Radicals in Conversation

Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel

Since the election of Narendra Modi in 2014, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with its trajectory towards authoritarianism and ethnonationalism, little attention has been paid to the linkages between Modi's India and the governments from which it has drawn inspiration, as well as military and technical support.

India may once have publicly condemned Zionism as a form of racism, but times have changed, and the state of Israel has increasingly become a cornerstone of India's foreign policy. Looking to emulate Israel in policy and practice, the recent annexation of Kashmir increasingly resembles Israel's settler-colonial project in the occupied West Bank. The ideological and political linkages between the two states are alarming; their brands of ethnonationalism deeply intertwined.

This month we are joined on the show by Azad Essa, an award-winning journalist, and author of the new book, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel. We talk about the history of the shifting relationship between the two countries, India’s waning commitment to the Palestinian cause and the Israeli military industrial complex. We also discuss the influence of European fascism as well as Zionism on the development of the Hindu nationalist movement in the 20th century. Finally, Azad shares his insights on the significance of the relationship between Modi and Netanyahu, and the deteriorating situation in Kashmir.

Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life

In a context in which abolitionist discourse is reaching an ever-wider audience, and people’s trust in the state, as a vehicle through which we can hope to achieve meaningful political change, continues to ebb away, we are seeing a renewed engagement with prefigurative politics across the left.

Pluto has always published books from a variety of political tendencies, and that includes anarchism. The label ‘anarchist’ has far from universal appeal, but as Scott Branson argues in their new book, Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life, the label itself is of secondary importance, and anarchism is something many of us are already practising in our daily lives, whether we realise it or not.

From relationships to school, work, art, even the way we organise our time, the book shows us that anarchism can help us find fulfilment, empathy and liberation in the everyday.

Scott joins us on the show for a conversation about their vision of a ‘practical anarchism’. We discuss the ways in which it is informed by Black and queer feminisms, how we can work to disidentify from the logic of capital and the state, and why we shouldn’t throw out the idea of ‘utopia’ altogether.

RIC in-haus: Expressionism and the Myth of the Western with Robin McLean

Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical fiction and nonfiction being published today.

Episode 6 was recorded on 30th November. Darran McLaughlin from Bookhaus interviews Robin McLean, author of the new short story collection, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing, which was published by And Other Stories in 2022. Robin worked as a lawyer and then a potter in the woods of Alaska before turning to writing. Her story collection Reptile House won the 2013 BOA Editions Fiction Prize and was twice a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Story Prize. She is also the author of a novel, Pity the Beast, which also came out with And Other Stories in 2021.

Here, Robin discusses her background as a union worker and activist, her choice to live in politically ‘red’ states in the US, and the ways in which her writing grapples with themes such as the frontier myth and the American psyche. They also talk about her writing process, and the comparisons that her work has drawn to literary heavyweights such as William Faulkner and Toni Morrison.

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Buy the book: bookhausbristol.com/shop

Workers Can Win: On Strike in 2022

In 2022, workers have taken strike action on a massive scale, and many more are in the process of balloting to take strike action. In Britain, NHS workers, postal workers, criminal barristers, rail workers, university lecturers and many more have all walked out in the face of attacks on pay, pensions and working conditions. Amidst the cost of living and energy crises, spiralling inflation and the grim prospect of another recession, the need to fight such battles is urgent and acute. 

In October, Pluto published Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organising at Work. Written by long-time labour organiser Ian Allinson, this nuts-and-bolts guide to organising your workplace argues that organising builds confidence, capacity and collective power - and with power we can win change.

Ian joins us on the show this monthto talk about some of the key themes and ideas within the book. We’re also joined on the panel by Siobhan Aston, an NHS nurse based in Scotland, who is involved in grassroots organising within her union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

We discuss long term grievances around pay and working conditions in the NHS, new developments in anti-union legislation, and how people can show their solidarity with striking workers.

RIC in-haus: Is Socialism Possible in Britain?

Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published today.

In episode 5, Andrew Murray speaks about his new book, Is Socialism Possible in Britain?: Reflections on the Corbyn Years (Verso, 2022). The book analyses Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Labour leader and the prospects for parliamentary socialism in a post-Corbyn Britain. A veteran of the Stop the War Coalition, Andrew Murray was seconded to Corbyn’s office from the Unite trade union, and he offers here an insider’s view of the most radical period in Labour’s recent history. 

