The Another Europe Podcast

After 14 years of frankly horrendous Conservative rule, millions celebrated Labour’s decisive victory. But since that fateful July day the new comms team at Number 10 has kicked into action. Their aim it seems is a simple one: to get you to put your hopes and dreams away and be as miserable as possible. So what do we make of it all? And what do we expect to happen next? In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams try to find rays of hope in a murky sky. Going back to Starmer's original election as Labour leader and the small role Zoe played in his campaign, they discuss what it might reveal about the factions and networks now running the United Kingdom and where the opportunities may still lie for progressive victories in the years ahead.  An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe Is Possible, to join and support our work go to anothereurope.org/join

With white supremacist riots targeting Muslims and peoples of colour, this was a summer to forget for many of our communities in the UK. Building on the work that Another Europe has undertaken for several years on challenging anti-Muslim racism across Europe, Luke Cooper spoke to Shaista Aziz, a co-director of the anti-racist campaign group, Three Hijabis, a longstanding member of Another Europe and a friend of the podcast. They discuss the horrifying attacks we’ve seen on our communities and the enabling role played by mainstream Islamophobia. For some background reading check out Another Europe's statement on the riots here, our report on Islamophobia in France here and the UK and Germany here and the Three Hijabis website. Shaista has also been involved in a really important campaign, 'Safe Homes, Not Hotels', organised by Conversations About Borders. You can sign their petition to house asylum seekers here.  There’s no 'extra time' this week as we thought we’d put the whole episode of the podcast out in full. We’d still urge you to join the campaign and support our work. Members of Another Europe get access to extra podcast material as a benefit of supporting the campaign. To join go to anothereurope.org/join 

A huge protest movement has taken to the streets in Georgia against the "foreign agent" law. This new legislation would require all organisations that receive foreign funding to declare it on a national register. Protestors have argued that this is the thin end of the wedge amid an increasingly authoritarian climate in the country for human rights advocacy and civil society organisations.  To discuss what this uprising tell us about our changing world, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams reached out to an old friend of the Another Europe Is Possible campaign, Alex Scrivener, who campaigned with us back in the 2016 EU referendum. Today, he is the Director of the Democratic Security Institute, an organisation based in Tblisi that faces being declared a 'foreign agent' by the Georgian government. On this podcast he discusses the parallels between his activity on the streets of Georgia today, fighting a Putin-backed nationalist campaign, with the 2016 EU referendum in the UK, and what this tells us about the new imperialism engulfing our world. For some background reading from Alex, see his piece on 'hard power' here and his argument for a values-based foreign policy here.   An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe is Possible. To join and support our work go to anothereurope.org/join. On this podcast's extra time, we change the topic altogether to talk about the UK General Election. 

Liz Truss has managed to persuade herself of a very convenient (from her perspective) "truth": she wasn't a terrible prime minister with a flawed economic strategy, but the victim of a deep state conspiracy. Swinging aggressively to the far right, she has been courting Steve Bannon and the American Trumpists on a recent US tour. What does this mean for the future of British conservatism? What's the game plan of this group of radicalised Tories - and how worried should we be? To talk us through these questions, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to David Runciman, professor of politics at the University of Cambridge and the author of a number of books including How Democracy Ends. David's new podcast is called Past, Present and Future and can be found in the usual places. His recent Guardian essay on the strange world of the Truss phenomenon can be read here https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/she-still-carries-an-aura-of-spectacular-failure-why-hasnt-liz-truss-gone-away An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe is Possible. To join and support our work go to https://anothereurope.org/join  

