Left-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisThis book makes the case for an inclusive form of socialist feminism that puts women with multiple disadvantages at its heart. It moves feminism beyond contemporary disputes, including those between some feminists and some trans women. Combining academic rigour with accessibility, the book demystifies some key feminist terms, including patriarchy and intersectionality, and shows their relevance to feminist politics today. It argues that the analysis of gender cannot be isolated from that of class or race, and that the needs of most women will not be met in an economy based on the pursuit of profit. Throughout, the book asserts the social, economic and human importance of the unpaid caring and domestic work that has been traditionally done by women. It concludes that there are some grounds for optimism about a future that could be both more feminist and more socialist. Trade Review'Throughout the book, Bryson successfully makes difficult theoretical concepts more accessible, and she consistently points to further reading. Due to this, her book would serve as a useful introductory text for late high school and undergraduate students. Bryson’s analysis of feminist socialism and her call for more inclusive communities and policies that start with the most disadvantaged among us is a welcome and highly accessible addition to the literature; and should perhaps be required reading for policy-makers.'Professional Historians Association, Kirra Minton -- .Table of Contents1 The sex/gender distinction and the language of sexual violence2 Sexism and patriarchy3 Intersectionality: a dry word that can make a lot of sense4 Trans women and feminism: thinking beyond binaries5 We need to talk about capitalism6 Liberalism, neoliberalism and feminism: contradictions and concerns7 Marxist feminism: reframing the issues8 Why feminists should logically be socialists (and vice versa) ConclusionsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisDemocracy was born in Athens. From its founding myths to its golden age and its chaotic downfall, it's rich with lessons for our own times. Why did vital civil engagement and fair debate descend into paralysis and populism? Can we compare Creon to Trump, Demokratia to the American Constitution or Demosthenes' On the Crown to the Brexit campaign? And how did a second referenda save the Athenians from a bloodthirsty decision? With verve and acuity, the heroics and the critics of Athenian democracy are brought to bear on today's politics, revealing in all its glories and its flaws the system that still survives to execute the power of the people.Trade ReviewTimely and fascinating, this well informed book is highly readable and addresses questions of fundamental importance, as alive for us now as formerly they were for the world's first democracies * Robin Lane Fox *It renders a potentially intimidating topic instantly readable...with forays into protest, voter apathy and the changing face of political engagement, its arguments are compelling, persuasive and more prescient than ever * All About History *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIstvan Meszaros is a world-renowned philosopher and critic. He left his native Hungary after the Soviet invasion of 1956. He is professor emeritus at the University of Sussex, where he held the chair of philosophy for fifteen years. Among his many books are Social Structure and Forms of Consciousness Volumes I and II, The Work of Sartre, The Structural Crisis of Capital, The Challenge and Burden of Historical Time, Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition, and Marx's Theory of Alienation. As John Bellamy Foster writes in his foreword to the present book, "Istvan Meszaros is one of the greatest philosophers that the historical materialist tradition has yet produced. His work stands practically alone today in the depth of its analysis of Marx's theory of alienation, the structural crisis of capital, the demise of Soviet-style post-revolutionary societies, and the necessary conditions of the transition to socialism. His dialectical inquiry into social structure and forms of consciousness - a systematic critique of the prevailing forms of thought - is unequaled in our time." Meszaros is the author of magisterial works like Beyond Capital and Social Structures of Forms of Consciousness, but his work can seem daunting to those unacquainted with his thought. Here, for the first time, is a concise and accessible overview of Meszaros's ideas, designed by the author himself and covering the broad scope of his work, from the shortcomings of bourgeois economics to the degeneration of the capital system to the transition to socialism.Trade Review"one of the few people who has made essential contributions to the body of Marxist thought." - Michael A. Lebowitz, author, The Contradictions of "Real Socialism" and The Socialist Alternative

Read more less

Book SynopsisCircumstances impelled Victor Grossman, a U.S. Army draftee stationed in Europe, to flee a military prison sentence: especially the icy pressures of the McCarthy Era. Grossman – a.k.a. Steve Wechsler, a committed leftist since his years at Harvard and, briefly, as a factory worker – left his barracks in Bavaria one August day in 1952, and, in a panic, swam across the Danube River from the Austrian U.S. Zone to the Soviet Zone. Fate – i.e., the Soviets – landed him in East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic. There he remained, observer and participant, husband and father, as he watched the rise and successes, the travails, and the eventual demise of the GDR socialist experiment. A Socialist Defector is the story, told in rare, personal detail, of an activist and writer who grew up in the U.S. free-market economy; spent thirty-eight years in the GDR’s nationally owned, centrally administered economy; and continues to survive, given whatever the market can bear in today’s united Germany. Having been a freelance journalist and traveling lecturer – and the only person in the world to hold diplomas from both Harvard and the GDR’s Karl Marx University – Grossman is able to offer insightful, often ironic, reflections and reminiscences, comparing the good and bad sides of life in all three of the societies he has known. His account focuses especially on the socialism he saw and lived – the GDR’s goals and achievements; its repressive measures and stupidities – which, he argues, offers lessons now in our search for solutions to the grave problems facing our world. This is a fascinating and unique historical narrative; political analysis told with jokes, personal anecdotes, and without bombast.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPresented at a time when fascism was a new and little understood phenomenon, Zetkin's work proposed a sweeping plan for the unity of all victims of capitalism in an ideological and political campaign against the fascist danger.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFascism's ascent to power across Europe in the 1920s & 30s marks one of the greatest historical defeats of the left in history. Far from inevitable, this catastrophic defeat was resisted at every turn by Marxists of varying stripes who tried, unsuccessfully, to push the mass communist and social democratic parties to organize an opposition to the rising movements of violent reaction. This important volume offers the most complete selection of Marxist writings on fascism from this period in any language and provides invaluable lessons for contemporary readers concerned with today's far-right.Trade Review"Marxists in the Face of Fascism, with a very useful introduction by David Beetham, is an unrivaled and vital piece, allowing us to grasp the major contribution of inter-war Marxism, in its great diversity of theoretical approaches and political orientations, and to deepening our understanding of fascism and to antifascist practice"—Ugo Palheta, author La Possibilité du Fascisme

