** THE VENUE FOR THIS EVENT HAS CHANGED - IS NOW AT OXFORD HOUSE IN BETHNAL GREEN**

Progressive populism in an age of Trump and Farage

In conversation with Jonathan Smucker and Chantal Mouffe

Date and Time: 6.30pm on 14th November 2018

Why do many progressive groups and movements seem to end up making themselves small and insular at exactly the time when we need to be rapidly expanding? Is there something to learn from the populist success of far-right politicians across the world in harnessing people’s anger and discontent?

Author and organiser Jonathan Smucker (Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals) will be joining political theorist Chantal Mouffe (For a Left Populism) for a discussion on what a progressive vision of populism could look like and what organisers and activists need to ask themselves if they are serious about taking power rather than playing ‘clubhouse’ politics.

The discussion will be chaired by Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, senior organiser at NEON and creator of the Movement Builders programme.

Chantal Mouffe is the Professor of Political Theory at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster. Her books include The Return of the Political; Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (with Ernesto Laclau); The Dimensions of Radical Democracy; Gramsci and Marxist Theory; Deconstruction and Pragmatism; The Democratic Paradox; and The Challenge of Carl Schmitt, all from Verso.

Jonathan Smucker is Co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond the Choir. He has worked for more than two decades in grassroots movements as an organiser, campaigner, and strategist. He researches collective action, identity, and politicization processes as the focus of his doctoral work in the sociology department at UC Berkeley. He is the author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals.