COUNTER•POWER

There aren't too many good news stories about. But here's a great one. A new model for financing sustainable development projects in a democratic and participatory way. Hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams talk to democratic finance geeks Bruce Davis and Mark Davis about type of debt they've developed for local councils. It's a whole new mission for local government to put itself at the heart of green sustainable investment. By raising money through local municipal bonds local councils can develop local forms of energy production but also fund other things like social housing. It really could transform our economy. 
For more on the ideas discussed in the podcast check out their report. 

Production: Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper Editing: Ben Higgins Millner 

It seems some things don't change after all. A now familiar row has broken out in the Labour Party over the idea of patriotism and nationality. This has been a continuous theme of the party's travails in the post-Blair era. But as debates go it's pretty thin gruel: lots of angst but little in the way of ideas. In this episode we try to go a little deeper and lay out the pitfalls and power of patriotism as a way of doing politics. To shed light on these topics, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Labour MP Jon Cruddas, who has argued for some time now the left need to engage pragmatically with the politics of land and territory associated with nationality, and Ash Sarkar, Senior Editor at Novara Media, who has repeatedly told the likes of Piers Morgan and David Starkey that criticising your country doesn't mean you hate it. They discuss George Orwell's famous essay, 'notes on nationalism', and the work of Stuart Hall, the founder of Cultural Studies and one of the most eminent figures on the post-war new left. 
Editor: Camilo Tirado Producer: Luke Cooper 
The podcast is published as a collaboration between the Another Europe Is Possible team and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung London office. 

For more information on ideas discussed in today's podcast check out these links: 
George Orwell's "Notes on nationalism"Stuart Hall interview: "we need to talk about Englishness" Jon Cruddas critque of "cyborg socialism" 

Increasingly it looks like there's a way of doing politics that suits the terrible ravages of capitalism in the twenty-first century. It's authoritarianism spliced with racism. And it rejects the international cooperation needed to put humanity back on the right footing. As the latest moment of this extended crisis grips the planet with the Covid-19 pandemic, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams are joined by Cambridge scholar and author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance & British Dissent, Priyamvada Gopal. She tells the story of how extreme racism became normalised in India. And draws out the terrible implications this had for the country's Muslim population and the people of Kashmir. It's essential listening for anyone who wants to understand the scale of the reaction that humanity must face down in this century. 

It's quite simply the biggest peacetime crisis capitalism has ever faced. The entire global system has ground to a halt. In this moment of great danger and turmoil, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by economist Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the Green New Deal, and Nick Dearden, regular on the show and director of Global Justice Now. They outline how behind the scenes central banks are undertaking a huge bailout of the financial system to keep it afloat. Will this repeat the mistakes of the 2008 crisis - of socialising the losses but privatising the profits? Or can we radically reform our economy for the challenges of this century? Find out on today's podcast. 

Editor: Ben Higgins Milner 
Producer: Luke Cooper 

Italy was the first European country to be hit by the terrible coronavirus pandemic. This week hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Andrea Pisauro, Italian leftist and neuroscientist based at the University of Oxford, and Laura Parker, former national coordinator of Momentum, to discuss what Europe and the world might learn from the country's brutal struggle with Covid-19. Laura joins the conversation from the Piedmont region, close to the epicentre of the outbreak in Italy, where she is staying with her Italian family. In the week that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into intensive care, they discuss the comparison between the Italian and British responses, give a rough guide to the Italian political landscape, and ask whether the long-awaited reform of the Eurozone area might now finally happen under the huge economic pressures created by Coronavirus.

For more information on issues covered in the show, we recommend:

The New York Times virtual map on the Italian outbreak
The FT feature on how Italy fell out of love with Europe
Political economist prof Erik Jones on the simple case for Eurozone reform
How Britain got it wrong. The Reuters special report on the UK govt response

Finally, Andrea Pisauro, one of the guests on the show, drafted this letter to Angela Merkel in advance of this week's eurozone talks.

Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by NHS doctor Sonia Adesara and Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, to discuss the enormous challenges facing Britain's underfunded healthcare system. As public anger with the lack of testing and protective equipment for frontline staff mounts, but, at the same time, the extraordinary feat of building whole new field hospitals in a week is achieved, we take a balanced look at whether the NHS can pull through the most serious crisis in its history.  

Producer: Luke Cooper 
Sound editor: Camilo Tirado 

Covid-19 is the most serious crisis human civilisation has faced since the Second World War. It’s a global emergency that will change every aspect of our society.  Life will go on but not as we know it. In the first of a new series of podcasts, Coronavirus Lockdown, Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to economist James Meadway about the extraordinary economic impact of a virus that is closing down the global economy. How must the government respond? What will the capitalism that emerges from all this look like? And has the time come for an entirely new economic order? 
For more information on the issues covered in today's show check out these articles: 

In the last of our Saving Europe From Itself series, Luke Cooper is joined by Carl Miller, research director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos and author of The Death of the Gods: the New Global Power Grab. As the global pandemic is combined with an infodemic, a proliferation of fake or misleading viral news stories, Miller offers 7 rules for digital hygiene: to stay informed, stay educated and stay smart.  
For further material on issues covered in today's show check out: 
A long read from Carl Miller for Wired 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/taiwan-democracy-social-media 
Can Taiwan reboot democracy? A doc for the BBC 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbCZvU7i7VY 

The rise of the far right across Europe has given new life to the anti-feminist agenda. How do we stop the roll back and go on the offensive for a new agenda for a feminist Europe? On this podcast, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by a panel of guests in Berlin to discuss the state of women's rights in Europe and the need for new and intersectional feminist vision. Saboura Naqshband is an academic, activist and co-founder of the Berlin Muslim Feminists Collective, Daphne Büllesbach is a pan-European activist and the vice-president of European Alternatives Berlin, and Prune Antoine is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Sisters of Europe. The podcast was recorded at a live audience event in Berlin organised in collaboration with European Alternatives in Berlin and supported by the European Cultural Foundation as part of its Democracy Needs Imagination programme.

It's been emotional. Nearly four years on from the referendum result and with Britain having decisively left the EU, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Nick Dearden, from Global Justice Now, to look back on it all. We chart the highs and lows of the historic defeat. We look back on some all too optimistic interviews we did on the podcast with Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle and anti-Brexit campaigner Eloise Todd, and review the news archive for all the big turning points in the Brexit crisis.