In this week’s episode, Joe takes us on a tour through the recent local elections as we contemplate the end of the two-party system and the brewing Green insurgency. Then Shanice discusses two of this disintegrating system’s morbid symptoms: the rise of both antisemitism and moral panics about antisemitism, asking how the left fights both racism towards Jews and the instrumentalisation of Jewish identity by bad faith actors defending a broken political settlement.

Readings

Abram Leon - The Jewish Question

Hackney Green Party Manifesto

Callum Cant and Matthew Lee - The Future in our Past: The General Strike

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Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd.

Edited by Marcus Berdaut for ⁠⁠⁠Ampersounds Productions.⁠⁠⁠

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This is an Ampersounds production.

Jonas breaks down the latest shenanigans inside Your Party and the crew ask themselves how it got so bad. Whilst Joe offers some thoughts on what we do next, now that it seems the Jeremy Corbyn-led party has entered into a zombie state.

Readings

Anton Jäger - Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences

Laleh Khalili - Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy

Lotte L.S. - An Economy of Starlings

Please subscribe, comment and leave a review!

Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd.

Edited by Marcus Berdaut for ⁠⁠Ampersounds Productions.⁠⁠

Become a supporter: ⁠⁠https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ ⁠⁠

Follow us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

This is an Ampersounds production.

Come see the Life of the Party Live!

Ticket links:

April 28th in Bristol w/ the Bristol Cable.

May 16th in Norwich w/ Norwich Transformed.

June 4th in London: email [email protected] w/ 'London Event' in the subject line.

Shanice opens us up by comparing the outwards-looking priorities of Zack Polanski’s Greens with their fraught neighbours in Your Party. Whilst Jonas uses the opportunity of the recent mass anti-racist Together march to deep dive into one of its central organisers: the Socialist Workers Party.

Readings

John Maynard Keynes - The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

Red Mole Substack - Duncan Chapel

Comrade Delta - D K Renton

Please subscribe, comment and leave a review!

Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd.

Edited by Marcus Berdaut for ⁠Ampersounds Productions.⁠

Become a supporter: ⁠https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ ⁠

Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠.

This is an Ampersounds production.

Jonas takes us across the pond in this week's news section, analysing the French municipal elections and gleaning some insight from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise. Whilst Shanice argues that the acceleration of US imperial decline also heralds the fracturing of Western military alliances and the emergence of new possibilities for anti-war politics.

Readings

Now, the People! Revolution in the Twenty-First Century - Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Homeland Empire w/ Nikhil Pal Singh - Politics Theory Other

Love, Loneliness and AI: Where Should We Begin? Live with Esther Perel

Please subscribe, comment and leave a review!

Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd.

Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions.

Become a supporter: https://lifeoftheparty.uk/

Follow us on Instagram.

This is an Ampersounds production.

Shanice brings in this week’s news with a warning that the Green Party needs to tread cautiously as left-wing MPs consider jumping off the sinking Labour ship and defecting to the eco-populist insurgency. Whilst Joe and Shanice clash over the growing recourse to motion maximalism within the Green Party, as the former’s defence of socialist comms rubs up against the latter’s insistence on the primacy of political principle.

Reading

Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson

Adults in the Room - Yanis Varoufakis

Scattered - Aamna Mohdin

Vineland - Thomas Pynchland

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What a week! Shanice, Joe and Jonas dissect the Green party's exciting and decisive victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. How did Hannah Spencer's campaign win? Is Keir Starmer’s Labour party finished? And where does this leave Your Party? With Jeremy Corbyn's The Many slate coming out of the CEC elections with a big majority, we ask where next for the beleaguered new left party. To wrap up a big episode, Jonas digs deeper into the question of ideology and positioning: should left parties advocate for radical policies like drug decriminalisation and decarceralisation, or do we need to appeal more to the status quo?

Reading

⁠Golden Gulag - Ruth Wilson Gilmore⁠

⁠Policing the Crisis - Stuart Hall⁠

⁠The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud ⁠

⁠RSPB Handbook of British Birds - Tim Cleeves⁠

⁠On the Ground in Gorton and Denton - Joe Todd⁠

With the Your Party CEC elections in full swing, Jonas breaks down the current state of play in the party - and the gang despair at Your Party’s deteriorating culture of political debate. Would Your Party and the Greens be better if they were a little bit more like the Belgium Worker's Party (PTB), or the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)? Joe challenges the assumptions of the British left, arguing that the PTB and DSA are very different organisations, and we need to analyse them on their own merits.

Reading

Between Autonomy and Control: Comparing the Democratic Socialist of America and the Belgian Workers Party - Joe Todd

The Breaking of the English Working Class - Jonas Patrick Marvin

We Found Love in a Hopeless Place - Gabriel Wynatt

The History and Practice of Political Police in Britain - Tony Bunyan

Parks and Houses For the People - Johan Pries

Your Party's Infantile Disorder - Sam Joyce

With Andy Burnham out for the count - blocked by Keir Starmer and his allies from running to be Gorton and Denton's next MP - Joe, Jonas and Shanice grapple with the dynamics at play in this upcoming, historic by-election that could change the face of British electoral politics. Can the Greens really beat Reform in the North? Are Labour out of the race? And most importantly, why is Reform's candidate Matt Goodwin such an incorrigible loser?

Reading

A Very British Coup - Chris Mullen

The Gorton and Denton by-election: a tale of two Manchesters? - Rob Ford

Matt Goodwin and the Politics of Resentment - James Bloodworth

How to Block ICE in Your City - Eric Blanc

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To kick off series two of Life of the Party Shanice, Jonas and Joe are back to their usual antics with spicy hot takes and pressing party news. This week Jonas gives you the lowdown on Your Party's CEC elections so far. Meanwhile Shanice goes against the grain: arguing that trade unions aren't the only site of working class struggle, and why Your Party and the Greens shouldn't formally affiliate to them.

Readings:

Disaster Nationalism - Richard Seymour

Grub first, then ethics? - Jonas Marvin

Lenin's Last Struggle - Moshbe Lewin