Event: Left Populism at Home and Abroad: Possibilities and Problems

I’ll be appearing on a panel hosted by The New Zealand Fabian Society in a couple days. The event will be live-streamed (above), and you can attend for free in person if you happen to be in Wellington.

About the Event

What should a politics that works for the majority look like in New Zealand? What can it borrow from left-populist movements around the world? And how might left-populist policy agendas impact on the New Zealand election? This panel discussion with Dr. Bryce Edwards, Dr. Van Jackson, and Oliver Neas will assess New Zealand’s political landscape for signs of left populism, distinguish it from “far-right populism,” and explore the reasons for popular demands against wealth concentration and for material improvements in living and working conditions at home and abroad.

About the Panelists

Van Jackson is an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, where he specializes in peace studies and the class politics of geopolitics. Jackson is host of The Un-Diplomatic Podcast and author of The Un-Diplomatic Newsletter, as well as five books on international relations, including the book The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy (Yale University Press, Jan. 2025) and Grand Strategies of the Left: The Foreign Policy of Progressive Worldmaking (Cambridge University Press, Dec. 2023). Dr Bryce Edwards hosts the Democracy Project, producing daily media links and frequent articles. Ollie Neas is a lawyer and Managing Editor of Public Interest, an independent media organisation from Aotearoa New Zealand dedicated to making sense of the world in an age of political uncertainty.

Registration

When: August 19th, 2026 from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (NZT)

Location: 2/57 Willis St (Via the lifts at the back of Unity Books), Wellington

Register for free here

ICYMI: