It was cold wet Sunday in the UK on 2nd June 2019 but our infamous weather didn’t dampen my spirits. I arrived at the St Georges Music Hall well ahead of a talk whose guest speaker I was eager to meet. The 200 year old Georgian Church now concert venue was to play host to a renowned political author: Bhaskar Sunkara.

Hailing from White Plains New York, Bhaskar had made his mark as the founder of Jacobin, which he describes as a radical publication that is “largely the product of a younger generation not quite as tied to the Cold War paradigms that sustained the old leftist intellectual milieus like Dissent or New Politics“. His book ‘The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality’ explores what socialism is, and its history. Sunkara shows that socialism is not just an economic system but a way to fight all forms of oppression, and win rights to healthcare, education, and housing. It essentially challenges the preconceived notions of a system aimed at destroying capitalism and the western world, presenting it instead as something that challenge inequality and build a society with stronger democratic infrastructure.

I had the opportunity to speak with Bhaskar about his work, what the book has to offer and how he sees socialism shaping our future.