Bungacast

/474/ Urban Power in a Planet of Slums ft. Ben Bradlow

On cities and the politics of development.

[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Ben Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex about his book Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg.

• If our future is urban – and it is – why is it different to what we imagined?

• Are Johannesburg and São Paulo representative of what is going on in cities?

• How did democratic promise and neoliberal disappointment go together in the 1990s, through to today?

• What has been the role of social movements (e.g. for housing) in transforming cities and municipal government?

• Is the radical right in the global North and South fundamentally different? What is the urban dimension?

• What does China's lead in industries like electric vehicles mean for countries like Brazil?

• Is industrial upgrading possible under post-neoliberalism?

Links:

• Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg, Benjamin Bradlow, Princeton UP

• A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018), Tomás Gold and Benjamin Bradlow, Social Forces

• Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Peter Evans, Princeton UP

/472/ Munich, MAGA, Musk, Malema ft. Will Shoki / Ryan Zickgraf

On Trumpworld: Vance in Munich; Musk in South Africa.

[This contains only the interview on South Africa – for the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Alex, George and Ryan Zickgraf round up events in Germany: first the elections, then US Vice-President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference where he called out Western elites' hypocrisy on liberalism and democracy.

Then Alex speaks to Will Shoki, editor at Africa Is A Country, about what Musk wants from South Africa, why the global radical right has fixated on land reform in South Africa, and what is really at stake for South Africans.

We round out by taking your questions and comments – and by welcoming in carnival by discussing drinking & socialising, and its anti-social enemies.

Running Order

• 00:03:10 – German elections

• 00:08:20 – Vance's Munich speech

• 00:26:00 – Will Shoki on South African politics

• 01:04:55 – Musk and the global radical right

• 01:13:20 – Letters to the Editors

• 01:23:10 – Carnival and social drinking

Links:

• Trump’s Tool: The Limits of Bannon’s Postmodern Nationalism, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star

• Make Afrikaners great again! National populism, democracy and the new white minority politics in post- apartheid South Africa, Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, Ethnic and Racial Studies 

• Why Trump loves corrupt Democrats, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd

• The Case for Social Drinking, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin

• The Hangover and Life as a Commodity, George Hoare, Damage

• Segregation Is Still Alive in Mardi Gras’s Birthplace, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin

/374/ You’re Gonna Need Representation ft. Vincent Bevins

On a decade of protest around the world.

 

Journalist Vincent Bevins is back on the podcast to talk about his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. We discuss the 2010s protest wave across countries as varied as Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Chile, Bahrain, Yemen, South Korea and Tunisia.

 

We ask:

• Why were protests in places that were so different all look so similar?
• Why was there such a focus on spontaneity, leaderlessness, peformativity, and horizontalism?
• What are some examples of the ways protests rejected representation?
• Was class or generation more important in driving these protests?
• Why did media becomes so important in pursuing political change?
• How can we avoid a repeat of the failures of the 2010s?

Links:

• If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs
• The mass protest decade: why did the street movements of the 2010s fail?, Vincent Bevins, The Guardian
• The End of the End of History: Politics in the 21st Century, Bungacast authors, Zer0 Books
• /121/ Those Murdering Bastards ft. Vincent Bevins
• /279/ Society of the Speculative ft. Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

/367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos

On sovereign debt and taking back control.

 

The leading candidate in Argentina's election this month wants to avoid defaulting on the country's debt at all costs. But back in 2001, after a mass revolt, Argentina reneged on its debts – one of the very rare cases over the past 70 years of unilateral default. 

 

Why are nations so eager to pay back creditors nowadays, especially when it means endless austerity and little prospect of economic development?

 

We talk to scholar Jerome Roos about his book, Why Not Default? and discuss a range of cases: Mexico, Greece, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Ghana - and of course Argentina. We find that the old free market system used to accept that reneging on your debts was a risk creditors had to take. No longer: transnational institutions make sure that creditors get paid every time. 

 

How might countries free themselves from international financial dictatorship?

 

For part two of the interview and the After Party, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

 

Links:

• Why Not Default?: The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt, Jerome Roos
• Memoria del saqueo (Social Genocide), film on 2001 debt crisis and uprising in Argentina (many versions available online)
• /83/ Now It’s Syrizous (episode on Syriza's defeat in Greece)
• The World in One Country: Greece, Jonas Kyratzes (part of ep.200)

UNLOCKED: /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs

On the radical right in the global periphery.

 

[This was originally a Patreon Exclusive]

 

Erdogan, Modi, Orban, Bolsonaro, Duterte. Though the latter two are gone, the first three are still going strong, in government for a decade or more. What unites these figures? They’re all right wing and authoritarian, but also popular and anti-establishment.

 

How similar are these politicians to their analogues in the core of global capitalism? Might they even be seen to be forerunners of developments in the rich world? And to what extent are they able to resolve the crises of the end of the end of history?

