Bristol Transformed

How do you tell if someone's a good actor? Is Tik Tok more radical than Brecht? What can theatre can teach us about political communication? Are the cats in Cats in an uncanny valley? Producer and socialist activist Shona Jemphrey takes centre stage for the opening night of our new podcast series. Shuddup About Politics is a new series from Bristol Transformed where we take a break from the political agenda to chat about literally anything else.

From Bristol Transformed 2020: Martin Parker, Malu garcia, Anita Mangan, Jules Peck, Neil McInroy After the 2019 election many of us were left wondering - where do we go from here? We may have lost the battle but the war isn’t over. We have a network of activist ready and rearing to go. What better way to channel that energy than into community wealth building projects? But what is community wealth building (CWB)? It's predicated on the idea that the best way to reduce excessive wealth inequality, and promote universal prosperity, is to build a system where people share in the wealth they collectively produce. This is achieved by promoting cooperative businesses, community land trusts, housing co-ops and other such initiatives. In short – CWB aims to transition towards a cooperative economy from the bottom up! Sound good? In this panel we discuss the successes of previous CWB projects, such as The Preston Model, and how we can replicate it here in Bristol.

(Note recording starts as Shabbir Lakha is speaking due to technical error of not pressing the record button in time. ) From Bristol Transformed 2020 Alice Proctor, Shabbir Lakha, Narzanin Massoumi Imperialism as we know it — central to the destruction and exploitation of autonomous states and peoples — did not end centuries ago. Instead of colonising through brute force, today’s imperialism has the face of capital along with the threat of colonial rule. From debt and arms sales to cultural domination and biased curriculum, imperialism is embedded in our society in all forms. What are the available tactics for resistence, and how can we move toward at true end to imperialism? This panel sheds light on the current campaigns for revolutionary, global change.

Sabrina Huck, Alena Ivanova, Nadine El-Enany, Ben Smoke With the rise of disaster nationalism, the climate emergency, devastating conflicts, children in cages on the US border and tragic deaths from human trafficking in the UK, all this and more surely goes to show that borders equal violence and discrimination in the 21st century. In this session we explore the possibilities of a world free from the violence of borders, and how we can get there.

Louise Del in conversation with Carys Kettlety on the origins of the national food service in Sheffield, and how the concept could transform our relationship with cooking and eating for the better. This is a brilliant talk that ranges from how we cure loneliness, to reclaiming under-utilised retail space, to cutting food waste and eliminating malnutrition.

Speakers: James Meadway, Sarah Jaffe, Archie Woodrow, Kulsoom Jafri There has been a resurgence of leftwing organisations, think tanks, activists, politicians and ideas in recent years, and in America it seems the left is on the brink of power. But all of this happened almost accidentally, and without serious strategic thought. In this session we ask activists from the UK and the States how the left can coordinate with effective strategy to win power.

Callum Cant - Riding for Deliveroo by bristoltransformed

NB For technical reasons we had to use a fall back recording. Costas Lapavitsas is one of the foremost left critics of the EU. He was elected as an member of the Greek parliament for Syriza in 2015 before defecting to Popular Unity in defiance of the government's concessions to the Troika later in the year. Since 1999 he has taught economics at SOAS, where he now holds a professorship. The event is chaired by Bristol Transformed's own Raven Hart. Raven works as a data analyst in tax, has lived in Athens and produced research on the economic effects of austerity in Greece brought on by the aftermath of the European Debt Crisis. He is currently in the process of pursuing a PhD examining the role of tax in reversing the effects of financializaton under Costas’ supervision.

From celebrity endorsements to monks, neuroscientists and meditation coaches rubbing shoulders with CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is clear that mindfulness has gone mainstream. Some have even called it a revolution.But what if, instead of changing the world, mindfulness has become a banal form of capitalist spirituality that mindlessly avoids social and political transformation, reinforcing the neoliberal status quo? Writer + Academic Ronald Purser joined us in conversation with Hettie O'Brien to debunk the so-called “mindfulness revolution,” exposing how corporations, schools, governments and the military have co opted it as technique for social control and self-pacification.

Aaron Bastani, co-founder of Novara media visited Bristol to discuss his new book, Fully Automated Luxury Communism (Verso). Sasha Sadjady (Labour, Acorn, PCS) interviews Aaron, and then we have more than 50 minutes of discussion from the room.

Katherine spoke to us about her new edited collection which is published by Pluto Press. "This book is a collection of Sylvia Pankhurst's writing on her visits to North America in 1911-12. Unlike the standard suffragette tours which focused on courting progressive members of America's social elite for money, Pankhurst got her hands dirty, meeting striking laundry workers in New York, visiting female prisoners in Philadelphia and Chicago and grappling with horrific racism in Nashville, Tennessee. Adored by socialist students and progressive politicians, Pankhurst was also shocked by the dark underbelly of American society. Bringing her own experiences of imprisonment and misogyny from her political work in Britain, she found many parallels between the two countries. These never-before-published writings mark an important stage in the development of the suffragette's thought, which she brought back to Britain to inform the burgeoning working-class suffrage campaign there. The book also includes a contextualising introduction by Katherine Connelly."

Please note all talks at Malcolm X centre were recorded 'in the room' & so are somewhat noisy. Support Bristol Transformed so that next year all our recordings will be extremely high quality. Panel on the Environment from Malcolm X Centre. Chaired by Rob Wotherspoon, panelists - Kerry McCarthy MP, Skeena Rathor, Chris Saltmarsh & James Meadway,

George Angus chair's this discussion on rethinking education. With Dani Wijesinghe, Nina Franklin, Ollie Turnbull, Amelia Horgan & Leo Nikolaidis Please note all talks at Malcolm X centre were recorded 'in the room' & so are somewhat noisy. Support Bristol Transformed so that next year all our recordings will be extremely high quality.

Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley Chairs this discussion of Alternative Media & Narratives. With Ronan Burtenshaw, Dawn Foster, Matt Turner, Steve Howell & Alon Aviram Please note all talks at Malcolm X centre were recorded 'in the room' & so are somewhat noisy. Support Bristol Transformed so that next year all our recordings will be extremely high quality.

*Apologies, due to a technical hitch the end of Grace Blakeley's and the start of Aaron Bastani's opening remarks are cut off.* We judge our economy not be the presence of billionaires but by the absence of poverty." -Jeremy Corbyn This panel will explore how the challenge of neoliberal capitalism can be overcome with an effective socialist economy that looks toward the future of work. Chair: Harriet Bradley. Panel: Aaron Bastani (Novara, FALC), Grace Blakeley (IPPR, New Statesman), Susan Newman (UWE), Maud Perrier (University of Bristol), Will Stronge (Autonomy)