Spain has one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world. It's also set to launch the most ambitious national investment strategy in its post Franco history. But its trailblazing left wing coalition are, despite these tremendous achievements, not as popular as we might expect. Meanwhile, the far right Vox party has established itself in public opinion in third place. In this podcast, to make sense of these difficulties and challenges, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams, talk to Marga Ferra, one of the co-presidents of Transform! Europe, the education think tank connected to the European Left Party and a member of Izquierda Unida (United Left), the party that stands in elections with Podemos as part of a common platform – and together they are a junior partner in the Spanish government. Marga offers an un-tribal and frank assessment of the current situation, but with plenty of 'practical optimism' for the future of the European left.  

As COP26 comes to a close, we investigate the global environmental and economic challenge facing humanity. In this podcast, Luke Cooper talks to economist Laurie Macfarlane, a columnist at Open Democracy and a fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, to get a digest on COP26 and discuss the relationship between social justice, global development and the green transition. It's a wide-ranging chat, taking in how we conceptualise the idea of development in the 21st century, the seeming paradox that societies most at risk from climate change, such a Australia, have often been the most trenchantly committed to fossil fuels, and the emergence of a new paradigm of capitalist extractivism with the dash for raw materials required to harness renewable energy.

It wasn't so long ago that Germany's declining social democratic party was seen as a a classic example of 'Pasokification' in Europe, a term referring to the steep decline of centre-left parties derived from the experience of the now deceased Greek party, Pasok. Polls at the start of the year put the party pretty clearly in third place. But the centre-left have now stormed to an - albeit narrow - general election victory. So, what happened? In this podcast, to make sense of it all, Luke Cooper talks to Jeremy Cliffe, the Berlin-based International Editor at the New Statesman on Germany's new political era.  For more from Jeremy check out his articles in the New Statesman and his podcast, The World Review:  https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/world-review-podcast  https://www.newstatesman.com/author/jeremy-cliffe 

Fascism - the twentieth century's most barbaric ideology - is back and winning support on the streets and at the ballot boxes all over the world. What can we learn from the struggles against fascism in the past? How do we understand the source of the potency of the fascist appeal? In this podcast hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to Paul Mason about his new book, How to Stop Fascism (Allen Lane, 2021). It's a harrowing outline of how fascism is on the march. But it also outline a strategy to defeat this deadly threat. We explore the contents of the book and ask Paul why he remains optimistic for humanity.  Links to material mentioned on this podcast:  How to Stop Fascism (Allen Lane, 2021)  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442/442868/how-to-stop-fascism/9780141996394.html  Authoritarian Contagion (Bristol University Press, 2021)  https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/authoritarian-contagion  Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes (Little, Brown Book Group)  https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Eric-Hobsbawm/The-Age-Of-Extremes--1914-1991/859532  Karl Kautsky's critique of the Soviet Union  https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1918/dictprole/index.htm  Novecento (film)  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074084/  Arditi del Popolo - The First Anti-Fascists https://libcom.org/library/arditi-del-popolo-first-anti-fascists 

The crisis in Afghanistan has dominated the airwaves this summer - and rightly so. In this episode, Luke Cooper talks to Shukria Rezaei, an Afghan living in London about her family's decade-long battle to flee the Taliban and resettle in Britain. It's a shocking story of oppression and the global border policing regime. Now she fears for those she left behind, as the Taliban seize power - with members of the Hazara community particularly fearful of a new round of sectarian bloodletting. In part two, Luke speaks to LSE professor and regular on the show, Mary Kaldor. They discuss whether, despite all the talk from the US administration about 'ending the forever wars', any lessons have actually been learnt, as development aid runs dry and the US military continue to drop bombs on Afghan targets, without regard to international law and perpetuating the cycle of violence.  Readings referred to in this episode of the podcast:  Personal story: I am Hazara – and I fear for my persecuted people https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2021/08/personal-story-i-am-hazara-and-i-fear-my-persecuted-people  Only action against corruption can solve the world’s biggest problems https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/19/action-against-corruption-russian-sanctions-oligarchs-alexei-navalny The main lesson from Afghanistan is that the ‘war on terror’ does not work https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/24/lesson-afghanistan-war-on-terror-not-work  Producer: Luke Cooper  Editor: Jake Pace Lawrie 

