Shami Chakrabarti:
‘We Need a Popular Front Broad Enough to Go From the Left of the Left to Liberal Conservatives’

The Labour peer, lawyer, and rights activist speaks to Hardeep Matharu about why her new podcast – Shami’s Speakeasy – is focusing on human conversations with those of shared values, but differing politics

HM: What is the idea behind the podcast and why are you launching it now?

SC: My dear friend and colleague, Mairi Clare Rodgers, said I should experiment with a podcast that creates a space for people to discuss, in long-form, in a comfortable, non-combative way. We are at this moment, culturally, politically – a scary moment – that feels a little bit too much like the 1930s, and that is where the concept of the ‘speakeasy’ came from. There are some very, very polarising things happening on the streets, in mainstream politics even, and people who are interested in resistance need a place to be themselves, to talk critically in a comfortable environment, and that’s the concept behind the podcast.

Do you think there is any exaggeration in comparing this moment to the 1930s? Why do you believe that politics and society are at such a point again?

I hope that I am exaggerating because that will mean that I will be proven wrong, and everything will settle down in the next couple of years, and I will be happy to be wrong about that. But, to my mind – I’m 56 years old and have been quite politically aware since my childhood – this is the scariest moment in terms of the rise of the far-right, not just in the United Kingdom but internationally, and of course internationalism, which is something I support in the face of nationalists.

The populist hardmen can beam themselves in from Silicon Valley to a demonstration in central London, can inspire and organise online. The world is shrinking, and wealth and power is more concentrated than ever – and if you have got wealth and power, and you want to hang on to it in the face of legitimate grievance on the part of millions and millions of people on the planet, the far-right strategy is to divide. It’s an old trick, which helps the wealthy and the powerful – but it doesn’t end well for anybody else.