The AIAC Podcast

Last year, left-wing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated right-wing Jair Bolsonaro in an historic election for Brazil. The victory was slim—Lula amassed 50.9% to Bolsonaro’s 49.1%. Bolsonarismo—the term used to describe adherence to Bolsonaro’s crackpot ideology which blends neofascism, evangelical Christianity, and neoliberalism—was far from repudiated. And, lo and behold, a week after Lul...

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a multi-polar order started taking shape. Determined to impose economic costs on Putin’s regime for its aggression, the West quickly and unilaterally undertook to sanction and isolate it. But these decisions were not without ramifications for other countries in the world, especially large swathes of  the Global South, who are dependent on Russian imports, p...

On December 7, 2022, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was impeached. Castillo ascended to the job in a watershed election in 2021, carrying the hopes of Peru’s poor, downtrodden and marginalized despite facing a hostile, right-wing Congress. This was the third impeachment attempt by the legislative body, and it came after Castillo first tried to avoid removal by dissolving Congress and announcing...

This year’s FIFA Men’s World Cup is now in its business end. So far, it’s exceeded expectations in terms of spectacle. From Vincent Aboubakar’s incredible solo goal for Cameroon against Brazil (after which he celebrated by removing his shirt, earning himself an instant red card), to Japan’s heroics, and of course, to Morocco’s incredible advance to the semi-finals (after dispatching footballing ti...

Need we say more? Thirty-two teams have converged in the tiny Middle-Eastern nation of Qatar to fight for their national pride, and so far, it is shaping up to be the spectacle that keeps football lovers faithful. But there is no sport without politics, and Qatar’s hosting of the tournament has unleashed a sea of criticism over its dodgy labor practices and poor human rights track record. Should w...

In 2019, legendary African writer and public intellectual, Binyavanga Wainaina, passed away. A few weeks ago, a collection of Wainana’s early writing was published as How To Write About Africa (Hamish Hamilton, 2022). On this special episode of AIAC Talk, we bring together Wainana’s friends and colleagues to discuss his towering legacy, and the lesser known writing, which demonstrated his irrevere...

The legacy of apartheid displacement and dispossession was meant to be remedied in democratic South Africa. Although the government has delivered more than three million homes, the social need has outstripped capacity and the collapse of the ANC-run state due to corruption has not helped. In this context, scores of South Africans take charge of their own accommodation by occupying land (sometimes...

August marked 10 years since the Marikana massacre, when police in South Africa shot down 34 striking mineworkers at a platinum mine in the North-West Province. This episode provoked a deeper public awareness of rampant police violence in post-apartheid South Africa, which continues to repress poor and working-class communities and entrench class, racial and gender inequalities. Are alternatives p...

It goes without saying that the climate crisis is the problem of our time. Yet, despite rhetoric from governments and big corporations that structural changes are imminent, none seem to be forthcoming and emissions continue apace. How come? Professor Matt Huber joins Will to discuss his latest book, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet (Verso, 2022) . Professor Huber...

Will is joined by returning guest, Nihal El Aaser, to discuss the roots of Egypt’s ongoing economic crisis. In The New Arab , Nihal argues that “These conditions eventually became the economic foundations of the Arab Spring, the 2011 uprisings that gave us the famous slogan 'Aish, Horreya, Adala Egtema’eya,' meaning 'Bread, Freedom & Social Justice'.” Could Egypt be heading towards another cyc...

Will is joined by Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, to discuss her latest book, Disorder, Hard Times in the 21st Century (OUP, 2022). Since the 2008 financial crisis, many analysts have scratched their heads to make sense of the crisis of liberal democracies, the decline of neoliberal hegemony, and the emerging multipolar world where the West’s dominance is ch...

Will chats to Professor Vivek Chibber about his latest book, The Class Matrix: Social Theory After the Cultural Turn . Why, despite the powerful antagonism capitalism generates between bosses and workers, is it so resilient? Why did class disappear as an analytical category for the international left? Can the left rebuild class consciousness through organizing, or are the multiple crises the world...