He's the city trader that went rogue. But he didn't lose the bank money. Quite on the contrary, he made them hundreds of millions from the fallout of the financial crisis. Then he dared to speak out against a system that was broken for the many but working for the few. In The Trading Game former city trader and friend of the Another Europe podcast Gary Stevenson has now put his remarkable story down on paper. It's an incredible story and a brilliant read. In this podcast, Gary talks to Another Europe's Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper about the sociology of the City of London and how extreme wealth can so easily drive you mad. He also - in 'extra time' - offers his thoughts on the ecosystems of the political left. You can buy a copy of the Trading Game here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455809/the-trading-game-by-stevenson-gary/9780241636602 You can also check out our earlier podcasts with Gary here: https://www.anothereurope.org/episode-88-the-cost-of-living-crisis/ https://www.anothereurope.org/episode-62-i-made-millions-from-the-financial-crisis-trust-me-the-system-is-broken/ 

George Galloway has done it again, in a byelection as predictable as it was depressing. But surely this is isn't just about one individual. It feels like a moment of crisis and disruption in British politics. After the dust had settled on the result, Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper spoke to James Meadway and Michael Chessum about what it means for British politics in this age of crisis and contention. Their conversation was kicked off by a discussion of Michael's Guardian article that can be read here. Members of Another Europe get access to extra podcast material as a benefit of membership. To join and support our work go to http://anothereurope.org/join  Production and editing by Malek Banat. 

Poland has dumped its far right government in a historic election victory for pro-democratic forces. After years of authoritarianism and anti-migrant racism, the Law and Justice party have been defeated by a coalition of pro-democratic parties.  In this podcast, Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to Polish activist Ana Oppenheim about the historic triumph of liberals, pro-democrats and the left. A member of the Another Europe National Committee, co-host of the Polish news and history podcast Polkast and an activist with the left-wing party Razem (personal capacity), Ana offers her thoughts on the election, and what it means for European politics and Ukraine's resistance to Russian imperialism.  The podcast is published as part of the Ukraine and the World series, an initiative taken in collaboration with Foreign Policy in Focus – Institute for Policy Studies in the United States and our longstanding partner, European Alternatives. 

It was a scientific discovery that changed the world forever. The nuclear bomb was largely a brainchild of left wing scientists who were determined Nazi Germany would not win the race to build this terrible weapon. The recent Hollywood biopic focuses on the role of Robert Oppenheimer in this fascinating period in history, the man who led the team working under the direction of the American government in this top secret project, who would become a prominent victim of the McCarthyite purges in the 1950s.  In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams talk to LSE professor and Another Europe Is Possible member, Mary Kaldor, about this fascinating history. While she never met Oppenheimer himself, Kaldor met a number of other figures in the film and others that didn't make it into the script, particularly at the Pugwash conferences on disarmament that created a unique space for dialogue between scientists on either side of the Cold War divide.

In the first podcast in our Ukraine and the World series, Luke Cooper talks to Masha Shynkarenko, a Research Associate with the Ukraine in European Dialogue programme at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and an expert on the Russian colonisation of Crimea and the Crimean Tartar national movement.  They discuss the long history of Russian and Soviet imperialism in the Crimean peninsula, life under Russian occupation, and the need for nuance and complexity in discussion of what decolonisation of Crimea should look like in practice.  The Ukraine and the World series is an initiative taken in collaboration with Foreign Policy in Focus - Institute for Policy Studies in the United States and our longstanding partner, European Alternatives.  Members of Another Europe get access to extra material as a benefit of membership. In this pod's extra time, Masha and Luke discuss the implications of the decolonisation of Crimea for the wider appeals to decolonisation globally and the fall of empires in the 21st century.

It managed to unite Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in opposition. So why has the UK signed up to the CPTPP (the 'Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership')? In this podcast, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to trade justice campaigner Nick Dearden about the Brexiter push for more global trade deals. In their rush to sign up to these corporate agreements the UK government is signing away the sovereignty it claims to treasure. Are these agreements now ushering in a new era of deregulation and hyper-globalisation? Or are they simply the last hoorah for a government on its way out? And what does this tell us about our changing world? In a wide-ranging conversation we offer some answers. An extended version of this podcast is available for members of Another Europe Is Possible. You can sign up as a member at AnotherEurope.org/join.