COUNTER•POWER

COUNTER•POWER

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COUNTER•POWER episodes

  • S2 Ep1: Trump: One year down, three to go

    The first year of Donald Trump’s second term is over — with three long years still to go. Far from the myth of “Trump the peacemaker,” the past twelve months have been marked by war, repression, corruption, and growing global resistance.

    In this episode, we take stock of Trump’s record so far: from bombing seven countries and backing Israel’s assault on Gaza, to embracing tech oligarchs at home and unleashing ICE against immigrant communities. 

    But resistance is growing. From some of the largest protests in US history to mass demonstrations in the UK against Trump’s second state visit, a global movement is pushing back.

    Host Zoe Williams is joined by Zoe Gardner from the Stop Trump Coalition and Alyssa Elliott from Indivisible London, the first international chapter of the major US resistance movement. Together, they explore what Trump’s first year tells us about the road ahead — and how movements can confront authoritarianism moving forward. 

    In This Episode

    • One year into Trump’s second term: what has actually happened
    • The myth of “Trump the peacemaker” vs the reality of endless military action
    • ICE raids, police violence, and the targeting of immigrant communities
    • Mass protests in the US and UK — and what they’ve achieved

    • What global resistance to Trump looks like going forward — and why appeasement and fear are not the answer

      • ABOUT THE PODCAST

      COUNTER•POWER is brought to you by Stop Trump Coalition, Another Europe Is Possible and Global Justice Now, three organisations at the centre of the new global resistance. 

      This podcast isn’t just about chatting and conversation — it’s about turning ideas into action and building real community power. 

      That’s why we have a simple pledge to you, our audience. On every single episode we’ll leave you with something you can do to catalyse change. Whether it’s the latest big ideas or the movements you need to check out, you’ll find them on COUNTER•POWER. 

      But we need your help to launch this project. 

      We need £8,000 to catapult COUNTER•POWER into the podcasting sphere with the aim of making it self-sustaining in the future.

      The funds will cover high-quality production – including sound and visuals – as well as consistent editorial quality, all of which are essential to creating the kind of impactful podcast we’re aiming for.

      Any donation – big or small – can help us get there. Thank you for your support.

      DONATE HERE

      Follow Us 

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      @Another_Europe
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      @UKStopTrump

      Music(cc): Intro R&B instrumental loop, Mcgrogo (Freesound.org)

      47 min
    • S1 Ep106: What would an alternative "strategic defence review" look like?
      To much fanfare, Britain has announced yet another "strategic" defence review - the fifth that a UK Government has undertaken in the last 15 years. The peculiar thing, however, is that despite the frequency of these reviews, they have a strong tendency to assert continuity over change.

      This is certainly the narrative of the present UK Government's latest review: that nothing has changed in UK and US transatlantic relations, apart from the willingness, they suggest, of the UK to spend more on defence. Trump's close friendship with Vladimir Putin and sympathy towards Russia's geopolitical narrative - and the broader turbulence of American politics he forms part of - is, apparently, unimportant for Britain's future defence and security arrangements.

      And rather than address the varied range of threats and challenges, the review advocates more submarines and nuclear weapons as its big-ticket proposals.

      In this podcast, Zoe Williams, Luke Cooper and Mary Kaldor discuss this muddled and small-c conservative thinking. They lay out what an alternative defence policy would be, at the centre of which should be a closer relationship with our European allies. 

      For more on the discussion in this podcast, check out Luke and Mary's recent blog, "‘Organised irresponsibility’: How Britain’s defence strategy clings to a bygone world"

      44 min
    • S1 Ep105: The Care economy: bringing wellbeing back into our politics
      In an age of war and permanent crisis, is it all too easy to forget the fundamentals? How do we look after each other, care for one another and create economies that prioritise our human development? In this podcast, Seema Syeda and Zoe Williams welcome back Tim Jackson to talk about his new book, The Care Economy (Polity 2025). Going back to the philosophical fundamentals, the book re-centres the whole discussion of care. It urges us not think about the politics of care as types of support system for particular group of vulnerable people but as the basis for reproducing all organic life. We are all, in other words, carers, and it's time to recognise it. 

      As usual members of Another Europe get access to extra material as a benefit of membership. To join and support our work, go to AnotherEurope.org/Join 
      34 min
    • S1 Ep104: A far right Davos? The inside story on London's Arc conference
      The drift of the global billionaire oligarchy to the radical right is quickening its pace. The Arc conference - billed as a "far right Davos" and with ticket prices to match - recently descended on London, and was joined by the various luminaries and politicians from the British right. On this podcast, Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Stella Tsantekidou, a rising star in the UK media and an unusual category of progressive, who likes to wine and dine across the political divide. Stella spent three days and nights at the Arc conference. In the podcast she offers her fly-in-the-wall account of why we should be worried about this extremely well funded global network, drawing the mainstream right into discussion and collaboration with far more radical and in some cases extreme political forces.  

      For more from Stella and the Arc conference check out her Substack, the Human Carbohydrate, which includes a blog with her Arc Forum diary: https://humancarbohydrate.substack.com/p/jordan-peterson-and-pieter-thiel 
      39 min
    • S1 Ep103: Ukraine in 2025: what now?
      With the return of Donald Trump in the White House - and his insistence that Kyiv and Moscow strike a peace deal "in 24 hours - huge uncertainty now hangs over the future of Ukraine's democracy and freedom. In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams discuss the huge challenges and hardships Ukraine has experienced in the war, drawing on insights from Luke's recent visit to Ukraine. They are joined by Ukrainian academic Yuliya Bidenko from Karazin University in Kharkiv.

