LEFT/OVER Podcast

Are you a 'contractor', not an employee? Better call the Independent Workers of Great Britain and win yourself a crumb of statutory sick pay. We talk to President Alex Marshall about the union's successes tackling the beast of precarious labour and shitty apps that are trying to kill you.

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As we move onto the second half of our 2-parter on Afghanistan, we move from the post-Soviet civil war and the Mujahideen period to the US invasion post-9/11 and the following 20 year occupation which only ended last month. As we listen to many of Nate's own stories of his time on the ground there, we take a look at what the future might hold for the Afghan people who have been fraught with war and desperation for so long now. 

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The End and The Beginning. We reflect on 9/11 and Sleepy Joe's recent withdrawal, with TrshFuture's Nate Bethea providing lived experience of the 20 year occupation. We then take it back the start of modern Western imperialism in Afghanistan with The Great Game between Britain and Russia in the 19th Century through to the Soviet invasion that made Lenin's grave shake.

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Isabel Allende once said 'accept the children the way we accept trees'. However, trees aren't responsible for the Iraq War, mass incarceration, or claiming that Hemingway would have bombed Syria. So this week we are joined by Jack Frayne-Reid of Reel Politik fame to discuss a most important question: how do we judge fathers Miliband, Harris, Buttigieg and Benn?

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We are back after a 2 week hiatus and like the dear leader of the Labour Party we are relaunching with our new co-host Ruairi. This week we are going transatlantic as we are joined by Sam Knight of The District Sentinel to delve into the weird and wonderful world of US politics. We take a look at (Sloppy) Joe Biden's first 6 months as president and whether or not fascism has truly ended and it's safe for everyone to go for brunch yet. What's more, we take a deep dive into the career (and various misdeeds) of former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, who has recently resigned after multiple sexual harassment allegations were brought against him. We talk about the role he played in his father's political campaigns, his founding of a political shell party to endorse himself, and speculate on why on earth he blew up that bridge. All of this, an update on Donny Drumpf, and much more on this week's episode.

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While we transition to our new lineup, Aarjan is joined this week by Young Historian Perry Blankson to dive into the history of imperialism and independence in Africa, and the politics of Pan-African Socialism. Chronicling the histories primarily of Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and Thomas Sankara we delve into stories of revolutions, coups, liberation and betrayal and examine the ways in which the fate of the African continent has still been controlled by the former colonial powers long after independence. In the context of recent discussions about the possibility for the left to reclaim a 'progressive nationalism', we take a look at what such a thing can mean in the fight for self-determination and dignity against the forces of colonialism and capitalism.

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Streatham Rovers' finest, Trevor Bastard, makes up this week's trio for our Euro 2020 retrospective. We chat about international football, dickhead players, the crimes of John Terry, culture wars, and the racial abuse suffered by England's young black players from their own supporters. We delve into the more problematic aspects of English football culture, where that fits into football fan culture and whether critiques of it verge onto classism. Most importantly we look at the way in which the 90s still casts a shadow over England football culture, how football has attempted to outpace racial nationalism, and how players have acted as an opposition to the government.

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One of Left Twitter's finest, Ruari Wood, joins Aarjan to sit vigil over the world's sickliest leader, Jair Bolsonaro, and discuss how Brazil's modern history paved the way for his disastrous leadership: from military junta rule to Lula's Workers Party,  to Sergio Moro and the Lava Jato Scandal. In the present, we look at the similarities between the rule of Bolsonaro and Modi, in particular their war on indigenous people, the recent worldwide phenomenon of left-wing electoral victories being accused of being riddled with "irregularities" with no basis in reality, and looking to the future, with Lula's imminent return to politics, whether he might come up against any of these "irregularities" himself.

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Sarah's back for our continuing rampage through the worst British Asians that culture and politics have to offer. We learn how to run an effective prison with Katharine Birbalsingh, get back into deconstructing race-grifters with the 'Don't Divide Us' movement, unravel the twisted tale of Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, and revisit the political aspirations of Raheem "the Enochophile" Kassam.

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This week, we are joined by Rob from Podcasting is Praxis to do a post-mortem of the past five years since the EU Referendum in 2016. We take a trip down memory lane, reliving the strange and barely believable events leading up to and following the referendum and the broad political and cultural legacy of Brexit. We talk about everything from the emergence of the culture wars as the de facto mode of British politics, the rise of pro-EU grifters steeped in anti-leftism and dodgy funding, the way in which Brexit ended up spelling doom for Corbynism, and much more.

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