Politics Theory Other

The first round of the Brazilian presidential election had been expected to result in a relatively comfortable victory for Lula. Instead the results on October 4th had Lula on just forty-five percent of the vote - two percentage points behind Flávio Bolsanaro. Since the restoration of Brazilian democracy no candidate who failed to win the first round had ever prevailed in the second - and far-right candidates had won victories in legislative races across the country.

But on Sunday Lula and his campaign beat the odds and achieved a remarkable turnaround - winning nearly 52 percent of the vote, with more than 64 million Brazilians coming out to vote for Lula and the Brazilian Worker's Party. To explain the extraordinary election result PTO was joined by Ben Fogel.

Notes:

Lessons From Lula’s Historic Victory - Benjamin Fogel: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/lula-brazil-election-2026-flavio-bolsonaro-victory/

Lula’s Leap Into the Future - Andre Pagliarini:
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2026/10/lulas-leap-into-the-future

Lula’s Final Chapter:
https://www.equator.org/articles/brazil-lula-elections-results

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The term Global South has become ubiquitous in commentary on international affairs, but by the early 2000s middle and lower income countries were more frequently described as belonging to the developing world or - in the case of those states deemed favourable destinations for international capital - emerging markets. Those terms have since increasingly fallen out of favour and been replaced by 'Global South' - a term whose roots go back to the 1960s.

To talk about why that occurred - and its historical significance in the context of the decline of US hegemony, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the US war on Iran - Ravinder Kaur returns to PTO to talk about the concept of the Global South and her recent essay on the topic.

Notes:

Global South Redux: The Making of a Geopolitical Concept

https://brill.com/view/journals/gg/32/2/article-p207_4.xml

PTO interview: Capitalist dreams and nationalist designs w/ Ravinder Kaur

https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/108-capitalist-dreams-and-nationalist-designs-w-ravinder-kaur

In the midst of an ever increasing drumbeat of commentary predicting a major European war, and demands that military spending be increased to meet the threat posed by Russia, Khem Rogaly joins PTO to talk about the UK defence budget.

We talked about how the military spending of the United States, the UK and their Nato allies compares with the spending of their adversaries, and why Britain and France are outliers in their force projection capabilities in Europe. We also talked about why the UK ministry of defence has such a poor track record with defence procurement, and we discussed Britain's hugely expensive Trident nuclear weapons system. Finally, Khem outlined some first steps for what a reforming government could do to shift UK policy towards creating a military that was genuinely focussed on defence.

Notes:

Posturing to the World: The Costs of Britain’s Global Military and Expansive Strategy:

https://transitionsecurity.org/posturing-to-the-world/

Teemu Ruskola joins PTO to talk about his new book, 'The Unmaking of the Chinese Working Class: How Communism Built a Capitalist Superpower'.

We talked about how China's remarkable economic rise was facilitated by the state's socialist inheritance and about the central role played by Chinese migrant workers. We went on to discuss the creation of a conventional capitalist labour market in China, as the so-called iron rice bowl of the State Owned Enterprises and the cradle-to-grave welfare system for urban workers was broken up. We went on to talk about the so-called New Enclosure Movement in the Chinese countryside that is finally expropriating the rural population of their control over land. Finally, we touched on the truly global implications of the unmaking and remaking of the Chinese working class.