Organized through the Academics Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), academics at Nigeria's public universities are on strike. They're seeking to force the Nigerian government to implement a 2009 agreement promising increased pay and greater investment in tertiary education. Over the years, the government has been steadily defunding public universities and encouraging privatization. In this episode...

Earlier this week, AIAC editor Sean Jacobs asked : “Where do African countries fall in the threatened invasion of Ukraine by Russia? Will African states side with the US or their European allies or with Russia?” The question is no longer speculative: Russia has invaded Ukraine. As Russia seeks expansion at its borders, its expanding influence beyond its borders is viewed as a push for global hegem...

Senegal’s victory at the African Cup of Nations caused jubilation across the continent. The Lions of Taranga’s triumph was long seen as overdue and well-deserved. At home, it gave respite to President Macky Sall’s troubled regime, as national pride overcame national despair. Not for Senegalese women though, as reports began to emerge that several women across the country were assaulted amidst the...

In 2019, South African dairy giant Clover was taken over by Milco, a consortium led by Israel’s Central Bottling Company – which also operates in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since November 2021, Clover workers have been striking against the restructuring campaign that Milco seeks to implement, which includes widespread retrenchments and factory closures; as well as the takeover itself, s...

Pio Gama Pinto was a Kenyan socialist activist and intellectual who was assassinated in 1965, shortly after Kenya won independence two years prior. Who was he, why was he feared, and why was his legacy erased? This week, Will chats with Lena Anyuolo and Nicholas Mwangi, two members of the Organic Intellectuals Network in Kenya that have put together a volume of reflections on Pinto and his legacy...

In the last year and a half, military takeovers have occurred in Chad, Guinea, Mali, Sudan, and last week, in Burkina Faso. It happens that all of these countries belong to a region below the Sahara known as the Sahel, stretching from Senegal to Sudan, and comprising Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, northern Nigeria, southern Algeria, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia. The reason for ex-B...

Are South Africa’s unions relevant? Are they still too closely connected to the politics of the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress? (The party still enjoys an alliance with the country’s largest trade union federation, the Congress of South Africa’s Trade Unions (COSATU).) Can they rebuild to unite workers, communities and the unemployed? What we know is that South Africa’s labo...

China’s involvement in Africa is typically viewed with skepticism. Many think its development initiatives seek to trap African states in exploitative economic relationships, and that China, like the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, is competing against the United States to spread its political model globally. In this episode of AIAC Talk , Will talks to Professor Tang Xiaoyang, who is Chai...

The 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations football tournament began today, Sunday, 9 January, in Cameroon. AIAC founder and editor Sean Jacobs joins Will to talk about the history of the tournament, its contemporary politics, and its relationship to the hegemony of European football. The most important question of all, of course, is who will win this year’s showpiece? Listen in for some predi...

In the final episode of AIAC Talk for the year, Will is joined by AIAC founder and editor Sean Jacobs for a conversation with Steven Friedman; a South African newspaper columnist, former trade unionist, and political scientist who specializes in the study of democracy. Professor Friedman is the author of two new books reflecting on South Africa’s tortured past and its dysfunctional present, n...

The arrest in July of former president Jacob Zuma in connection with an investigation into widespread corruption sparked an eruption of unrest and violence, mainly in the province of his base, KwaZulu-Natal. Yet the upheaval reflects a broader crisis underpinned by the failures of the African National Congress (ANC) to deliver on the hopes of national liberation, and the neo-liberalization and con...

2021 is being roundly pronounced as “a great year for African writing.” From Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel award to South African Damon Galgut nabbing the Booker—the list of African and diaspora writers winning prestigious literary prizes this year is long. Does this represent a paradigm shift in global literature, typically dominated by Western authors? Do these victories do anything to...

Haiti is going through hard times. From the assassination of a sitting president to an earthquake soon after, preceded by years of economic stagnation and devastating natural disasters. In this episode of AIAC Talk, we chat to Pooja Bhatia about the roots of Haiti’s manifold crises. Pooja Bhatia is a writer and has written about Haiti for outlets such as The London Review of Books and the New York...