Andrew is in conversation with Darran McLaughlin from Bookhaus. They discuss the difference between the 2017 and 2019 elections, the Labour Party's Brexit woes, and the threat Corbyn posed to the political and economic establishment. In assessing what went right and what went wrong, Andrew also offers his thoughts on what might be done differently next time, if socialism is ever to be possible in Britain.

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Buy the book: bookhausbristol.com/shop

Hope in Hopeless Times: Fighting the Hydra of Money

Amidst the global pandemic, war, environmental catastrophe, the cost of living crisis, and where victories for anti-capitalist forces are few and far between, it can feel like we are living in well and truly hopeless times. But as Marxist philosopher John Holloway argues in his new book, the times may indeed be hopeless, but we must still have hope.

Hope in Hopeless Times is the the final instalment in a trilogy which Holloway began 20 years ago with Change the World Without Taking Power, and which continued with Crack Capitalism. He joins us on the panel this month to discuss hope, identity politics, and the consequences of commodity exchange as a form of social relations. We also talk about COP27, the infamous Liz Truss mini-budget and the case for abolishing money altogether.

Hope in Hopeless Times, Change the World Without Taking Power and Crack Capitalism are all available to buy from plutobooks.com. Podcast listeners can get 50% off with the coupon PODCAST. 

RIC in-haus: Against Borders

Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published today.

In episode 4, Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke de Noronha are in conversation with Nayya Raza from Bookhaus, about their new co-authored book, Against Borders: The Case for Abolition. They discuss the history and impact of border regimes, 'non-reformist reforms', and offer a utopian vision of the future in which borders - and the logic that underpins them - have been abolished. 

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Buy the book: bookhausbristol.com/shop

Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy

Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, or Brothers of Italy, emerged from the Italian general election earlier this week with around 26% of the vote. Although it has been a junior partner in previous coalition governments, this is the first time that the party, which traces its lineage back to Mussolini and the post-war fascism of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), has become the largest political force in the country.

Surging to prominence in recent years, Fratelli d’Italia has waged a fierce culture war against the Left, polarised political debate around World War II, and sought to redeem historical fascism, legitimise its political heirs and ultimately shift the terrain of mainstream politics to the right. Now poised to take power, many in the international community are asking how this has happened. 

We are joined on the show by David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy, to analyse the situation in Italy in the wake of the election.

Mussolini's Grandchildren is published in March 2023. Pre-order it today through plutobooks.com. 

RIC in-haus: Neither Vertical nor Horizontal

Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published today.

Episode 3 features Rodrigo Nunes, author of Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization (2021), in conversation with Birgân Gökmenoğlu, an Affiliated Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Their discussion covers topics including the climate crisis, leadership, network theory and the mobilisation of a rightwing political ecology around Roe v. Wade.

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Buy the book: bookhausbristol.com/shop

The U.S. Constitution v. Democracy

Recently, U.S. politics has appeared to be very much in a state of crisis. The last president was impeached by Congress, and stands accused of inciting an attempted coup in the January 2021 assault on the Capitol. What's more, in devastating acts of judicial review, The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, throwing out the right to an abortion; and its June 30th ruling on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency severely curtailed the EPA’s authority under a provision of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. 

But rather than all this pointing to a dysfunctional, or even broken, politics, what we are witnessing is a political system working exactly as it was designed to. This is the position taken by Robert Ovetz in his eye-opening new book, We the Elites: Why the U.S. Constitution Serves the Few, in which he examines the constitution for what it is – a rulebook for elites to protect private property and capitalism from democracy. As Robert argues, social movements have misplaced faith in the constitution as a tool for achieving justice when it actually impedes social change through the many roadblocks and obstructions we call 'checks and balances'. This stymies progress on issues like labour rights, poverty, public health and the climate crisis, ultimately propelling the American people and rest of the world towards destruction.

Robert joins us on the show this month to talk about the Constitution - from the historical context in which it was written and what its authors set out to achieve; to the many myths and misconceptions that exist around it; to its legacy today, more than 230 years after its ratification.

We the Elites is out in September 2022. Podcast listeners can get 50% off the book via plutobooks.com - just use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.