exclusive]
The weakness of anti-EU forces; the implications of defending Ukrainian sovereignty; what should we call the new far-right and what does it *do* in power? And the gravity of nuclear war
Also, is Phil okay?
2022-11-08 07:00:07 +0000 UTC
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On nuclear exterminism.
To commemorate our 300th episode, we discuss how the world is closer to a nuclear conflict than at any point since the Cold War. After decades of inconsequential 'permawar' (at least inside the Western bubble), the proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia is suddenly very consequential indeed.
How does our situation differ from that of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? Why might it be more unpredictable? Does today's very different ideological configuratio...
2022-11-02 19:22:26 +0000 UTC
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On reclaiming populism.
With only a couple of days to go until the decisive runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro, we continue our Bungazão 2022 series by talking to political scientist Miguel Lago about how Lula and Bolsonaro both construct a Brazilian people. Lula does so broadly on class lines, while Bolsonaro's construction is a moral one: "good citizens" and those to b...
2022-10-28 16:07:43 +0000 UTC
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On shared-labour socialism.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We continue our discussion, looking at what is behind "bullshit jobs" in the global North and the absence of jobs in the global South; debate whether "shared-labour socialism" would involve commune living; and try to unpick the trickiest aspect of all this: how to distribute the work that is necessary, requires specialisation, and which is unpleasant – for example, mining.
Readings:
On shared-labour socialism.
Political theorist Alex Gourevitch talks to us about his critique of post-work thought, and how it presupposes the very labour it seeks to free us from. We start of by distinguishing post-work socialism (e.g. Fully Automated Luxury Communism) from various propositions for a Universal Basic Income, and discuss why these ideas are popular today.
We then dedicate much of the time to debating Gourevitch's alternative proposal for "shared-labour socialism"....
2022-10-25 17:26:42 +0000 UTC
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On corruption & anti-corruption.
When Bolsonaro won in 2018, he rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Now he's doled out billions in pork via a secret budget, but this doesn't seem to bother his supporters. What happened?
Benjamin Fogel, who studies the history of corruption in Brazil, comes on to discuss how a moralistic account of corruption has fortified the far right. How has corruption been used as a political weapon in the past, and how has it shifted from right to l...
2022-10-20 21:30:43 +0000 UTC
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On Friday 28 October, we'll be recording the first episode of the third and final section of this year's Reading Club.
We'll be discussing Joel Kotkin's The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class and Yanis Varoufakis' article "Techno-Feudalism Is Taking Over
2022-10-19 16:20:19 +0000 UTC
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On Trussonomics.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Having stumbled upon a successful recipe under Boris Johnson which would see greater state intervention, Britain's Tories then pivoted to a much more pro-market approach. But the markets haven't liked it – they've hated it.
What does this say about neoliberalism and what the new orthodoxy is? Why did markets react so badly against a budget that featured things they normally like, such as lower rates of corporate taxes? And does th...
2022-10-18 06:00:04 +0000 UTC
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[Patreon Exclusive]
On who is responsible for prolonging the Ukraine War + your questions & criticisms
We start off by discussing whether the Zelensky tail is wagging the NATO dog, and what possible exits to conflict there might be.
Then, in the main section, we respond to listener comments: we talk about the possibility of a "Chinese Dream", what the point of economic growth is, the monarchy and modernisation, and whether 'fascism' is an appropriate term for the f...
2022-10-11 06:01:00 +0000 UTC
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[Patreon Exclusive]
On the meaning of Gorbachev.
Mikhail Gorbachev continues to be lauded in Western circles for overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union without much bloodshed. But given the historic societal disaster that followed, is this status unmerited? How naive was Gorbachev about the wolves at the door? And to what extent was the writing on the wall by the late '80s – was there an alternative path not taken?
Readings:
On Brazil's containment of the crisis.
We talk to members of the Unbridled Possibility Collective (Fabio Luis B. Santos | Thais Pavez | Daniel Cunha) about their intervention, trying to look beyond this week's election in Brazil.
What does establishment support for Lula ...
2022-09-29 16:06:32 +0000 UTC
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On the Brothers of Italy
We talk to Mattia Salvia, former Rolling Stone Italia politics editor and author of Interregno, about Italy's election last weekend in the context of a Europe in crisis. The big question to start: is Meloni a fascist - and will her government be fascist?
With very low turnout, it seems like the working class has deserted politics, with 5 Star being t...
2022-09-28 23:28:07 +0000 UTC
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On La Macronie, or Macronistan
Is France in perma-crisis? We talk to Nathan Sperber, independent researcher on political economy based in Paris and the author of a recent piece on Macronistan in American Affairs.
Does Macron evince a neo-statist turn, away from the entrepreneurial, neoliberal rhetoric of 2017? And what about the anti-establishment forces, left and right – how much of a chance do they have to shake La Macronie, or will they be co-opted?
2022-09-27 16:24:14 +0000 UTC
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[Patreon Exclusive]
On your questions and criticisms.
We discuss the Chinese Dream, speculation and horizontal politics, foreign fighters and spies, Dune, and killing Phil.
2022-09-21 18:13:44 +0000 UTC
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[Patreon Exclusive]
On the death of Queen Elizabeth, a 20th century figure
To our own surprise, we are doing an episode on the Queen of England. How will her death impact the UK when she was basically the only institution that still retained popular trust? Will Britons be made to face up to the question of what kind of country they want?
We revisit the Nairn-Anderson theses about how and why Britain had so many seemingly feudal remnants, and ask whether there is still someth...
2022-09-13 06:00:03 +0000 UTC
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On the history of inequality.
In the second part of this episode, we continue our chat with Branko Milanovic. We discuss how inflation is likely to impact inequality, ask Branko what he means by the "paleo-left" as an ideological position and why we should adopt this perspective.
We also look forward to Branko's upcoming book, on the history of studies on inequality, and find out why Marx and libertarians have more in common than we often might think.
2022-09-06 06:03:00 +0000 UTC
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On Communism's historic role.
We talk to renowned Serbian-American economist Branko Milanovic about growing up in Yugoslavia and how, in much of the world, History never ended. We then dedicate much of the episode to discussing Branko's claim that communism was essentially an engine of economic convergence, allowing developing countries to haul themselves into the industrial age.
We also talk about Branko's work on inequality and why growth still matters.
Readings:
2022-09-06 06:01:01 +0000 UTC
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[Patreon Exclusive]
On the probability of a coup in Brazil.
Our guest, lawyer and podcaster Alcysio Canette, and Alex, look at Bolsonaro's claims that he will refuse to leave office. What will happen on Brazil's independence day parade on 7 September? Bolsonaro has demanded his supporters take to the streets "for the last time". And is there the basis for a coup? How is the military positioning itself, and what about the big bourgeoisie?
In the After Party, the hosts make s...
2022-09-05 18:41:33 +0000 UTC
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