Housmans Radical Booksellers' Podcast

'Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House' with Mike Wendling

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Sat, 19 May 2018 16:34:10 +0000

This book is a vital guide to understanding the Alt-Right - the white nationalist, misogynist, far-right movement that rose to prominence during Donald Trump's successful election campaign in the United States. It looks at the support for this reactionary network, arguing that while Trump is in office and the far-right grows across Europe, we need to gain a deeper understanding of the movement's philosophy, history and role in politics today. While the movement appears to have burst out of nowhere, Mike Wendling has been tracking the Alt-Right for years. He reveals the role of technological utopians, reactionary philosophers, the notorious 4chan and 8chan bulletin boards, and a range of bloggers, vloggers and tweeters, highlighting the extreme ideas which underpin the movement's thought. This is an analysis of what the Alt-Right stands for and who its followers and leaders are. Including exclusive interviews with members of the movement and evidence linking extremists with terror attacks and hate crimes, it is clear that despite its high-profile support, the movement's lack of a coherent base and its contradictory tendencies is already leading to its downfall. Reviews 'An urgently needed dose of clarity for anyone hoping to understand the twists and turns of far right politics beyond the Khakis and Tiki torches' - Mark Bray, historian and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook About the Author Mike Wendling is a Senior Broadcast Journalist at the BBC. He works in the BBC's Digital Current Affairs department, where he is a blogger and editor of BBC Trending. He produced the BBC radio series America's Own Extremists. He has also presented documentaries for Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on Native Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement. He is the author of Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House (Pluto, 2018).

How the Establishment Lost Control with Chris Nineham

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 12:26:09 +0000

The post-war consensus is breaking up. The general election result, the 2014 Scottish referendum and the Brexit vote all testify to an insurgent mood amongst swathes of the population. This book attempts to explain these dramatic developments and to show how they question received notions about politics, history and how change happens. Reviews A highly readable, fast moving account of how the British establishment have lost the plot. Chris Nineham reveals, often using their own words, that they know they have, but they would rather you didn’t read it here... ~ Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1% An important and perceptive history of post-war Britain and the effects of neoliberalism. A critique with a robust philosophical basis, it explains where the inequalities that led us to this point originated, how they are being perpetuated, and how they can be deconstructed. Essential reading for anybody wishing to understand the state we’re in. ~ Brian Eno The sub-text of this book is 'Against Pessimism'. Chris Nineham gives us a guide to the fractures and fault-lines in the establishment, reminding us how often our rulers don't get their own way, and how the Left can make the most of these weaknesses. ~ Mike Rosen About the Author Chris Nineham is a vice chair of the Stop the War Coalition. He was one of the organisers of the two million February 15th, 2003 demonstration in London and central to the international co-ordination that led to the protests going global. He was also an international organiser of the Genoa G8 protests in 2001 and played a central role in the co-ordination of the European Social Forum in Florence (2002), Paris (2003) and London (2004) as well as being a co-ordinator of the WSF assembly of social movements.

How to Resist: Turn Protest to Power

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 13:48:08 +0000

‘How to Resist: Turn Protest to Power’ with Matthew Bolton in conversation with Wail Qasim Wednesday 27th September,7pm It's easy to feel dispirited by the world around us. We need change but as one person alone, it can all seem far too daunting. What can one person alone achieve? Where to begin? How to Resist reminds us that all great social change movements in history have been organised by ordinary people coming together, being brave and changing the course of history. Whoever and wherever we are, if we want to effect change, the first step is to look at ourselves. We need to think about what we care about, what motivates us and how we want to be remembered. We need to do more than react against others: we need to look forwards. With illuminating stories and clear procedures, change seems genuinely achievable. Matthew Bolton, who created and led the successful campaign in Britain that led to millions of people in the UK being given the Living Wage, calmly and clearly shows us how together, we can effect positive change in the world around us. Reviews “There's a huge appetite right now for radical change and How to Resist can equip a generation of politically engaged young people with the practical tools to organise and campaign” – Paul Mason “An amazingly inspiring book coming at just the right moment. A leading light in an invaluable organisation, Matthew Bolton really knows how to make stuff happen - and he wants you to know too. You might have heard that things don't have to be this way - here's the official guidebook to changing them” – Marina Hyde About the speaker Matthew Bolton, Deputy Director of Citizens UK and Lead Organiser for London Citizens, has built a nationwide alliance of thousands of community campaigners who have driven two of the most effective, strategic and widest-reaching campaigns in the UK of the past two decades. The Refugee Welcome and Safe Passage campaign has secured entry for over 1,100 vulnerable Syrian children, including hundreds from the 'jungle' camps of Calais.

