Hello and welcome to another episode of Interregnum with Richard Seymour.

Today I spoke with Richard about the recent wave of strikes in the UK

and whether the upsurge of industrial action signals the long-hoped-for revival of Britain's Labour movement.

We also talked about why Mick Lynch of the RMT has been so effective in his media appearances defending the strikes

and we went on to talk

about the cost of living crisis and whether high inflation pertends the end of the era of cheap food

and cheap fuel. Finally, we discussed why Richard believes that those conservative politicians

and their allies in the media who are seeking to unseat Boris Johnson may be making a serious mistake.

I began the interview by asking Richard whether he shares the optimism of James Medway,

who recently wrote that, we should expect more strikes and more protests,

there is both the incentive in the form of excessive profits, and there is the opportunity

to take it in the tightening of post-pandemic labour markets.

So I agree with some of James Medway's optimism. I think we have something to be hopeful for,

but just to put this in perspective, you mentioned decades of decline in union density and the

rate of strike action. So what we're seeing here is that in the 12

months leading up to March, the TUC recorded about 300 industrial disputes across various

industries. And as James says, that reflects probably a combination of increased bargaining power

due to the supply of labour squeeze,

an attempt to recoup wages lost during the pandemic and, of course, now due to the credit crunch,

and of course the soaring profit rate. Soaring profit rate by itself wouldn't necessarily

need to strike action. We've seen very high corporate profits for years.

Also, if you look at the... I suppose the point James is making there is contrasting it with the situation in the 1970s where profits were squeezed and so that line of argument that, you know,

...