Aufhebunga Bunga

On #NOBS in the media. So many newspapers are inadequate these days, as they shift to publishing opinion and listicles instead of hard reporting. Why has this happened and how does it relate to the end of history? Amber discusses her forthcoming article on the crisis in the media and we explain why leftists should read the Financial Times. Plus: Amber rates previous Bunga guests and also explains why it's Bernie, bitch. Reading: Why the Left Can't Stand The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review This is a bonus episode to say thanks to those who've subscribed. If you want more, sign up: patreon.com/bungacast    

On Nigeria's elections. Sa'eed Husaini fills us in on the stakes of this election. President Buhari dismissed the country's top judge weeks before the election, but the former military dictator is meant to be an anti-corruption figure. His main opponent is a neoliberal privatiser. What's behind this contents between two faces of the Nigerian elite? What happens when politics is fought over the grounds of corruption? Can recent trade union mobilisations shake things up? Meanwhile violence associated with Boko Haram still festers...  Readings: Introductory Nigeria’s Brutal Decision: Former Dictator or Alleged Kleptocrat, Bloomberg Businessweek Thatcher-Loving Nigeria Candidate Plans to Overhaul Economy, Bloomberg Businessweek Election overview by Brookings More depth The rebirth of the Nigerian left?, Sa'eed Husaini in Africa Is a Country Democracy fading in Nigeria, Al Jazeera On Sowore's programme, Marxist.com  The struggle for a minimum wage, Africa Is a Country    PATREON: Help us grow (pay what you want) p

On the rise of the 'digital party'. If politics has become distant from the people, what if a new model of party, leveraging platform technology, could bring the people closer to power? Paolo Gerbaudo talks to us about the various parties and movements innovating new organisational forms - 5 Star Movement, Podemos, the Pirate Parties. They bring in new members and more participation, but what if they also enshrine charismatic leadership? The digital party seems a step forward from the hollowed-out neoliberal parties of the past decades, but do they also reflect some negative tendencies of the tech economy? Plus: Italy's M5S/Lega coalition, the sovereignty question, and Italians' contradictory attitudes to the EU.  Readings: The Return of the Party, Paolo Gerbaudo, Jacobin Ruling the Void, Peter Mair, NLR Senso Comune organisation, Italy The Experiment Interview on 5 Star Movement, Jacobin   Chip in some change. Help us grow. Go to: patreon.com/bungacast  

On democratic planning. Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski propose we look at Walmart and other giant corporations as sites of planning, not of markets -- and that this fact proves planning works. Rather than rely on markets and market actors to manage production and distribution, we should it ourselves. Do advances in computing mean that the old problems of planning have been overcome? Does planning lead to authoritarianism -- or does authoritarianism lead to bad planning? Can we overcome the age of Capitalist Übermenschen? Readings: People's Republic of Walmart (Verso, March 2019) Planning the Good Anthropocene, Leigh & Michal in Jacobin Pt. III of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Friedrich Engels PATREON: Help us grow (pay what you want) patreon.com/bungacast Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey Bunga design: ramune.io

On the links between economic liberalism and fascism. Ishay Landa talks to us about the "Apprentice's Sorcerer": how political liberalism enfranchises the masses, to the disgruntlement of economic liberals, who then have to turn to an authoritarian or fascist 'daddy' to save capitalism. What does the liberal divorce between economic and political liberalism tell us about the conflict between democracy and private property? How does the fascist "principle achievement" relate to today's fondness for entrepreneurial heroes? Also, a restatement of how the horseshoe theory is horeshit. Readings: Fascism and the Masses, Ishay Landa The Apprentice's Sorcerer, Ishay Landa Our episode on Losurdo & liberalism's contradictions PATREON: Help us grow (pay what you want) patreon.com/bungacast Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey Bunga design: ramune.io