‘Pride – The Book’ with Lesbians & Gays Support The Miners

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 13:39:53 +0000

Mike Jackson, Jonathan Blake and Gethin Roberts - members of the original LGSM crew - launch ‘Pride’, the book of the hit film, which tells the true story of how in 1984 a group of gay men and lesbian women came to befriend and support a very traditional mining community in the remote valleys of South Wales. In 1984, a small group of metropolitan homosexual men and lesbian women stepped away from the vibrant culture and hedonism of London's defiant gay scene to befriend and support the beleaguered villages of a very traditional mining community in the remote valleys of South Wales. They did so in the midst of the 1984 miners' strike - the most bitter and divisive dispute for more than half a century, and in one of the most turbulent periods in modern British history. In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's hardcore social and fiscal policies devastated Britain's traditional industries, and at the same time, AIDS began to claim lives across the nation. At the very height of this perfect storm, as the government and police battled 'the enemy within' in communities across the land and newspapers whipped up fear of the gay 'perverts' who were supposedly responsible for inflicting this lethal new pestilence upon the entire population, two groups who ostensibly had nothing in common - miners and homosexuals - unexpectedly made a stand together and forged a lasting friendship. It was an alliance which helped keep an entire valley clothed and fed during the darkest months of the strike. And it led directly to a long-overdue acceptance by trades unions and the Labour Party that homosexual equality was a cause to be championed. Pride tells the inspiring true story of how two very different communities - each struggling to overcome its own bitter internal arguments and long-established fault lines, as well as facing the power of a hostile government and press found common cause against overwhelming odds. And how this one simple but unlikely act of friendship would, in time, help change life in Britain - forever.

Big Capital: Who Is London For? - Anna Minton

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 07:30:55 +0000

A talk given at Housmans Bookshop - 18/07/17 Anna Minton discusses the politics and complexities of the ongoing housing crisis, which is felt particularly sharply here in London, and which has been brought into even sharper relief by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. London is facing the worst housing crisis in modern times, with knock-on effects for the rest of the UK. Despite the desperate shortage of housing, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of affordable homes are being pulled down, replaced by luxury apartments aimed at foreign investors. In this ideological war, housing is no longer considered a public good. Instead, only market solutions are considered - and these respond to the needs of global capital, rather than the needs of ordinary people. In politically uncertain times, the housing crisis has become a key driver creating and fuelling the inequalities of a divided nation. Anna Minton, author of the influential book on the privatisation of public space ‘Ground Control’ (2012, Penguin), cuts through the complexities, jargon and spin to give a clear-sighted account of how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it. Reviews ‘Diligent and determined ... Eye-opening ... Minton builds a powerful case ... A call to imagine what is politically possible’ (Richard Godwin Evening Standard) ‘Fierce, incisive, important. Anyone who lives or works in a building should read this book’ (Will Self) ‘A studied, sustained attack on a market that has been mishandled by successive governments for 40 years, not because politicians have been unable to remedy it but because it has been expedient not to. It makes for painful - yet compelling – reading’ (Nathan Brooker Financial Times) ‘Cutting through the jargon and spin [Minton] argues that housing is a human right, not purely a financial asset, and offers clear-sighted solutions’ (Antonia Charlesworth Big Issue)

‘A People's History of the Russian Revolution’ with Neil Faulkner (Left Book Club event)

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 12:18:49 +0000

The Russian Revolution may well be the most misunderstood event in modern history. In A People's History of the Russian Revolution, Neil Faulkner sets out to debunk the myths. In this fast-paced introduction to tumultuous events, the Russian people are the heroes. Faulkner shows how a mass movement of millions, organised in democratic assemblies, mobilised for militant action, destroyed a regime of landlords, profiteers, and warmongers. Faulkner rejects caricatures of Lenin and the Bolsheviks as authoritarian conspirators, 'democratic-centralists', or the progenitors of Stalinist dictatorship. He argues that the Russian Revolution was an explosion of democracy and creativity - and that it was crushed by bloody counter-revolution and replaced with a monstrous form of bureaucratic state-capitalism. Laced with first-hand testimony, this history seeks to rescue the democratic essence of the revolution from its detractors and deniers, offering a perfect primer for the modern reader. Reviews “A People's History of the Russian Revolution, written by one of the finest historians on the left, is a vital contribution to the debate over the legacy of the Revolution and an essential defence of the revolutionary experience.” - John Newsinger, author of The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire “Among the countless books which are beginning to appear as the centenary of the Russian Revolution approaches, there is a real need for a clear, historically reliable popular account from a socialist perspective. Neil Faulkner's A People's History is that account.”- Neil Davidson, author of We Cannot Escape History: Nations, States, and Revolutions (Haymarket, 2015) “A People's History of the Russian Revolution reeks of the vodka, blood, and gunpowder of one of the most vital and important periods in human history. It is a powerful book for an anniversary those in charge would rather we forgot.” -Tansy E. Hoskins, author of Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion (Pluto, 2014) About the Author Neil Faulkner is a leading Marxist historian. A Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, he is the author of numerous books, including A Marxist History of the World: from Neanderthals to Neoliberals (Pluto, 2013) and Lawrence of Arabia's War (Yale, 2016). He appears regularly on TV and was a lead consultant on Sky Atlantic's The British series.

