The Another Europe Podcast

Andras Bozoki, Mary Kaldor, Alena Ivanova, and Quinsy Gario join Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper to discuss the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. As Europe looks ever more mired in nationalism, we ask: what's left of the hopes and dreams of the peaceful revolutions? How in retrospect do we understand the revolutions of 1989? And was there an alternative to the quick-fire turn to neoliberalism? We discuss this and more in a podcast that will be published in two parts. The event was recorded with a live audience in Amsterdam. The podcast is supported by the European Cultural Foundation as part of its Democracy Needs Imagination series. 

A landslide victory by the Conservative Party has extinguished the hope that Britain might yet stay inside the EU. So where next after the historic defeat? Hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams are joined by Michael Chessum from the Another Europe office to reflect on the anguish, agony and anger of the general election. They discuss the failure of the Labour Party to galvanise the country behind a radical, transformative vision of change, and the prospects for the left in the difficult and challenges days that lie ahead.

How about giving everyone a guaranteed basic income – a universal benefit to provide a basic foundation for our daily life? It is one of the most contested and controversial ideas of the modern age. But as the world of work transforms beyond recognition, is it only a matter of time before utopia becomes reality? Economist and financial journalist Stewart Lansley thinks so. He talks to hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper about the case for a UBI. The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

In this, the second part of our two part documentary The Forgotten Troubles, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper explore the contemporary politics of Northern Ireland and the extent to which the Good Friday Agreement makes it difficult to break out of sectarian division. They meet the Alliance Party on the campaign trail in the traditionally unionist area of Lagan Valley and ask whether it is possible or desirable to go 'beyond Orange and Green'. They explore the possible futures of the island of Ireland in the Brexit crisis, and the difficult challenges it faces. Featuring: Sorcha Eastwood, Alliance Party candidate for Lagan Valley, Katy Hayward, a sociologist at Queen’s University Belfast, Garrett Carr, author of The Rule of the Land, and Mickey Brady, the Sinn Fein MP for Newry and South Armagh. Editing and mixing: Jamie Coward The documentary was produced in collaboration with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Brussels Office. Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

Northern Ireland occupies a strange position within the Brexit debate. It is at once at the centre and at the periphery of the constitutional uncertainty and political crisis Brexit has created. Poorly understood in Britain even amongst the most well informed, the political future of those living on the island of Ireland has been thrown into huge doubt by the 2016 referendum. Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper went to Northern Ireland to understand how its troubled history shapes the present day. In this two part documentary they explain what they learnt. Part one looks at how the past reverberates into today and the on-going problem of sectarian division.  Featuring: Katy Hayward, a sociologist at Queen's University Belfast, Garrett Carr, author of The Rule of the Land, and Mickey Brady, the Sinn Fein MP for Newry and South Armagh.  Production and mixing: Jamie Coward The documentary was produced in collaboration with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Brussels Office. Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

Hilary Wainwright and Mary Kaldor ... It seems almost everyone accepts there is a democratic crisis in Britain and Europe. But there is very little agreement what to do about it. For Brexiters satisfying the demand of the referendum in 2016 to leave the EU whatever the cost has become the catch-all solution to the country's democratic woes. Too many remainers, in contrast, deny there is even a problem with citizens participation today. In our latest podcast - recorded at a recent live audience event in London - hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Hilary Wainwright and Mary Kaldor to discuss how we really 'take back control' in the twenty-first century.  The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

Kojo Koram and Ana Oppenheim ... As Britain lurches into an unknown political moment we review the deeper issues and wider context. Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Kojo Koram, a lecturer at Birkbeck who has written widely on the colonial fantasies animating the Brexit project, and Ana Oppenheim, a staff member of Another Europe Is Possible and, when she's not busy with that, a Polish anti-fascist. They discuss the moment of huge danger and opportunity we find ourselves in. The podcast was recorded at the Another Europe podcast and party event on Sunday 27th October. The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

The best thing that ever happened for organised crime was financial globalisation. If you've stolen a massive wad of money there is an entire - largely legal - global infrastructure for you to pump it through. And if you've ever wondered why dark money loves the new far right, there's a simple reason: anyone who hates international cooperation is a friend of those moving dark money across borders. In the latest episode of our Saving Europe From Itself, Oliver Bullough has a big idea for Europe: get tough on the crooks. The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

In the latest episode of our Saving Europe From Itself series, we were joined by Cambridge scholar, Priyamvada Gopal. Her idea for saving Europe? Decolonise our politics and our entire way of thinking about global politics. This, she argues, can be the basis for a unifying narrative, that binds working class Europeans and the peoples oppressed by European empires together in a common, entangled history of democratic resistance. She draws out how the very essence of the contemporary EU is its status as 'a paradoxical formation', entangled with deeply entrenched colonial legacies but also positing, at least potentially, a step to a truly decolonial world.  The European Cultural Foundation supports this initiative as it is rethinking Europe as an open and democratic space.

Niccolo Milanese and Ruth Wodak ... What does it mean to say Europe is in a democracy crisis? And what exactly is the idea of illiberal democracy mobilised by the new far right? As the Austrian elections saw a drop in support for the far right did the centre-right just steal their clothes? Luke Cooper went to Vienna to talk to Ruth Wodak and Niccolo Milanese to find some answers.