Read more less

Book SynopsisEmpiriomonism is Alexander Bogdanov 's scientific-philosophical substantiation of Marxism. In Books One and Two, he combines Ernst Mach 's and Richard Avenarius 's neutral monist philosophy with the theory of psychophysical parallelism and systematically demonstrates that human psyches are thoroughly natural and are subject to nature 's laws. In Book Three, Bogdanov argues that empiriomonism is superior to G. V. Plekhanov 's outdated materialism and shows how the principles of empiriomonism solve the basic problem of historical materialism: how a society 's material base causally determines its ways of thinking. Bogdanov concludes that empiriomonism is of the same order as materialist systems, and, since it is the ideology of the productive forces of society, it is a Marxist philosophy.Table of ContentsPreface The Autobiography of Alexander Bogdanov Bogdanov as a Thinker V.A. Bazarov Book One 1 The Ideal of Cognition (Empiriomonism of the Physical and the Psychical) 2 Life and the Psyche 1 The Realm of Experiences 2 Psychoenergetics 3 The Monist Conception of Life 3 Universum (Empiriomonism of the Separate and the Continuous) Conclusion to Book One Book Two 4 The 'Thing-in-Itself ' from the Perspective of Empiriomonism 5 Psychical Selection (Empiriomonism in the Theory of the Psyche) 1 Foundations of the Method 2 Applications of the Method (Illustrations) 6 Two Theories of the Vital-Differential Book Three 7 Preface to Book Three 1 Three Materialisms 2 Energetics and Empiriocriticism 3 The Path of Empiriomonism 4 Regarding Eclecticism and Monism 8 Social Selection (Foundations of the Method) 9 Historical Monism 1 Main Lines of Development 2 Classes and Groups 10 Self-Awareness of Philosophy (The Origin of Empiriomonism) Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis ambitious volume examines revolutionary situations during a non-revolutionary historical conjuncture--the neoliberal era. The last three decades have seen an increase in the number of political upheavals that challenge existing power structures, many of them taking the form of urban revolts. This book compellingly explores a series of such upheavals--in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa (including Congo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso) and Egypt. Each chapter studies the ways in which protest movements developed into insurgent challenges to state power, and the strategies that regimes have deployed to contain and repress revolt.In addition to empirical chapters, the book engages in theorization of revolution, dealing with questions such as the patterning of revolution in contemporary history, the relationship between class struggle and social movements, and the prospects of socialist revolution in the twenty-first century.Trade Review“General histories of the neoliberal era are shaped by an overwhelming sense of defeat for radical movements. It is, of course, true that neoliberalism was spectacularly ushered in by shattering working-class resistance in some key workplaces in India, Australia, the UK, and the US. Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age, however, compels us to be attentive to a different view of this era. Tracing revolutionary uprisings from 1989 to 2019, this book is a map of resistance and resilience in the face of tremendous odds. The case studies, as well as the introductory essay, lead us through situations where the victory of capitalism over humanity was anything but assured. And yet the book is not a wistful history about what could have been. Rather, it is a strategic assessment of near-victories to prepare us for the fire next time.” —Tithi Bhattacharya, coauthor of Feminism for the 99%“This fine collection of essays deals with some of the most significant revolutionary situations in the neo-liberal era. It makes great reading, with powerful arguments, and concludes with a wager on the future: climate change is a terrible danger, but it has revolutionary potential, because it cannot be prevented by partial reforms which do not challenge the capitalist system itself.” —Michael Löwy, author of Revolutions and Ecosocialism“What remains of revolution after decades of neoliberalism? The question is both perplexing and urgent. With realism and radical intransigence, Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age tackles it head on. Acknowledging the inadequacy of longstanding left-wing models to our era, the authors gathered here also refuse to counsel despair. Instead, they trace emancipatory impulses and upheavals across the scorched landscape of neoliberalism. The result is a provocative, stimulating, and deeply radical set of reflections on the meaning of revolution today. This is a book for everyone who wants to change the world.” —David McNally, author of Blood and Money and Monsters of the Market“How can popular movements not only topple repressive governments, but also create more thoroughly democratic, egalitarian, and solidaristic societies? This is the question that animates the contributions to Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age, which examines a wide range of revolutionary situations from 1989 to 2019. The case studies, which are well researched and insightful, include Central and Eastern Europe; Africa, including South Africa; Indonesia; Argentina, Bolivia, and the 'pink tide' in Latin America; and Egypt. The theoretical reflections by Colin Barker and Neil Davidson are provocative and challenging. This volume will interest anyone who seeks to understand popular uprisings and revolutions and the ways in which capitalism motivates, structures, and constrains them.” —Jeff Goodwin, Professor of Sociology, NYUTable of ContentsIntroduction -- Colin Barker and Gareth DalePart 1: Theoretical Implications (1)Chapter 1: Social Movements and the Possibility of Socialist Revolution -- Colin Barker Part 2: Revolutionary Situations, 1989-2019Chapter 2: 1989: Revolution and Regime Change in Central and Eastern Europe -- Gareth Dale Chapter 3: The End of Apartheid in South Africa -- Claire CerutiChapter 4: Uprisings and Revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1985-2014 -- Leo Zeilig, with Peter DwyerChapter 5: "Reformasi": Indonesians Bring Down Suharto -- Tom O 'LincolnChapter 6: Bolivia 's Cycle of Revolt: Left-Indigenous Struggle, 2000-2005 -- Jeffery R. WebberChapter 7: Argentina 2001: Our Year Of Rebellion -- Jorge Orovitz SanmartinoChapter 8: The Pink Tide in Latin America: Where the Future Lay? -- Mike GonzalezChapter 9: The Tragedy of the Egyptian Revolution -- Sameh NaguibPart 3: Theoretical Implications (2)Chapter 10: The Actuality of the Revolution -- Neil Davidson