 

In this episode, we talk to two of the editors of a new book, The Radical Right: Politics of Hate on the Margins of Global Capital.

 

Previous episodes on this theme:

• Turkey /339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu
• Brazil: /299/ Micropower & Transcendence in Brazil (Bungazão 2022) ft. Miguel Lago
• Brazil: /292/ Bungazão 2022: Unrealistic Pragmatism, ft. Unbridled Possibility Collective
• India: /198/ Universal India ft. Achin Vanaik
• Hungary: /33/ Hungary's Illiberal Democracy ft. Tamas Gerocs
• Philippines: /52/ Duterte's Despotism ft. Nicole Curato

UNLOCKED /328/ The New Scramble for Africa

On geopolitical competition over Africa.

 

This episode was originally for subscribers only. To join, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

 

In light of the 'new Cold War', we look at what the US, Europe, Russia and China's respective "pitches" are to African countries – what are they selling? And we examine the factors that contribute to Africa's place in geopolitics today: Chinese hunger for raw materials, the global war on terror, the green energy transition, drug and people smuggling, and more.

 

If the original Scramble for Africa (1884-1914) was driven by an attempt to displace European class war onto another terrain, can we say anything analogous is happening today?

 

Links:

• /303/ The Failure of the French Forever War ft. Yvan Guichaoua
• /304/ The Failure of the French Forever War (2) ft. Yvan Guichaoua
• Russia in Africa, Financial Times series of articles
• Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Unity, Tricontinental Institute
• Italophone Somalia, Then and Now, Iman Mohamed, The Drift
• Emmanuel Macron must reset France’s Africa policy, Sylvie Kauffman (Le Monde editor), FT
• Debunking the Myth of ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri, Chatham House
• Let’s talk about neo-colonialism in Africa, Mark Langan, LSE blog
• /267/ South Africa Mafia State ft. Benjamin Fogel

 

/337/ Nigeria Rising Downwards ft. Sa’eed Husaini

On Nigeria's 'end of the end of history'.

Sa'eed Husaini from The Nigerian Scam podcast joins us to reflect on all things Nigeria: oil, debt, corruption and February's election. What was all that hype about the 'outsider' who wasn't much of an outsider? Has the country's populist moment passed?

More Nigerians are falling into poverty due to low economic growth, while the state is due to spend 96% of its income on debt service. How is this sustainable?

We also talk about oil and corruption: the 'resource curse' and the 'survival of the fattest'. And conclude on China's role in the country and Nigeria as a cultural powerhouse.

Links & Readings:

• Buharism is dead, long live Buharism, Sa’eed Husaini, Africa is a Country
• /61/ Making Plans for Naija ft. Sa'eed Husaini
• The Nigerian Scam podcast
• The Oil Thieves of Nigeria, James Barnett, New Lines
• Survival of the Fattest, Paulo Collier, The American Interest

 

Excerpt: /328/ The New Scramble for Africa

On geopolitical competition over Africa.

[Patreon Exclusive]

In light of the 'new Cold War', we look at what the US, Europe, Russia and China's respective "pitches" are to African countries – what are they selling? And we examine the factors that contribute to Africa's place in geopolitics today: Chinese hunger for raw materials, the global war on terror, the green energy transition, drug and people smuggling, and more. 

If the original Scramble for Africa (1884-1914) was driven by an attempt to displace European class war onto another terrain, can we say anything analogous is happening today?

Links:

• /303/ The Failure of the French Forever War ft. Yvan Guichaoua 
• /304/ The Failure of the French Forever War (2) ft. Yvan Guichaoua 
• Russia in Africa, Financial Times series of articles
• Defending Our Sovereignty: US Military Bases in Africa and the Future of African Unity, Tricontinental Institute
• Italophone Somalia, Then and Now, Iman Mohamed, The Drift
• Emmanuel Macron must reset France’s Africa policy, Sylvie Kauffman (Le Monde editor), FT
• Debunking the Myth of ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’, Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri, Chatham House
• Let’s talk about neo-colonialism in Africa, Mark Langan, LSE blog
• /267/ South Africa Mafia State ft. Benjamin Fogel

/321/ Covid Dissensus ft. Toby Green & Thomas Fazi

On The Covid Consensus.

 

We're joined by two authors whose new book asks why lockdowns were adopted almost universally. National and transnational health authorities dropped pre-pandemic plans in favour of open-ended nationwide lockdowns which were to remain in place until vaccines were developed. Why this course of action? 

 

And how to account for the unprecedented level of policy alignment across the majority of countries: was it coordination, imitation, or coercion?

 

In part two of the interview, we discuss the devastating impact of lockdowns on poor and middle-income countries where the informal economy is the norm.  