On the cult of the entrepreneur. Alex Gourevitch talks to us about the "special kinds of assholes we get in our economy" and the dangers of the heroic capitalist icon. How does the earlier ideal of meritocracy differ from entrepreneurship as an ethos? Does celebrating the special creative genius of the disruptor actually mean glorifying tyranny?  Plus: the right to strike, domination in the workplace, and campy Trump. Readings: A Radical Defence of the Right to Strike, Alex Gourevitch From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth, Alex Gourevitch Nietzsche's Marginal Children, Corey Robin   PATREON: Please consider donating at patreon.com/bungacast Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey Bunga design: ramune.io

The big 2018 populism discussion. We trash mainstream interpretations of populism (hiya, Cas Mudde) and debate the merits and demerits of 'left populism'. Thatcher, Clinton and Blair are today thought of as anti-populists, but what if they demonstrate many populist features? Is our future 'technopopulism'? And is the 'movement of movements' a dead end?  Plus plenty of bonus stuff: debating the 20th Century disaster; Hillary as the tragic figure of our age; and José Mourinho as right-wing populist.  Readings: Anton's articles at Jacobin Thea Riofrancos on Chantal Mouffe in n+1 Chris Bickerton on technopopulism Cas Mudde on populism The Guardian's stupid populism quiz Phil Cunliffe on the 20th Century (Lenin Lives!)

The 'gilets jaunes' protests have shocked France, expressing a profound exasperation and anger that goes much deeper than frustration at a fuel tax. This is clearly a movement from below, of the people. But it is leaderless and thus far rejects affiliation with political parties. How far can it go? Is Macron's government at risk? This isn't the 'start-up nation' he dreamed of... Readings: We're With The Rebels, by Aurélie Dianara (Jacobin)

We discuss Nervous States with its author: How has debate became so angery!1!! and fractious? Why don't we trust institutions any more -- or better, which institutions do we still trust and why? How has war increasingly encroached onto peace? And maybe believing in stats too much means that we now don't believe in anything...   Readings: Nervous States (William Davies) Postscript on the Societies of Control (Gilles Deleuze)

Theresa May's Brexit deal seems to have satisfied no one. Britain doesn't properly leave, nor does it stay, it just becomes a passive rule-taker. What are the prospects for the UK actually leaving? Will there be a second referendum? And does the difficulty in seeing through Brexit confirm that "there is no alternative"? Readings: The Full Brexit: for popular sovereignty, democracy and economic renewal  Costas Lapavitsas: Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour vs. the Single Market  

In which we learn of Duterte's promises of blood and how he's lived up to those promises. Is massacring drug user, dealers and anyone caught in the crossfire actually popular? How does violence fit in with his development model? Do elites back his rule - and which elites? And how does he compare to other far-right authoritarians?  Readings: The Duterte Reader (ed. Nicole Curato) Nicole Curato in the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html?smid=fb-share&referer=http://m.facebook.com   

In which we update the latest from Brazil, post-election. What will Bolsonaro's government look like? We plot best & worst case scenarios and discuss how bad this really is (really, really bad). And is "fascism" the correct term to use?  Readings: Bolsonaro Rising (Alex) https://thebaffler.com/latest/bolsonaro-rising-hochuli  Bolsonaro: more dangerous than Trump (Alex) https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/brazil-presidential-election-who-jair-bolsonaro-popular-candidate-more-dangerous-ncna925011  What Bolsonaro's election victory means (Ben) https://mg.co.za/article/2018-10-28-what-bolsonaros-election-victory-could-mean  Fascism has arrived in Brazil (Ben) https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-election-results-president-fascism-far-right-fernando-haddad-a8606391.html  Privilege vs Democracy in Brazil (Alfredo Saad-Filho) https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/brazil-election-bolsonaro-haddad-lula-pt-democracy 

In which we discuss (post)modern relationships: dating, narcissism and capitalism. Are we all scared of each other? Are we trying to quantify the interpersonal? What does #MeToo et al suggest about contemporary womanhood?  Plus assorted stuff on Russophobia, fascism and anti-fascism, and how great Lana del Rey is. Readings: Christopher Lasch on narcissism: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1976/09/30/the-narcissist-society The Last Psychiatrist: https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/11/a_generational_pathology.html