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn a characteristically explosive barrage, Ljubljana’s most famous philosopher takes a passionate stance on the war in Ukraine, surveys the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and delivers detonations into a range of contemporary issues, from sexual politics in India to the prospects for a new Cold War. Ever attentive to moments where the bizarre and the epic join forces, among the questions Žižek considers here are: Is the giant orgy, planned to take place in Ukraine in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, really all that morbid? And what should society do, whether on the big screen or the battlefield, in preparation for the end of the world?Agree with him or not, Žižek rarely fails to provoke in a productive fashion. By examining matters through a lens that is bold and original, and often joyfully outlandish, Žižek helps us to better grasp a world in which, increasingly, the dominant motif is one of madness.Trade Review“[The] master of the counterintuitive observation.”—The New Yorker “The most dangerous philosopher in the West.”—The New Republic “Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than Slavoj Žižek.”—New York Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisDennis Skinner, the famed Beast of Bolsover, is adored by legions of supporters and respected as well as feared by admiring enemies. Fiery and forthright, with a prodigious recall, Skinner is one of the best-known politicians in Britain. He remains as passionate and committed to the causes he champions as on the first day he entered the House of Commons back in 1970. In an age of growing cynicism about politicians, the witty and astute Skinner is renowned as a brightly burning beacon of principle. He has watched Prime Ministers come and go - Heath, Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown - and yet remains uncorrupted by patronage and compromise. Cameron discovered Skinner's popularity when a public backlash forced the current PM to apologise in Parliament for calling Skinner a dinosaur who should be in a museum. Skinner at eighty has a unique take on post-war Britain. A combatant in the great social, industrial and political upheavals of the last half century, he's resisted telling his extraordinary story. Until now.Trade ReviewSkinner's life . . . cried out to be recorded. In an era when politics has become increasingly bland and middle-class, there is marked shortage of working-class heroes * Observer *Witty, tender and packed with anecdotes * Big Issue in the North *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Praise of Disobedience draw on works from a single miraculous year in which Oscar Wilde published the larger part of his greatest prose - the year he came into maturity as an artist. Before the end of 1891, he had written the first of his phenomenally successful plays and met the young man who would win his heart, beginning the love affair that would lead to imprisonment and public infamy. In a witty introduction, playwright, novelist and Wilde scholar Neil Bartlett explains what made this point in the writer's life central to his genius and why Wilde remains a provocative and radical figure to this day.Included here are the entirety of Wilde's foray into political philosophy, The Soul of Man Under Socialism; the complete essay collection Intentions; selections from The Portrait of Dorian Gray as well as its paradoxical and scandalous preface; and some of Wilde's greatest fictions for children. Each selection is accompanied by stimulating and enlightening annotations. A delight for fans of Oscar Wilde, In Praise of Disobedience will restore and revitalize an often misunderstood legacy.Trade ReviewI loved Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism - loved its uncompromising approach to the crushing problem of social and economic inequality . Wilde takes no prisoners from the very outset -- Will Self * Guardian *Wilde offers us an important reminder of virtues we as a society may have for a time lost: the need to strive for utopias; the inevitability of socialism if our world is to survive; the need to reinvigorate humanity's spirit of rebelliousness and disobedience, and to challenge, not accept, the injustices and inequalities we see all around us. The world needs Oscar Wilde and his daring, beautiful ideas today more than ever. * PopMatters *When I feel myself becoming gloomy or pessimistic, the book that reminds me that change and optimism are possible is Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism, a wise and witty essay that recommends both equality and indolence, and appears to believe you can't have one without the other. -- Hanif Kureishi

Read more less

Book SynopsisDemolishing the Blairite opposition in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn saw off an attempted coup against his leadership under the banner of the "soft left" one year on. This unassuming antiwar socialist now leads Labour with a huge mandate. For the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda-and for the first time in Labour's history, it defines the leadership.This book tells the story of how Corbyn's rise was made possible by the long decline of Labour and a deep crisis in British democracy. It surveys the makeshift coalition of trade unionists, young and precarious workers, and students who rallied to Corbyn. It shows how a novel social media campaign turned the media's "Project Fear" on its head, making a virtue of every accusation thrown at him. And finally it asks, with all the artillery that is still ranged against Corbyn, given the crisis-ridden Labour Party that he has inherited, the devastating impact of the coup attempt and the fall-out from Brexit, what it would mean for him to succeed.Trade ReviewRichard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style. Everything he writes is worth reading. -- Gary YoungeOne of our most astute political analysts turns his attention to Corbyn, and the result is predictably essential: not just to make sense of how we got to this unlikely situation, but for his thoughts on what the left might do next. -- China MiévilleSeymour is an essential voice on the left, and this book is a necessary intervention, explaining this daunting political moment and bringing the focus back to strategy. Not so much a call to arms as a call to brains. -- Laurie PennyNo one writes about politics the way Richard Seymour does. He takes a very British story of the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, with all its peculiarities and details, and turns it into a revelation of the international crisis of parliamentary democracy. Whether you love Corbyn -- or Sanders or Podemos or Syriza -- or loathe him (and them), you'll find here the most sophisticated diagnosis of why men and women across the globe are turning to the left and why their aspirations are so continuously being frustrated. Seymour is a magnificent explainer: pointed without being pedantic, funny with out being flip, and always insisting that we take in the whole. -- Corey RobinThe Anglophone left has been cheered by the surprising rise of Bernie Sanders in the U.S. and Jeremy Corbyn in Britain. Richard Seymour's elegantly written book is a reminder of all the obstacles facing Corbyn. Even if you're not as pessimistic as Seymour about his prospects, you really need to pay attention to this critique. It will make you a better fighter of the necessary class war. -- Doug Henwood, author of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the PresidencyLong after the Labour left was thought to be dead, Jeremy Corbyn's emergence has inspired millions. There is no one better positioned than Richard Seymour to take a look at his emergence and whether Corbyn can actually turn Labour into a force for radical change. -- Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of JacobinCorbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics is the fullest and fairest account of Jeremy Corbyn's rise released to date. In avoiding much of the rhetoric espoused in similar accounts focusing on Corbyn's early career this book provides a frank account of how the unlikely leader took charge of the Labour party. It is a very readable account too. Richard Seymour writes plainly but effectively and his writing is both accessible and incredibly informative. -- Liam Young * New Statesman *Laser-sharp analysis of British 'Labourism' and its contradictions... This book is terrifically astute -- Jamie Maxwell * The National *Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics is the first serious analysis of Jeremy Corbyn's unexpected ascent. -- Yohann Koshy * Vice *A must-read for militants inside and outside the Labour Party. * rs21 *Corbyn is not about Corbyn in much the same way that Richard Seymour's earlier and much shorter book, The Meaning of David Cameron, wasn't really about its eponymous anti-hero. Rather it is an analysis - and an astute one - of the socio-political conditions which have given rise to Corbynism, its future prospects and the substantial obstacles it will inevitably face. -- Tom Mills * Ceasefire *The best, and the definitive, account of what Corbyn's victory the first time round meant. One year on the essential summer 2016 read. * Philosophy Football *A brilliant and incisive analysis by a long-term watcher of the party. -- Asa Winstanley * Middle East Monitor *It is a point of contention whether the politics represented by Jeremy Corbyn offers a pathway out of the crisis or we are instead witnessing the last hurrah of Britain's harried and diminished workers' movement. That is one of the questions Richard Seymour tries to answer in his excellent new book.Seymour's analysis remains indispensable -- Alex Doherty * New Statesman *The finest study of Corbyn yet written -- Stephen Bush * New Statesman *Seymour provides a rich narrative of the Labour Party's history, including its early socialism, its post-WWII achievements, and the long period of its stagnation and decline. -- Norman Markowitz * Socialism and Democracy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this fully updated edition of his coruscating polemic, Tariq Ali shows how, since 1989, politics has become a contest to see who can best serve the needs of the market. In this urgent and wide-ranging case for the prosecution, Ali looks at the people and the events that have informed this moment across the world. This reaches its logical conclusion with the presidency of Donald Trump, the success of En Marche in France and the dominance of Merkel's Germany through Europe.But are we starting to see cracks within the fabric of the extreme centre? In a series of new chapters Ali suggests that there is room for hope. He finds promise in developments in Latin America and at the edges of Europe. Emerging parties across Europe, Greece and Spain, formed out of the 2008 crisis, are offering new hope for democracy. In the UK, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn indicates that the hegemony of the centre may be weaker than imagined.Trade ReviewAli remains an outlier and intellectual bomb-thrower; an urbane, Oxford-educated polemicist * The Observer *It will not open doors at the White House because it makes for uncomfortable reading ... a wide-ranging and powerfully argued critique, that gives pause for thought * (in praise of The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad), Financial Times *Tariq Ali has not lost the passion and vim which made him a symbol of the spirit of '68 ... has not seen fit to join forces with the terminally cynical, or set up a graven god that can be accused of failing ... Ali has spent much of his life documenting America as the arsenal of counter-revolution. * Christopher Hitchens (in praise of Street-Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties), Observer *For years, left-wing critics have framed the debate. Angela Davis, Ruthie Gilmore, Marc Mauer and, more recently, Michelle Alexander gave us the terminology to speak about all this: the prison industrial complex, abolition, non-reform reform and The New Jim Crow.. [Ali's theorized term "extreme center"] provides us with a new language to describe our problems.[O]ne of the key tasks of the extreme center is to take center stage, to ensure that no alternative seems either reasonable or possible. * James Kilgore, author of Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of our Era, CounterPunch *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAneurin Bevan is a revered figure in Welsh and British politics, celebrated for his role as the founder of one of the country’s most cherished institutions, the National Health Service. As a result, he is continuously invoked, quoted widely, and is praised for his principles. However, Bevan was not only a significant politician. He was also a prolific writer, contributing extensively to the socialist magazine Tribune from its founding in 1937 until his death in 1960. This is My Truth represents the first edited collection of these writings. Beginning with an introduction that charts his writing career and emphasises his legacy, the collection showcases Bevan’s analysis of class conflict, capitalism, democracy, the world and democratic socialism. This is My Truth provides readers with the opportunity to read Bevan in his own words and to reflect on a figure who remains a source of inspiration and controversy today.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Capitalism, Power and Politics Chapter 2: Labour and the Unions Chapter 3: Ideas, Values and Society Chapter 4: War Chapter 5: International Relations Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisA short history of one of the most successful European political ideologies and movements.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTo understand the Labour Party today one needs to appreciate how people in the party have reacted to the New Labour legacy. Karl Pike examines the efforts each of the three leaders have made in reforming the party's ideology, its democracy and organization and their political style and approach to the leadership.