 

For access, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast 

 

Links:

• The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left, Toby Green & Thomas Fazi
• /213/ The Leopard Lockdown ft. Adam Tooze
• /38/ The Economics of Exit ft. Thomas Fazi

/303/ The Failure of the French Forever War ft. Yvan Guichaoua

On Mali and the Sahel.

 

French president Emmanuel Macron declared the end of Opération Barkhane on 9 November 2022, bringing to an end to nearly 10 years of French military intervention in Mali. But what is the legacy of the French Forever War in the Sahel, and what happens next?

 

Sahel expert Yvan Guichaou joins us to talk about French defeat in the war on terror, the continued French military presence in the region, the growing extent of jihadi power, as well as the crisis of the post-colonial state in Africa and the new geo-politics of Franco-Russian competition in the region. How do these various political forces intersect with the political economy of aid and smuggling networks?

 

[Part 2 is available to subscribers at patreon.com/bungacast]

 

Readings:

• Norms, non-combatants' agency and restraint in Jihadi violence in Northern Mali, Yvan Guichaoua and Ferdaous Bouhlel, International Interactions
• The bitter harvest of French interventionism in the Sahel, Yvan Guichaoua, International Affairs

Music: Nous Non Plus / Bunga Bunga / courtesy of Sugaroo!

/267/ South Africa Mafia State ft. Benjamin Fogel

On crumbling state authority.

 

Benjamin Fogel is back on the podcast to talk us through how South Africa has gone from the hopes of post-apartheid to the Durban riots of 2021. How have corruption, criminal networks, Indian oligarchs, and political forces combined to shatter any sense of a national project? We also discuss the role of xenophobia and particularist and racial politics in today's South Africa.

 

Readings & Links:

• /27/ After Zuma ft. Sean Jacobs
• The insurrection in South Africa is about more than freeing Zuma, Benjamin Fogel, Al Jazeera
• Dons have KZN in their grip — and Don of Dons Jacob Zuma has the tightest grip, Chris Makhaye, Daily Maverick
• No two elephants are alike, Ryan Brunette, Africa Is A Country
• Rising vigilantism: South Africa is reaping the fruits of misrule, Landau & Misago, The Conversation

 

Excerpt: /202/ 3 Articles: Clerisy, War, Football

In our latest 3A, we discuss "the clerisy" and how it relates to the PMC; how the EU is doing forever war just as much as the US; and the hyper-commodification of football.

The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

Articles:

• Did Populism Start A 21st Century Anti-Clerical Revolution?, Angela Nagle, Substack
• Interview with Wolfgang Streeck: The EU’s war in Africa, Jonas Elvander, Brave New Europe
• Cursed and compromised but Euro 2020’s irresistible circus rolls on, Barney Ronay, The Guardian

Excerpt: /134/ The Call - Afterparty

This is a sample. For the full episode, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast 

The three of us discuss some of the themes that emerged from our interview with Krithika Varagur (ep.133) - the entanglement of the US state with Islamism, the Americanisation of the Middle East, and especially the Gulf States, and Wahhabism as religious justification for the Saudi state project.

/133/ The Call ft. Krithika Varagur

On Saudi religious proselytism.

Saudi Arabia has actively sought to export Salafism. How has it done this - and what have been its effects, in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria and Kosovo? Why was fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s such a formative experience for jihadists? And why has appeal of secularism faded?

Readings:

• The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, Krithika Varagur
• How Saudi Arabia's religious project transformed Indonesia (Long excerpt from the book)
• The Coronavirus Threatens Saudi Arabia’s Global Ambitions, Krithika Varagur, Foreign Affairs
• Saudis and Extremism: 'Both the Arsonists and the Firefighters', Scott Shane, NYT
• China as the New Frontier for Islamic Daʿwah, Mohammed Turki al-Sudairi, Journal of Arabian Studies

/61/ Making Plans for Naija ft. Sa'eed Husaini

On Nigeria's elections. Sa'eed Husaini fills us in on the stakes of this election. President Buhari dismissed the country's top judge weeks before the election, but the former military dictator is meant to be an anti-corruption figure. His main opponent is a neoliberal privatiser. What's behind this contents between two faces of the Nigerian elite? What happens when politics is fought over the grounds of corruption? Can recent trade union mobilisations shake things up? Meanwhile violence associated with Boko Haram still festers... 

Readings:

Introductory

Nigeria’s Brutal Decision: Former Dictator or Alleged Kleptocrat, Bloomberg Businessweek

Thatcher-Loving Nigeria Candidate Plans to Overhaul Economy, Bloomberg Businessweek

Election overview by Brookings

More depth

The rebirth of the Nigerian left?, Sa'eed Husaini in Africa Is a Country

Democracy fading in Nigeria, Al Jazeera

On Sowore's programme, Marxist.com 

The struggle for a minimum wage, Africa Is a Country 

 

PATREON: Help us grow (pay what you want) patreon.com/bungacast