Sex Work Is Work
On this week's show James Butler is joined by writer and journalist Melissa Gira.
Interview: Natalie Bennett
Aaron Bastani questions the leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, on the rise of UKIP, human-made climate change and the party's proposal for a guaranteed basic income.
Getting the Books Straight: 6 Things You Should Know About Student Loans
Student loans are back in the news, this time over anticipated repayments. Expectedly, the coverage around the issue has been obscured with jargon and spin, so here's a concise guide to the main things you really need to know in order to get your head around - and tackle - the latest developments in the student loan book debacle.
‘Let Them Eat Bingo’: Assessing #Budget2014
On this week's show James Butler and Aaron Bastani discuss 'Budget 2014'.
Proletarian Pantomine: 8 Politicians Who Slum It Like the Rest of Us
Grant Shapps' patronising beer and bingo tweet captured the popular imagination this week as social media leapt on the opportunity to create some pithy parodies, exposing the Conservatives as out-of-touch contra to their claims of being the 'Workers' Party'. Shapps isn't the first and won't be the last to fail at getting down with the proles.
‘Let Them Eat Bingo’: 5 Things About #Budget2014
Here Aaron Bastani takes a quick look at today's budget. Little has changed from the growth model leading up to the crisis of 2008 he says and the budget is filled with assumptions and projections that are bordering on delusional.
Crisis at the Co-op: Can Ethical Capitalism Compete?
On this week's show Aaron Bastani discusses the crisis at the Co-operative group with Frances Coppola and Joel Benjamin.
Regime Lackies: 5 Muppet BBC Employees
Is the BBC a right or left-wing organisation? It's more than that - it is a regime broadcaster whose mendacity is expressed in the careers of 5 of its employees, past and present, listed below.
5 Reasons Free Education is Still Worth It
The idea of education as a commodity and universities as sausage factories only seems to be on the rise, meanwhile any semblance of a higher education as a social good accessible to all only seems to becoming the stuff of fantasy. This article takes on the normalization of market logic being applied to education, as well as the NUS's preferred - and embarrassing - 'graduate tax' policy, to argue that nothing short of free education should be demanded to reclaim education.
“Money is a lie”: Bez and the morality of debt
If work if the religion of secular society then debt is its sin. For evidence look no further than early daytime television, and this telling exchange between a self-styled 'consumer champion' and the Happy Mondays' maracas man.
5 Thoughts on Abolishing The Met
Owen Jones' debut column for the Guardian argued for the abolition of the Metropolitan Police. Here James Butler gives five reasons it doesn't go far enough.
Housing and Gentrification: Discussing the Heygate Estate
On this week's show James Butler is joined by Liliana Dmitrovic they discuss gentrification and the Heygate Estate.
4 Thoughts on ‘Brixton Unite’ and the Policing of Gentrification
Yesterday saw 'Brixton Unite' - a multi-agency police operation - take place in Brixton. While the claim by local government and the Metropolitan Police is that the operation was a response to 'gang crime', for many it is emblematic of the politics and management of gentrification: economic and social cleansing, racist policing, and the dispossession of urban space.
The Refusal of Work: 5 Cultural Artefacts
In an earlier Novara FM show, the refusal of work was discussed as a desire of the class which we can see articulated through certain cultural artefacts. These five videos demonstrate how these desires are reflected through MTV, disco dancing and densely-populated horse stables.
6 Things You Need To Know About Recent Protests in Bosnia
Anti-corruption protests, nationalists jumping on the bandwagon, and the EU lurking in the background. Sound familiar? Think again. While news coverage has been dominated by events first in Kiev and now in Crimea, it's all been kicking off in Bosnia.
A Tale of Two Regime Broadcasters
Two clips which say much more about two regime broadcasters than either would be happy to share.
6 Things We’ve Learned from the Crimea Situation So Far
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will be aware that things have been kicking off in Ukraine; first in Kiev, with pro-EU demonstrations resulting in the deposition of President Viktor Yanukovych, and now with the escalation of tensions in Crimea following Russia’s decision to heighten its military presence there. The situation does not […]