Read more less

Book SynopsisKarl Marx was not only the great theorist of capitalism, he was also a superb journalist, politician and historian. For the first time ever, this book brings together all of his essential political and historical writings in one volume. These writings allow us to see the depth and range of Marx's mature work from the tumultuous revolutions of 1848 that rocked European society through to the end of his life. Including The Communist Manifesto, The Class Struggles in France and The Critique of the Gotha Programme, this volume shows Marx at his most astute, analysing the forces of global capitalism as they played out in actual events.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhy did a movement as powerful as the one inspired by the murder of George Floyd fall short of securing its most militant demands? After Black Lives Matter argues that the core of the movement itself failed to locate the central racial injustice that underpins the crisis of policing: socioeconomic inequality.Trade ReviewA provocative and expansive critique from the left of the loose collection of protest actions, organizations, and ideological movements-whether prison abolition or calls to defund the police-that make up what we now call Black Lives Matter...After Black Lives Matter should be commended both for the clarity of its message and the bravery of its convictions. -- Jay Caspian Kang * New Yorker *Essential reading for those weary of platitude-driven texts on race and criminal justice and in the market for an empirically grounded political analysis that points to practicable solutions to one of the biggest problems of our day. -- Touré F. Reed, author of Toward FreedomA virtuoso performance! Weighing the successes and limitations of Black Lives Matter, Johnson concludes that identity-based mobilization-confusing what people look like with what they need-cannot substitute for majoritarian political coalition-building. -- Barbara J. Fields, Columbia UniversityA compelling argument for reinstating a meaningful anticapitalist analysis and politics into the fight to end police violence and the harms of the criminal justice system in the United States. Readers will undoubtedly come away with new perspectives that deepen their understanding of the successes and limitations of Black Lives Matter and its political vision. -- Leslie Kern, author of Feminist CityCedric Johnson delivers that increasingly rare experience in political writing: surprise. Whether telling the story of Louis Armstrong's first hearing of Mack the Knife or reporting on the inequities of Chicago's public transportation system or mounting a mini-memoir of his encounter with crime in Louisiana and Rochester, Johnson invests the drama of Marxist theory with new energy and vital detail. No matter how dark and dreary the landscape may be, it gets lit up wherever Johnson casts his sharp and appraising eye. -- Corey Robin, author of The Enigma of Clarence ThomasA brilliant scholar who is first and foremost concerned with equality and justice. It's those very commitments that lead him, in After Black Lives Matter, to question today's antiracism and its nostrums. -- Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and author of The Socialist ManifestoTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Frayed Thin Blue Line1. Policing Capitalist Society2. Making Consumers and Criminals: The Postwar Urban Transformation and the Origins of Policing as We Know It3. The Roots of Black Lives Matter: Racial Liberalism and the Problem of Surplus Population4. The World of Freddie Gray: Dispossession, Rebellion and Containment in Revanchist Baltimore5. Whose Streets? Building the Just City in Rahm Emanuel's Chicago and Beyond6. The Labor of OccupationConclusion: Abolish the ConditionsAcknowledgmentsNotes

