What began as a regional alliance now courts Australia, Japan and South Korea while preparing three-front warfare — but this overreach accelerates Nato’s own crisis as member states surrender sovereignty to the US, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN
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In a sea of centrist dross, try the Labour Left Podcast
Despite mainstream political podcasts drowning in centrist drivel, Labour Left Podcast offers an authentic grassroots perspective from decades of working-class struggle and resistance, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
ANNOYING YET OMNIPRESENT: The podcasting left must find ways to break the painful dominance of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart
While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
MOLLIE BROWN reports on this year’s festival in honour of the ‘seven men of Jarrow’ deported to Australia for union activity 193 years ago
TUC Midlands marks 20 years of celebrating the 1910 chainmakers’ victory with a festival that connects historical lessons to modern struggles — because working-class history should inspire action, not just nostalgia, writes STUART RICHARDS
I found myself alone as the sole reporter at Britain’s largest union conference, leaving stories of modern-day slavery and sexual exploitation going unreported: our socialist journalism is just as vital as the union work we cover, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Cristina Kirchner’s imprisonment follows a familiar pattern across Latin America, where courts silence popular leaders — but massive street protests in her support might make this move an Establishment own goal, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG
IF you are trying to find a podcast to listen to, but your ears are curling over and closing in disgust at the endless lapping of sensible centrist soundwaves, I might have an answer.
Listening to podcasts — including those full of political chat — is an increasingly popular pastime. But it can be a bit of a struggle to find a podcast that doesn’t have some horror like Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart, Emily Maitlis, Alastair Campbell, Jon Sopel, Jess Phillips, Alastair Campbell, Ed Balls, or even Alastair Campbell bombastically blabbing along.
But here is one solution. The Labour Left Podcast has been running for around a year now. It’s a podcast which manages to combine the grit of the grassroots with the surprising, entertaining and informative.
It helps that the Labour Left Podcast is hosted by Bryn Griffiths. He’s currently an activist in Colchester Labour Party and Momentum, but Bryn has been active on the Labour left since the 1980s — so he knows his stuff and knows people to talk to, and talks to them in a natural and engaging way.
Recent Labour Left Podcast guests range from former left-wing Labour national executive committee member Mish Rahman, Andrew Fisher, Labour director of policy under Corbyn, talking about the successes and shenanigans inside the party, Mike Jackson of Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners looking back on the miners’ strike and left academic Jeremy Gilbert talking about the meaning of Thatcherism.
Bryn also has been active in the Labour Party both in the “up” times of Bennism and Corbynism and the “down” times of Blairism and Starmerism.
This means one of the themes is the question of any useful way of being a Labour activist when the leadership seems rotten. Whether you ultimately agree with the case to stay with Labour (and Morning Star readers will fall on both sides), Bryn has the personal history to talk it through with depth.
His episode on the Labour left in Brighton in the 1980s, with the Falklands war, miners’ strike, the Labour councillor who refused to “condemn” the IRA even after they blew up the Grand Hotel as it was hosting the Conservative conference and a guest appearance from Gerry Adams (in Brighton to meet the Labour left, not the podcast) is very gripping.
To try to avoid being too long or dry or heavy, each Podcast now breaks into two half-hour slots; this was a good idea, and I wonder if it might be worth making them into separate half-hour episodes.
You can watch the Labour Left Podcast on YouTube or listen on all the usual digital outlets, including Spotify, Audible, Amazon and Apple. Just Google or search “Labour Left Podcast” and you will find it.
Follow Solomon on X @SolHughesWriter.
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