Frans Baleni - General Secretary, South African National Union of Mineworkers
It has become known as the 'Marikana massacre', when 34 people were killed as police in South Africa opened fire on striking miners. For many it had echoes of Sharpeville in 1960, one of the defining events which opened the world's eyes to the consequences of apartheid. For Frans Baleni, General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Marikana is a challenge - not just to his union - but to the whole post-apartheid political system in which the NUM has been a key player. Eighteen years after black South Africans won legal equality, is the violence evidence that the system has failed all but a tiny political elite?(Image: Hundreds of people attend a memorial service for the people killed in a wildcat strike at Lonmin's Marikana mine. Credit: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/GettyImages)
26 Nov 201223min
Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International
Greenpeace has campaigned against environmental degradation, for more than 40 years. This month it’s mobilising its activists to make a stand on saving the planet at the UN climate change conference in Doha. Four decades on and with global warming slipping down the agenda – is anyone listening to what Greenpeace have to say? Hardtalk talks to South African Kumi Naidoo – executive director of Greenpeace International. Doesn’t his organisation need a new bold vision to make an impact – and if so – what is it? (Image: Kumi Naidoo, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
23 Nov 201223min
Riad Hijab, former Prime Minister of Syria
HARDtalk travels to the Jordanian capital Amman, just 100km north of the Syrian border. Three months ago Riad Hijab crossed that border and became the most senior Syrian government official to defect from the regime of President Bashar al Assad. He had been appointed Prime Minister by President Assad in June, but six weeks later he fled. Why? And is there a role for Baathist defectors in Syria's future?(Image: Riad Hijab in front of a number of microphones, Credit: AFP/Getty)
21 Nov 201223min
Vandana Shiva, environmentalist
Hardtalk speaks to the original tree hugger. The phrase was coined back in the 1970s when she - along with a group of women in India - hugged trees to stop them from being chopped down. In the decades since, Vandana Shiva has become known throughout the world for her environmental campaigns. She says a billion people go hungry in the world because of the way greedy international companies go about their business. So is it a naïve world view or could we really end poverty and improve everyone's life by returning to old fashioned ways of farming?(Image: Vandana Shiva hugging a tree, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
19 Nov 201223min
James Cracknell - former Olympic rower
James Cracknell is a former Olympic rowing champion who has performed astonishing feats of endurance from the Sahara to Antarctica. But his toughest challenge has come by accident, not design. Two years ago his skull was smashed by a truck as he cycled across America. Miraculously he survived and his body healed, but his brain suffered significant damage. How has he responded to a test which changed his personality and his life?
16 Nov 201223min
Radoslaw Sikorski - Foreign Minister of Poland
Poland’s economy is growing, as is its diplomatic clout. The Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski has backed Germany's vision of much deeper EU integration. But do Poles really want to cede their hard won sovereignty to Brussels and Berlin?
13 Nov 201223min
Leonid Kozhara - Foreign Policy Advisor to the Ukrainian President
Ukraine's just held parliamentary elections. A cause for celebration, and the flowering of democracy in a former Soviet republic? Not if you read the reports of international election monitors or hear the comments of the world's top diplomats. So eight years after the Orange Revolution, with some of the government's leading critics serving long sentences in jail, has Ukraine made its choice? Is it in effect turning its back on the offer of membership of the EU, the club of Europe?
9 Nov 201223min
Hisham Qandil - Prime Minister, Egypt
Hardtalk is in Cairo to assess the state of Egypt's post-revolutionary politics. Right now, the report card is decidedly mixed. Egypt has a democratically-elected president but arguments over the framing of a new constitution have sparked clashes between rival Islamist and secular activists in Tahrir Square. Stephen Sackur speaks to Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and asks is the new Egyptian government living up to the promise of the Tahrir revolution?(Image: Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil. Credit: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GettyImages)
7 Nov 201223min