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisMaking the Revolution Global shows how black radicals transformed socialist politics in Britain in the years before decolonisation. African and Caribbean activist-intellectuals, such as Amy Ashwood Garvey, C.L.R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore, came to Britain during the 1930s and 1940s and intervened in debates about capitalism, imperialism, fascism and war. They consistently argued that any path towards international socialism must have colonial liberation at its heart. Although their ideas were met with opposition from many on the British Left, they convinced significant sections of the movement of the revolutionary potential of colonised peoples. By centring the entanglements between black radicals and the wider British socialist movement, Theo Williams casts new light on responses to the 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress, and a wealth of other events and phenomena. In doing so, he showcases a revolutionary tradition that, as illustrated by the global Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020, is still relevant today.Trade ReviewTheo Williams authoritatively details how Black militant Pan-Africanist radicals in Britain around George Padmore not only fought for colonial liberation in Africa and the Caribbean during the 1930s and 1940s but also worked with the Independent Labour Party led by Fenner Brockway to help change the way half the British Left thought about racism and imperialism. This very impressive organisational history of the International African Service Bureau thus illuminates the wider relationship of socialism to black liberation in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and so represents an invaluable contribution to scholarship on 'the red and the black'. -- Christian HogsbjergA fine, nuanced study of Black radical contributions to critical debates within the U.K, Europe, Africa and the colonies about the interplay of capitalism, fascism, and imperialism. Williams's exceptional archival research is matched by a dogged commitment to recovering the lives and work of key figures like George Padmore and C.L.R. James. This book gives fresh perspective to the 20th century European Left, and helps to decolonize the study of global radicalism. -- Bill V. Mullen, Emeritus Professor of American Studies, Purdue UniversityA timely book which sparkles with fresh ideas. In his accommodating prose Williams shows how the native traditions of British socialism and diasporic Pan-Africanisms coexisted in a jarring but constant dialogue. He brings to light the buried pas de deux which reveals each to have been in the other. This is a history in which every moment resonates for the present.. -- Bill SchwarzWilliams' account throws more light on a story that has yet to be told in its entirety - how campaigners across race lines worked together to contribute to the great world-shaping movements towards decolonisation and liberation. This is a serious and worthwhile addition to scholarship on internationalism. -- Priyamvada GopalMaking the Revolution Global powerfully recasts the story of interwar Black British radicalism, illustrating the ways anti-imperialism and pan-Africanism shaped British socialism. This timely, rich and layered account demonstrates that anti-racism and anti-imperialism were not marginal to the metropolitan left, but instead constituted key axes of debate and contestation among British socialists. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-DeterminaitonThis very thoroughly researched book is an exploration of the political attitudes/policies of left-wing political parties (and then even the Labour Party) regarding imperialism, colonialism and independence in the UK. It investigates the relationships between Black activists - individuals and organisations - and these political parties. After all, 'imperialism was central to capitalism', which explains why some/many want to retain the colonies. And what was the effect on them all? So a vast amount of information on George Padmore, Makonnen, C.L.R.James, Chris Jones, et al, including women activists. And just as much on the organisations they set up/were involved with eg IASB, Pan-African Federation, Negro Welfare Association. It ends with an analysis of their influence on returning African leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. -- Marika SherwoodFascinating and revealing -- Neil Rogall * rs21 *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Internet for the People, leading tech writer Ben Tarnoff offers an answer. The internet is broken, he argues, because it is owned by private firms and run for profit. Google annihilates your privacy and Facebook amplifies right-wing propaganda because it is profitable to do so. But the internet wasn't always like this-it had to be remade for the purposes of profit maximization, through a years-long process of privatization that turned a small research network into a powerhouse of global capitalism. Tarnoff tells the story of the privatization that made the modern internet, and which set in motion the crises that consume it today.The solution to those crises is straightforward: deprivatize the internet. Deprivatization aims at creating an internet where people, and not profit, rule. It calls for shrinking the space of the market and diminishing the power of the profit motive. It calls for abolishing the walled gardens of Google, Facebook, and the other giants that dominate our digital lives and developing publicly and cooperatively owned alternatives that encode real democratic control. To build a better internet, we need to change how it is owned and organized. Not with an eye towards making markets work better, but towards making them less dominant. Not in order to create a more competitive or more rule-bound version of privatization, but to overturn it. Otherwise, a small number of executives and investors will continue to make choices on everyone's behalf, and these choices will remain tightly bound by the demands of the market. It's time to demand an internet by, and for, the people now.Trade ReviewBen Tarnoff is the best kind of visionary: deeply knowledgeable, intensely practical, and utterly committed to the transformation of an abusive and corrupt status quo. We are profoundly fortunate to have his fine mind focussed on reimagining the tools that have remade our lives. An extraordinary and urgent book. -- Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not EnoughThe privacy-invading, throttled, and ad-filled Internet we have is not the Internet we deserve. But as Ben Tarnoff lucidly lays out, if we want to manifest the latent democratic potential of our communications infrastructure, we will have to wrest control from the privatizers and profiteers and transform the underlying political economy. Internet for the People provides an engaging and enraging account of how the online world was hijacked by corporate interests, excavating the past so we can envision and organize for a better future. Ben Tarnoff has done a public service writing this book. Now we need to get busy building the movements and popular power that can fight for an Internet in the public interest. -- Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist But We’ll Miss it When It’s Gone and The People’s PlatformTarnoff offers not only an eloquent and essential guide to the history of our capitalist internet, he also charts the myriad ways in which alternatives are emerging. A key book for imagining a better digital future. -- Nick Srnicek, author of Platform CapitalismThroughout this easy-reading narrative history, Tarnoff weaves his thesis that the internet must be de-privatized for the good of users....Tarnoff's politically infused history and critical analysis of the privatized internet is a useful, brief primer. -- Grace O'Hanlon * Library Journal *A helpful reframing-from thinking about how to avoid a horrible internet to how to create a good one....Tarnoff wants to bring the internet back to its publicly owned, civically oriented roots, and whether or not that's the right thing to do, it's the right question to ask. -- Gabriel Nicholas * Washington Post *Strikes a happy middle ground between technical history and polemic. -- Evan Malmgren * The Nation *In this stalled conversation, Ben Tarnoff's new book, Internet for the People, makes a striking intervention....his book reveals the hidden history of the internet and expands our ideas about its possible futures. -- Sarah Leonard * New Republic *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Our Bloc, Momentum co-founder James Schneider lays out an action plan for the British left. To move from defeatism to renewed confidence, he proposes a Left Bloc: an explicit alliance of socialists in Parliament, the Labour grassroots, the trade unions and social movements.In the wake of Corbyn's defeat, Schneider makes a bold argument: the central question is not whether to stay in or leave the Labour Party. Instead, we should focus on federating our forces - to strengthen our movements and voices today, and lay the ground to construct the party we need to enter the state tomorrow.Now is not the moment to scale back our ambitions. Climate shocks, rising debt, inequality and energy costs are hard barriers to neoliberalism's viability. If we can build power and prepare to seize the moment, we have a world to win.Trade ReviewOur Bloc offers a powerful case for action. When movements come together, we change the world -- Jeremy CorbynInspirational. Our Bloc lifts the strategic debate. We need it. -- Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red PepperA razor-sharp intervention by one of the smartest strategists on the left. -- Richard Seymour, author of CorbynMany gains and opportunities seem more at hand than before I picked up Our Bloc. Smart, bracing reading for anyone looking for tips on where we go from here. -- Morgan Jones * Labour List *Urgent and engaging -- John McTernan * Guardian *Compellingly matter-of-fact and constructive, exuding a bright enthusiasm for shrewd organising. -- Lola Seaton * New Statesman *Refreshingly optimistic ... [Schneider] rightly ... identifies ­widespread sympathy for progressive policies much to the left of anything in ­mainstream politics, and constant simmering anger at the establishment. -- Nick Clark * Socialist Worker *Brisk, optimistic and ambitious ... a valuable corrective to pessimism induced by the crushing defeat of 2019 - and it fizzes with ideas. A great read. -- Ben Chacko * Morning Star *Our Bloc provides serious suggestions for how we can move forward -- Dominic Sorrell * Counterfire *