Alex Nunns, author of "The Candidate" - Q&A

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 15:01:31 +0000

Kindly recorded for us by our wonderful volunteer and sound-wizard James Davies. Talk recorded at The Kings Arms Pub, 55 The Grove, Ealing, London W5 5DX, in partnership with Ealing Labour for Corbyn. In September 2015 an earthquake shook the foundations of British politics. Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong and uncompromising socialist, was elected to head the Labour Party. Corbyn didn’t just win the leadership contest, he trounced his opponents. The establishment was aghast. The official opposition now had as its leader a man with a plan, according to the conservative Daily Telegraph, “to turn Britain into Zimbabwe.” How this remarkable twist of events came about is the subject of Alex Nunns’ highly readable and richly researched account. Drawing on first-hand interviews with those involved in the campaign, including its most senior figures, Nunns traces the origins of Corbyn’s victory in the dissatisfaction with Blairism stirred by the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crash, the move to the left of the trade unions, and changes in the electoral rules of the Labour Party that turned out to be surreally at odds with the intentions of those who introduced them. The system of one-member-one-vote, which delivered Corbyn’s success, was opposed by those on the left and was heralded by Tony Blair who described it as “a long overdue reform that… I should have done myself.” Giving full justice to the dramatic swings and nail-biting tensions of an extraordinary summer in UK politics, Nunns’ telling of a story that has received widespread attention but little understanding is as illuminating as it is entertaining. He teases out a plotline of such improbability that it would be unusable in a work of fiction, providing the first convincing explanation of a remarkable phenomenon with enormous consequences for the left in Britain and beyond.

‘The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work’ with David Frayne

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 14:56:43 +0000

Paid work is absolutely central to the culture and politics of capitalist societies, yet today’s work-centred world is becoming increasingly hostile to the human need for autonomy, spontaneity and community. The grim reality of a society in which some are overworked, whilst others are condemned to intermittent work and unemployment, is progressively more difficult to tolerate. In this thought-provoking book, David Frayne questions the central place of work in mainstream political visions of the future, laying bare the ways in which economic demands colonise our lives and priorities. Drawing on his original research into the lives of people who are actively resisting nine-to-five employment, Frayne asks what motivates these people to disconnect from work, whether or not their resistance is futile, and whether they might have the capacity to inspire an alternative form of development, based on a reduction and social redistribution of work.

Alex Nunns, author of "The Candidate" - main talk

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 12:42:15 +0000

‘How to dismantle the NHS in 10 easy steps’ with Dr Youssef El-Gingihy

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 13:15:12 +0000

Tower Hamlets GP Youssef El-Gingihy discusses the NHS and explains how it has been gradually been converted into a market-based healthcare system over the past 30 years. The NHS is the closest thing we have to a collective heart, so naturally when we hear of it being ‘privatised’ and ‘dismantled’ this evokes a negative response. It instinctively makes sense - we have a Tory government after all and they seem to quite like privatising stuff. However, it’s a bit confusing because we still appear to get free healthcare at the point of service. Who cares if it’s being taken over by ‘health trusts’? You can still get your hip replaced or a cancer removed … What’s all the fuss about? Youssef El-Gingihy’s accessible short book shows us why this attack on our most cherished public service is so important - a process that has been underway since the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher. Youssef provides a wealth of quite incredible information in 71 pages, so if you ever find yourself faced with a Tory offensive, you will be ready for the fight. And it’s not just a Tory problem; El Gingihy shows that every government over the past thirty years has contributed to the demise of the pride of the UK. And here’s how they are doing it. El-Gingihy then sets out a number of ways in which we can fight back, and if you aren’t willing to take to the streets after reading this, then you must be part of the ruling class. With TTIP potentially on the horizon (giving companies the ability to sue governments if their decisions affect their profits), the fight only becomes more difficult as every day passes. However, with Jeremy Hunt’s recent attack on Junior Doctors, it is becoming ever more clear to the general public that with the Tories left in charge of the NHS (or any other public service for that matter), it will become more and more of a ludicrous business opportunity for their mates, and less of a public service. Although, recent history tells us that the right of the Labour Party is complicit in all this. Nye Bevan, the creator of the service once said, ‘The NHS will exist as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.’ El-Gingihy’s book provides us with plenty of ammunition for that fight.

Jeremy Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics

Housmans Radical Booksellers — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 11:48:23 +0000

Housmans welcomes back writer and broadcaster Richard Seymour who will be presenting his new book Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics (Verso). With a landslide in the first round, Jeremy Corbyn, an unassuming antiwar socialist, crushed the opposition, dealing a huge blow to the Blairite opposition. For the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda—and for the first time in Labour’s history, it defines the leadership. This book tells the story of how Corbyn’s rise was made possible by the long decline of Labour and a deep crisis in British democracy. It surveys the makeshift coalition of trade unionists, young and precarious workers, and students who rallied to Corbyn. It shows how a novel social media campaign turned the media’s “Project Fear” on its head, making a virtue of every accusation thrown at him. And finally it asks, with all the artillery that is still ranged against Corbyn, and given the crisis-ridden Labour Party that he has inherited, what it would mean for him to succeed.