The Another Europe Podcast

Laura Parker and Amelia Womack ... What do the European elections mean for the European left in all its variety? Co-host Luke Cooper surveys the electoral scene across Europe and takes in the atmosphere at the Another Europe results night party. He spoke to Laura Parker, the national coordinator of Momentum, as she failed to win a seat in the European Parliament. She talks candidly about the problems facing the Labour Party after the elections. He also talked to Amelia Womack from the Greens after their historic UK election result saw them return seven MEPs to Brussels, as well as a range of other grassroots activists.

Peter Oborne … Hosts Zoe Williams and Jamie Coward are joined on the show by Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne. In recent years Oborne has gained a reputation as the idiosyncratic representative of British conservatism. First he shocked polite opinion by having warm words for Jeremy Corbyn. Now he's expressed deep regret over Brexit, and the role he played as a columnist promoting it back in 2016. On the show he muses over whether the whole thing should be called off and observes the radical transformation of British conservatism into what he calls "a revolutionary party".

Clive Lewis ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Labour MP Clive Lewis, who has been heavily involved in developing the ideas and campaigning initiatives we need to save the planet. We chat Extinction Rebellion and how to connect the goals of a climate revolution to social justice, asking whether there are opportunities as well as sacrifices ahead. We also link these huge global challenges to the upcoming European elections - what better place to promote these policies, you might be forgiven for thinking. And - inevitably, of course - pick Clive's brains on the Labour line on Brexit and the future of the European Union.

Ruth Wodak .... Has Britain exhausted the reserves of patience in Europe? As the extension is granted, but with no end in sight to the parliamentary deadlock, the Another Europe podcast heads to Vienna to find out. Co-host Luke Cooper is joined by Ruth Wodak, distinguished emeritus professor at the University of Vienna and expert on the European far right, to take stock of what it all means for the future of Europe and the left.

Owen Jones, Brian Carty, Elena Crasta, Alena Ivanova, Helmut Scholz, Luke Cooper ... As Britain stares down a "no deal" Brexit abyss, we head to Brussels to talk to groups across the European left. In the latest in our series of international live audience events, we place Brexit in the context of the upcoming European elections and ask whether there is a way out of this terrible mess.

Sam Tarry ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to Sam Tarry, national political officer from the TSSA union who has spent much of his time of late in Parliament convincing MPs to do the right thing on Brexit. After another extraordinary week in UK politics we talk to him about the next steps and whether hard Remainers are on the cusp of victory or defeat.

Alena Ivanova ... There is a new centrist party in Britain as the Brexit crisis rumbles on. The electoral coalition to deliver a radical political agenda suddenly looks in peril. So this hasn’t been an easy week for left radical Remainers – with the forces of the status quo centre suddenly looking stronger. How do we beat the centrists, deliver the socialist programme that Britain urgently needs and stop Brexit in its tracks? Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Coopear are joined by Alena Ivanova from the Another Europe office to lay out a strategy for where we go next.

Ruth Wodak and Rafal Pankowski … Europe is facing an explosion of far right movements not seen since the Second World War. This new fascism is well financed, increasingly transnational, and intent on turning the clock back decades on democracy, human rights, gender politics and the freedoms of minorities. What is it that’s tantalising millions of Europeans into this hallucination of the past? And how can civil society and progressive activists respond? These are the questions we’re discussing on our first ever live international edition of the Another Europe Is Possible Podcast in Vienna, with Luke Cooper, a visiting fellow at the IWM, and Zoe Williams from the Guardian. Joining us on today’s panel are two leading lights of the European academic community. Rafal Pankowski is a sociologist based in Warsaw. His four books on Polish fascism and his irrepressible campaigning on antisemitism and minority rights in Poland has moved the ruling far right Law And Justice party to denounce him as an enemy of the state. Ruth Wodak is an award winning linguist based in Lancaster and Vienna. She’s a leading specialist on European fascism and an outspoken critic of the ruling Freedom Party in Austria, and her indispensable 2015 book The Politics Of Fear mercilessly dismantled the strategies and fictions of Europe’s rightwing populists. Produced in collaboration with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Brussels Office. Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. Hosted by the Institute of Human Sciences (Vienna).

Fintan O’Toole ... Brexit is the long agony of English nationalism: a nationality in a multinational state that has struggled to find a place in the world after the end of empire. But a short boat ride away, an often neglected part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, has had its own struggles with monolithic national identity. What can a divided Britain learn from the Northern Irish experience? And could Brexit tear it all apart? These are the questions we’re asking in this special edition of the Another Europe Is Possible podcast with Zoe Williams from the Guardian, and Luke Cooper from Anglia Ruskin University. Our guest on today’s show is Fintan O’Toole, and his explosive new book, ‘Heroic Failure; Brexit And The Politics Of Pain’ sees the vote to leave the European Union as indicative of a crisis of Englishness, a national identity in search of a story.

Tim Bale ... How divided is Britain? A case of when two tribes go to war? Or is it time to give peace a chance? In Parliament, the Tories and Labour look incredibly divided on where to go next - with splits crossing traditional party lines. But this isn’t the case with their voters, let alone their members. Tories are more pro Leave than ever, while for Labour voters the opposite holds true. When it comes to party members the trend is even starker. Our guest in this podcast is political scientist Tim Bale from Queen Mary University. He’s led a lot of the research in this area, finding out what Britain’s political party members really think. As Theresa May’s deal looks set to be defeated in Parliament this week we pick Tim’s brains on what on earth will happen next.