Read more less

Book SynopsisDrawing on examples from Rhodes's railways to the tragedy of Grenfell, The Broken Promise of Infrastructure takes readers on a journey through a cultural history of infrastructure development across Britain and its Empire.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis edition celebrates the centenary of Williams's birth. RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921-1998) was the most influential socialist writer and thinker in post-war Britain. Now, for the first time, making full use of Williams's private and unpublished papers and by placing him in a wide social and cultural landscape, Dai Smith, in this highly original and much praised biography, uncovers how Williams's life to 1961 is an explanation of his immense intellectual achievement. "It is Smith's ambition to set out the lonely, almost monastic path Raymond took through childhood, army and adult education towards his deserved eminence. But the biographer's greatest achievement is to find his own discerning route through what often seems to be a jungle of contradiction... This is a worthwhile book and a very good one." - David Hare, The Guardian "It is a remarkable piece of work and will henceforth be essential to the understanding of the making of Raymond Williams." - Eric Hobsbawm "Becomes at once the authoritative account... Smith has done all that we can ask the historian as biographer to do." - Stefan Collini, London Review of Books "Carrying an impressive deal of intensive research lightly... the portraiture throughout is graphic, richly detailed and subtly shaded... in these packed, lucidly written pages..." - Terry Eagleton, New Welsh ReviewTrade Review"It is Smith's ambition to set out the lonely, almost monastic path Raymond took through childhood, army and adult education towards his deserved eminence. But the biographer's greatest achievement is to find his own discerning route through what often seems to be a jungle of contradiction... This is a worthwhile book and a very good one." David Hare, The Guardian; "It is a remarkable piece of work and will henceforth be essential to the understanding of the making of Raymond Williams." Eric Hobsbawm; "Becomes at once the authoritative account... Smith has done all that we can ask the historian as biographer to do." Stefan Collini, London Review of Books; "Carrying an impressive deal of intensive research lightly... the portraiture throughout is graphic, richly detailed and subtly shaded... in these packed, lucidly written pages..." Terry Eagleton, New Welsh Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince the end of WWI, one party has held the momentum of political and social change in south Wales: the Labour Party. Its triumph was never fully guaranteed. It came quickly amidst a torrent of ideas, actions, and war. But the result was a vibrant, effective and long- lasting democracy. The result was Labour Country. In this bold, controversial book, Daryl Leeworthy takes a fresh and provocative look at the struggle through radical political action for social democracy in Wales. The reasons for Labour's triumph, he argues, lay in radical pragmatism and an ability to harness lofty ideals with meaningful practicality. This was a place of dreamers as well as doers. The world of Arthur Horner and Aneurin Bevan. And yet, as the author shows, this history is now over. Although a trajectory leads from the end of the Miners' Strike both to the advent of devolution and the circumstances that led to the Brexit vote in 2016, these are exits from Labour Country, not a continuation. Sustained by a powerful synthesis of scholarship and original research, passionate and committed, this book brings the cubist epic of south Wales and its politics to life.Trade Review"...the vast amount of evidence is brought together to build a narrative which brings the history of this period to life and emphasises the vitality of community politics in south Wales." Nye Davies, Wales Arts Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe political response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures on the global capitalist economies has, once again, imposed the priority of markets over life. Add to this the climate crisis and, undoubtedly, the task of sustaining life continues to be privatized, made invisible, and feminized. We must ask: what does a dignified life look like, especially one that transforms the gendered labor divisions and a racialized, exploitative feminized care economy that falls mainly on the shoulders of women—from the household to the wider effects of the capitalist economy on social reproduction. At the same time, these questions are intimately connected with considerations of our environment. The Feminist Subversion of the Economy makes the conection between patriarchy, capitalism, and ecological crisis—and rallies women, the LGBTQ+ community, and movements worldwide to center gender and social reproduction in a vision for a just ecology and economy. Public intellectual, academic, and activist Amaia Pérez Orozco offers a vision beyond the myths of development (unlimited growth), wealth (accumulation of capital), and work (limited to waged labor) and, at the same time, accounts for the tasks, networks, and economic subjects that, materially and daily, guarantee that life keeps going. Newly translated and updated in collaboration with Liz Mason-Desse, who has won a PEN translation award for her work on feminist economics, The Feminist Subversion of the Economy shows the urgent need to radically and democratically discuss what we mean by a dignified life and how we can organize to sustain life collectively.Trade Review“Through a rigorous, relentless exposure of the destructive logic governing capitalist development, Orozco sets the foundations for a feminist politics capable of subverting the myths propagated by capitalist economy and radically transforming the conditions and ends of our social reproduction. A must not only for feminists movements but for all engaged in the struggle to create a more just society.”—Silvia Federici, author of Revolution at Point Zero and Caliban and the Witch“Amaia Pérez Orozco skillfully recenters the feminist critique of contemporary capitalist economics on the practices of sustaining life. The result is analytically rich and politically provocative.”—Kathi Weeks,Feminist Subversion of the Economy well articulates the road to creating a clear commitment to achieve the interconnections and solidarity that will create and sustain a better world. Amaia Perez Orozco’s contributions for life against capital remind us of our humanness, and the contributions of ecofeminism to dismantling hierarchies, exploitation, and invisibleness, in order to fulfill our collective responsibilities to establish a good life for all.—Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development, Department of Africana Studies, John Jay College, City University of New York; and author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. author of The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries“In the last decade, feminist political economy has experienced an efflorescence, as a generation of new thinkers has critically revised the practice of reading the interconnected spheres of misery produced by capitalism, in all its debilitating forms. Why? Because such heterodox, ruptural feminisms offer the most robust theorization of the multidimensional confluence of ecological devastation, state-sanctioned racism, deteriorating mental and physical wellbeing, colonial exploitation, reliance on unpaid work (including care), heteropatriarchal division and social murder. These crises are synthetically and historically produced in and through capitalism, a global totality and the epicenter of these problems. Amaia Pérez Orozco’s The Feminist Subversion of the Economy is not just the exemplar of this critical-analytic tradition; this book is a further contribution towards the construction of “a solid base from which to fight”; a “utopian horizon”; a life-sustaining collectively-pedagogical project of “buen convivir”; and a feminist degrowth transition. This book will compel you think differently--and even better, with others!--as to how we can create a life-sustaining economy.”—Kai Bosworth, author of Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the 21st Century

