In this episode we talk to Madeleine Johansson of Red Network. Madeleine moved
from Sweden to Ireland in the 2000s where she became active with the Socialist
Workers’ Party (SWP) and People Before Profit (PBP). She was a party organiser
and director of elections for the 2016 General Election campaign in Dublin
Mid-West, subsequently co-opted on to South Dublin County Council in 2016, and
returned in the 2019 and 2024 local elections. Madeleine was a founding member
of Red Network, which was formed in 2021 within People Before Profit before
becoming an independent party in 2025. She is the author of
Class War – Not Culture War
(2025) and
Reform or Revolution – Sweden, Socialism and The Welfare State
(2022), available from the Red Network website.

We discuss Madeleine’s early political experience and the contrast between
Sweden and Ireland; her work as an activist and organiser with SWP during the
austerity years and campaigns against household charges, property tax and water
charges; her experience as a local councillor and the particular challenge of
the housing crisis; the formation of Red Network and the political differences
that led them to leave People Before Profit; and her position on the politics
of class, identity politics, reform and revolution.

You’ll find more details of Red Network’s politics on their website at
rednetwork.net.