In which we talk to Amber about the limitations of liberal feminism and why socialism is better (duh). Personal trauma as a form of political argumentation is critiqued. And we debate the unfashionable topic of parenting and families. Maybe, beyind so much beyond subcultural squabbling and posturing on the Left, is actually a deep-rooted individualism. So we discuss how to get beyond that. Readings: Confession Booth: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/confession-booth-frost Daddy Issues: https://thebaffler.com/all-tomorrows-parties/daddy-issues-frost  It's Okay to Have Children https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/its-okay-to-have-children 

Special episode in partnership with Jacobin: Brazil election preview - democracy at stake. Who is Bolsonaro and why should Bolsonaro be understood as a neofascist? We discuss the #EleNão feminist resistance and the backdrop of 'antipetismo'. How has the political centre and the middle class so easily swung over to vote for such an extremist? The notion of 'ultra-politics' is explained and we look at what might happen should Bolsonaro win - and should he lose.  Readings: Essential Chomsky article: https://theintercept.com/2018/10/02/lula-brazil-election-noam-chomsky/  Jacobin archive on Brazil: https://jacobinmag.com/location/brazil 

In which we ask whether political consumerism is still a thing. We chart its course from 90s Adbusters-style anti-branding, to 2000s ethical consumerism, through to today's woke outrage economy. Has commodification and cynicism overwhelmed all consumer activism?  Plus, we catch up with election results from Sweden and look forward to next month's Brazilian elections. Readings: Adbusted https://jacobinmag.com/2013/10/adbusted   The Philanthropy Racket https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/the-philanthropy-racket 

The third in our Neoliberal Breakdown series. In which we discuss the late Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, 10 years on. Does his analysis still hold? The mood music of the time - the age of 'TINA' and the end of history - was acutely described by Fisher. But did it only really describe Britain? And has the world now entered a new period? Readings: Capitalist Realism http://www.zero-books.net/books/capitalist-realism  'Exiting the Vampire Castle' https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mark-fisher/exiting-vampire-castle  Mark Fisher's k-punk blog https://k-punk.org/    Cover image:

In which we discuss the work of the late Domenico Losurdo, especially his brilliant Liberalism: A Counter-History. Part of an ongoing series on the contradictions of liberalism, we debate whether Losurdo is right to point to liberalism's complicity with slavery, racism and colonialism. Why were arguments for self-rule often accompanied by justifications for slavery? Why were some liberal abolitionist arguments in favour of despotism?  We tie these discussions into contemporary paradoxes of liberalism and ask why liberalism is unable to realise its own values.   Reading:  Liberalism: A Counter-History (book) https://www.versobooks.com/books/960-liberalism  Obituary of Losurdo (Jacobin) https://jacobinmag.com/2018/07/domenico-losurdo-italian-marxism-counter-history 

In which we lay the liberal establishment down on the shrink's sofa. It's a systematic analysis of liberal derangement: of the inability to accept, explain, or respond to the breakdown of the current order. Why can't the liberal establishment accept that the 2008 crisis would eventually have political consequences? Why can't liberals explain why they keep losing? Why can't they offer anything but more of the same? Symptoms: Incredulity and denial of political change Unwillingness to take responsibility Moralisation No belief in political causation (things just happen) Fetishising disinformation Elite persecution complex Hysteria & catastrophism Nostalgia for a very recent past & rewriting history Repetition compulsion  

In which we ask why the urban question become so pointed today - in the Global North as well as in the South? We look at contestation in urban politics - in São Paulo, Johannesburg, London, New York, and beyond. What are the social movement struggles around housing, rent, transport, and the right to the city? What are the limits to housing & transport politics -- are they just consumer movements at the end of the day? Guests: David Adler talks to us about rent in London and beyond. Ben Bradlow joins us to debate the big one: can municipal politics be sexy? And can city politics become national politics? We conclude by returning to a recurring theme: is the Global North actually becoming more like the Global South?    Readings: Ben Bradlow, Let Them Occupy: https://africasacountry.com/2018/02/let-them-occupy-housing-struggles-in-brazil-and-south-africa  David Adler, Generation Rent: https://jacobinmag.com/2016/04/big-short-housing-loans-renters-affordability    Review of Justin McGuirk's 'Radical Cities'