Read more less

Book SynopsisRoger Garaudy was for many years at the centre of the French Communist Party but was eventually expelled for his liberal views. In the Seventies, he strove to bring Marxism and Christianity together, to include all humanity in a project to set all people free. What emerges from Garaudy’s project is a very modern Marxism, with its emphasis on the individual, its ecological politics, and in its insistence on religion as central to human emancipation. Although Garaudy himself became frustrated by the failure of Marxism and converted to Islam, eventually resulting in his work being discredited in the West, it is certainly possible that Garaudy’s project represents a good, perhaps even the best, starting point for Marxism in today’s world.Trade Review“Occasionally, certain studies throw a vivid light on the gloomy bookshelves of the history of ideas. Such is Julian Roche’s book. The author shares with the French philosopher, once the leading intellectual of the French Communist Party, the singular ambition of synthesizing Christian faith and Marxism. Roger Garaudy’s project, after he was expelled by what he called a Stalinist party, was indeed to insert transcendence (the actual love of God rather than the mere philosophical concept) in the revolutionary anti-capitalist project of accomplishing social justice on earth. Roche’s disappointment lies in what he considers as the betrayal of his project by Garaudy himself as he converted to Islam—thus opening the door to a subsequent drift into radical anti-Zionism that associated him with Holocaust denial. He takes up Garaudy’s project where the French philosopher would have abandoned it, and makes a valuable intellectual contribution to a project that is close to his heart: uniting faith in Christ and the aspiration for justice on earth. A thought-provoking and stimulating book."— Dr. Didier J.-F. Gauvin, author of Un intellectuel communiste illégitime: Roger GaraudyTable of ContentsChapter One: Why Roger Garaudy Still Matters Chapter Two: Did Others Take Garaudy Seriously? Chapter Three: Garaudy’s Project Chapter Four: The Role of Subjectivity in the Project Chapter Five: The Role of Transcendence in the Project Chapter Six: Garaudy’s Conversion to Islam Chapter Seven: The Project Revised Conclusion Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn February 1900 a group of men representing trade unionists, socialists, Fabians and Marxists gathered in London to make another attempt at establishing an organisation capable of getting working-class men elected to Parliament. The body they set up was the Labour Representation Committee; six years later when 29 of its candidates were elected to the House of Commons, it changed its name to the Labour Party. No women took part in that first meeting, but several watched from the public gallery. Amongst them was Isabella Ford, an active socialist and trade unionist who would have been familiar to most of the men assembled below. She had been asked by her friend, Millicent Fawcett, to attend and report back on what happened. A few years later she would become the first woman to speak at a Labour Party conference, moving a resolution on votes for women but, at the Party's inception in 1900, she and every other woman in the hall was silent.ThroughTrade ReviewA truly worthy, long-overdue and brilliantly written tribute to the women who helped drive the rise of British socialism. * New Statesman *[W]hen Sloane can muster sufficient detail to weld the personal to the political, her story is fascinating. ... Heartening as such stories may be, Sloane is also an unsparing chronicler who never glorifies her campaigners as a seamless sisterhood. * The Telegraph *[...] Sloane succeeds throughout in offering a fresh and engaging account of the complex of organizations, debates and initiatives that contributed to Labour politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. * TLS Reviews *[A] detailed history ... By 1918 some of the women who had worked with untiring commitment had died, others lived on to occupy high profile positions in the labour movement. Sloane’s account successfully repositions their efforts and achievements. * Socialist History *Table of ContentsIntroduction Acknowledgements One: Trade Unionists Two: Socialists Three: Foundations Four: ‘The Men’s Party’ Five: Women’s Work Six: Breakthrough Seven: Suffrage and Sweating Eight: Changes Nine: The Great Unrest Ten: War and Peace Epilogue Timeline The Women in the Room Organisations and Acronyms Bibliography Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisOut of early twentieth-century Russia came the world's first significant effort to build a modern revolutionary society. According to Marxist economist Samir Amin, the great upheaval that once produced the Soviet Union has also produced a movement away from capitalism - a long transition that continues even today. In seven concise, provocative chapters, Amin deftly examines the trajectory of Russian capitalism, the Bolshevik Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the possible future of Russia - and, by extension, the future of socialism itself. Amin manages to combine an analysis of class struggle with geopolitics - each crucial to understanding Russia's singular and complex political history. He first looks at the development (or lack thereof) of Russian capitalism. He sees Russia's geopolitical isolation as the reason its capitalist empire developed so differently from Western Europe, and the reason for Russia's perceived "backwardness." Yet Russia's unique capitalism proved to be the rich soil in which the Bolsheviks were able to take power, and Amin covers the rise and fall of the revolutionary Soviet system. Finally, in a powerful chapter on Ukraine and the rise of global fascism, Amin lays out the conditions necessary for Russia to recreate itself, and perhaps again move down the long road to socialism. Samir Amin's great achievement in this book is not only to explain Russia's historical tragedies and triumphs, but also to temper our hopes for a quick end to an increasingly insufferable capitalism. This book offers a cornucopia of food for thought, as well as an enlightening means to transcend reductionist arguments about "revolution" so common on the left. Samir Amin's book - and the actions that could spring from it - are more necessary than ever, if the world is to avoid the barbarism toward which capitalism is hurling humanity.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTravelling from Madrid to The Valley of the Fallen, through Castile and León and across the fiercely contested region of Catalonia, Christopher Finnigan meets a remarkable cast of characters behind some of the biggest political events Spain has witnessed in decades. Whether it is the Indignados left-wing activists rethinking society, the everyday citizens sitting in parliament, or the Catalan separatists fighting for a new nation, The New Spanish Revolutions meets those struggling at the heart of historic change. Spain today finds itself in the grip of immense social upheaval, still shaken by the financial crash of 2008 and still struggling with its fascist past. Against a fragmented and polarised backdrop, Christopher Finnigan discovers how individuals and ideas that were once outside the mainstream are now shaping the nation’s future.Trade Review'Spain has always fascinated and mystified outsiders in equal measure, not least in the intensity of the debates that have polarised its communities over the past decade. At last, we have a companionable and informed guide: whether attending a demonstration in Madrid, listening to arguments for Catalan independence in Barcelona or on a coach trip to the Valley of the Fallen, he reveals a nation moving towards its future, still haunted by its past. * James Attlee, author of Guernica: Painting the End of the World *'Most political analyses are conducted at 10,000 feet. Not so New Spanish Revolutions. Ever eager to get his hands dirty, Christopher Finnigan throws himself into the world of Spain’s grassroot political movements with dexterity and determination. The result is an enormously engaging, politically varied and, above all, vividly lived account of political turmoil currently engulfing the country. A timely reminder in an age of populism and personality that politics is ultimately about people – real people, living real lives, fighting for real change. * Oliver Balch *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Madrid the City 3. Madrid the State 4. The Valley of the Fallen and a City Visit (North or South) 5. Catalonia: Rewriting History 6. Barcelona: An Older Generation Lead