Can Englishness be anti-racist? After a remarkable football tournament, where the England football players made such a strong anti-racist statement we draw out some of the political implications for anti-racism and the constitutional future of the United Kingdom after Brexit. To get a handle on these issues Luke Cooper talks to two impeccably qualified guests. Shaista Aziz is an avid and lifelong England fan, anti-racist activist, and member of the FA's Asylum Seeker and Refugees Network, and John Denham, the former Labour MP who is now a professor at Southampton University and Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics.  For more on the ideas discussed in today's podcasts, see:  https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/dear-england-gareth-southgate-euros-soccer  https://labourlist.org/2021/07/when-uk-labour-talks-only-of-britain-we-cannot-speak-for-england/  And Shaista's 1m strong petition:  https://www.change.org/p/football-association-and-oliver-dowden-sec-of-state-dcms-pm-boris-johnson-ban-racists-for-life-from-all-football-matches-in-england?use_react=false&v2=false  Editor: Camilo Tirado Producer: Luke Cooper 

Does June 2016 seem like only yesterday? Or does it seem like an eternity? Fives years on from the referendum hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams meet up with Laura Parker from the Another Europe National Committee to reflect on a period of dramatic change in UK politics. They uncover some small shoots of hope, despite all the problems we face, and lay out a strategy for the movement going forward from here. We also hear from some other members of the Another Europe National Committee with Zoe Gardner, Alex Fernandes, Julie Ward, and Shaista Aziz, offering their thoughts on five years of pain but also tremendous resistance.   Producer: Luke Cooper  Sound editor: Camilo Tirado 

The fight is on to replace Germany's centrist chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after dominating the country's political scene for a decade and a half. With new elections scheduled for September will Germany embrace change, or choose the centrist status quo? To get a handle on Germany's next political chapter, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams are joined by Franziska Heinisch, an activist with the Justice is Global Europe collective and author of the book, Wir haben keine Wahl / We Have No Choice, a manifesto against giving up, and Christos Katsioulis, a foreign policy analyst and director of the London office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the political education foundation loosely aligned with the German social democracy. We pick their brains on where Germany is going after the Merkel era, what the big controversies are in the run to the September elections, and how hopeful they are on the prospects for progressive social change.  

The European Super League was dead almost on arrival. An uprising of fans, the football authorities and governments swiftly killed the project. It seemed to encapsulate everything that had gone wrong in a beautiful game where greed has long been king. In this podcast, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to David Kogan. The Premier League’s media rights advisor from 1998 to 2015, Kogan has been described as a ‘key architect of its financial success’. But away from big money football, David is also a figure in Labour politics. His 2019 book, Protest and Power: The Battle for the Labour Party, chronicles the history of the party’s factional conflicts over its soul and direction. We pick his brains on whether the big money revolution in football has gone too far.    

In this podcast, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to ecological economist, Tim Jackson, about his new book, Post-Growth; Life After Capitalism. Every society in the world shares a fundamental cultural assumption about how our economies work: that growth is good. But what if this is running up against both its material and ecological limits? As capitalism in Western states struggles with the problem of low or stagnant growth do we need to rethink how we understand the economy and prioritise redistribution and ecological and social justice, over the drive to squeeze more and more juice out of the same orange? Politicians often don't like talking about post-growth but many argue that its an idea whose time has come.  For more information on the ideas discussed on this podcast, check out these links:  Tim's book Post-Growth Hannah Arendt's classic work, The Human Condition  The novel, Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson and a paper by Luke on it here