      For more on some of the topics discussed in the podcast, check out these articles:
      On the Home Front: Ukraine's War Economy and the Spirit of Defiance
      Will oil decide the fate of the Russia-Ukraine War?

      Additional podcast material is available to members of Another Europe Is Possible. In this week's extra time, Luke and Zoe discuss the Labour government and to what extent its terrible lack of popularity in what should be its honeymoon period is a crisis of its own making. To join and support our work go to AnotherEurope.org/Join
      46 min
    • S1 Ep102: What does Trump 2.0 mean for the world?
      Millions of people across the world have looked on at the American election result with a sense of dismay and fear. As the world tries to compute and digest a second Trump presidency, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams try to put the pieces of this catastrophe together and work out what comes next.

      A reminder that members of Another Europe Is Possible get access to extra material as a benefit of membership. In this extra time, Zoe and Luke have a long old chat about what it all means, from the nature of the new fascism to the difficulties facing those trying to de-dollarize from the global economy and the response of the UK government.

      To join and support our work go to https://www.anothereurope.org/join/

      On the main show, they are joined by Graham Campbell, an activist with the SNP who is been in the United States campaigning for Kamala Harris. They also speak to John Feffer from Foreign Policy in Focus, Institute for Policy Studies, in the US about where the Democrats went wrong and what the result means for the rest of the world.

      If you want to hear more from Graham and John check out these links: 
      John's rapid response: https://fpif.org/the-plot-against-democracy/
      Graham's election night report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IHfZYpqIA
      45 min
    • S1 Ep101: What to make of Britain’s new Labour government?
      After 14 years of frankly horrendous Conservative rule, millions celebrated Labour’s decisive victory. But since that fateful July day the new comms team at Number 10 has kicked into action. Their aim it seems is a simple one: to get you to put your hopes and dreams away and be as miserable as possible. So what do we make of it all? And what do we expect to happen next?

      In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams try to find rays of hope in a murky sky. Going back to Starmer's original election as Labour leader and the small role Zoe played in his campaign, they discuss what it might reveal about the factions and networks now running the United Kingdom and where the opportunities may still lie for progressive victories in the years ahead. 

      An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe Is Possible, to join and support our work go to anothereurope.org/join
      38 min
    • S1 Ep100: Anti-racism after the fascist riots: what do we do now?
      With white supremacist riots targeting Muslims and peoples of colour, this was a summer to forget for many of our communities in the UK. Building on the work that Another Europe has undertaken for several years on challenging anti-Muslim racism across Europe, Luke Cooper spoke to Shaista Aziz, a co-director of the anti-racist campaign group, Three Hijabis, a longstanding member of Another Europe and a friend of the podcast. They discuss the horrifying attacks we’ve seen on our communities and the enabling role played by mainstream Islamophobia.

      For some background reading check out Another Europe's statement on the riots here, our report on Islamophobia in France here and the UK and Germany here and the Three Hijabis website. Shaista has also been involved in a really important campaign, 'Safe Homes, Not Hotels', organised by Conversations About Borders. You can sign their petition to house asylum seekers here. 

      There’s no 'extra time' this week as we thought we’d put the whole episode of the podcast out in full. We’d still urge you to join the campaign and support our work. Members of Another Europe get access to extra podcast material as a benefit of supporting the campaign. To join go to anothereurope.org/join 
      55 min
    • S1 Ep99: Georgia's democratic uprising against the 'Russian law'
      A huge protest movement has taken to the streets in Georgia against the "foreign agent" law. This new legislation would require all organisations that receive foreign funding to declare it on a national register. Protestors have argued that this is the thin end of the wedge amid an increasingly authoritarian climate in the country for human rights advocacy and civil society organisations. 

      To discuss what this uprising tell us about our changing world, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams reached out to an old friend of the Another Europe Is Possible campaign, Alex Scrivener, who campaigned with us back in the 2016 EU referendum. Today, he is the Director of the Democratic Security Institute, an organisation based in Tblisi that faces being declared a 'foreign agent' by the Georgian government. On this podcast he discusses the parallels between his activity on the streets of Georgia today, fighting a Putin-backed nationalist campaign, with the 2016 EU referendum in the UK, and what this tells us about the new imperialism engulfing our world. For some background reading from Alex, see his piece on 'hard power' here and his argument for a values-based foreign policy here.  

      An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe is Possible. To join and support our work go to anothereurope.org/join. On this podcast's extra time, we change the topic altogether to talk about the UK General Election. 
      37 min
    • S1 Ep98: Liz Truss and the scary future of the British Conservatives
      Liz Truss has managed to persuade herself of a very convenient (from her perspective) "truth": she wasn't a terrible prime minister with a flawed economic strategy, but the victim of a deep state conspiracy. Swinging aggressively to the far right, she has been courting Steve Bannon and the American Trumpists on a recent US tour.

      What does this mean for the future of British conservatism? What's the game plan of this group of radicalised Tories - and how worried should we be? To talk us through these questions, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to David Runciman, professor of politics at the University of Cambridge and the author of a number of books including How Democracy Ends. David's new podcast is called Past, Present and Future and can be found in the usual places. His recent Guardian essay on the strange world of the Truss phenomenon can be read here https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/she-still-carries-an-aura-of-spectacular-failure-why-hasnt-liz-truss-gone-away

      An extended version of this podcast is available to members of Another Europe is Possible. To join and support our work go to https://anothereurope.org/join  
      44 min

    About COUNTER•POWER

    From the publisher's feed

    COUNTER•POWER is the podcast for global solidarity. Some say we are entering a new age of hard power, where might makes right and despots carve up the world between them. Here on COUNTER•POWER, we’ve got other ideas. The despots are facing rising resistance across the world, and our job is to build these sources of "counter-power".