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis 600-page volume of Luxemburg's Complete Works contains her writings On Revolution from 1906 to 1909 - covering the 1905-06 Russian Revolution, an epoch-making event, and its aftermath. Over 80 per cent of writings on this volume have never before appeared in English. The volume contains numerous writings never before available in English, such as her pathbreaking essay "Lessons of the Three Dumas," which presents a unique perspective on the transition to socialism, her "Notes on the English Revolution" of the 1640s, and numerous writings on of the role of the mass strike in fomenting revolutionary transformation. All of the material in the volume consists of new translations, from German, Polish, and Russian originals.Trade Review“One of the most emotionally intelligent socialists in modern history, a radical of luminous dimensions whose intellect is informed by sensibility, and whose largeness of spirit places her in the company of the truly impressive.”—Vivian Gornick, Nation “Rosa goes on being our source of fresh water in thirsty times.”—Eduardo Galeano “Intrepid, incorruptible, passionate and gentle. Imagine as you read between the lines of what she wrote, the expression of her eyes. She loved workers and birds. She danced with a limp. Everything about her fascinates and rings true. One of the immortals.”—John Berger “One cannot read the writings of Rosa Luxemburg, even at this distance, without an acute yet mournful awareness of what Perry Anderson once termed ‘the history of possibility.’”—Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe classic history of the French Revolution by the assassinated socialist leader, Jean JaurèsTrade Review'Tantalizing prose... The lively sense of being 'inside' the Assembly or the meetings of the Paris City Council leaps from the page' -- 'Times Literary Supplement''The death of a single human being can mean a great battle lost for all humanity: the murder of Jaurès was one such disaster' -- Romain Rolland'We can say today that every revolutionary party, every oppressed people, every oppressed working class can claim Jaures, his memory, his example, and his person, for our own' -- Leon Trotsky'Jaurès' brilliant analysis is as refreshing and controversial today as it was over a century ago. It resonates with the passion and eloquence of this great political leader while at the same time sustaining a rigourous Marxist analysis of the social and economic forces behind the Revolution. Its appearance in this edition is to be warmly welcomed' -- Peter McPhee, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne'A classic of historical writing which laid the foundations for so many later accounts of the French Revolution. Jaurès vividly depicts the drama of the Revolution, the triumphs and the setbacks, the bloodshed and the hope, but always with an eye to the future, to how the Revolution opened the way to human emancipation' -- Ian Birchall, historian and author of The Spectre of BabeufTable of ContentsIntroduction by Henry Heller Translator’s Note 1. Introduction 2. The Causes of the Revolution 3. July 14, 1789 4. National Lands 5. The Revolutionary 'Journées' 6. The Flight to Varennes 7. The Insurrection of August 10, 1792 8. The September Massacres 9. The Battle of Valmy 10. The Trial of the King 11. The Enragés against the High Cost of Living 12. The Revolution of May 31 and June 2, 1793 13. Marat’s Assassination 14. Dechristianization 15. The Dictatorship of Public Safety and the Fight against the Factions 16. The Terror and Fall of Robespierre 17. How Should We Judge the Revolutionaries? Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe twentieth century was an era of socialist revolutionary transformations and significant social-democratic reforms. By the twenty-first century, these socialist inspired movements have largely disappeared, their ideologies have been disavowed, and their institutions dismantled and replaced by global neoliberal capitalism. This book explores the social, political and economic forces driving these movements in Western Europe and in the USSR, explaining their initial triumphs and how they eventually faltered under the influence of global neoliberalism. David Lane examines the nature and appeal of neoliberal capitalism and analyses current social and political proposals for its reform or replacement, including statist forms of capitalism; social-democratic and ecological globalization reforms; self-sustaining autonomous communities; and globalised forms of social-democracy or socialism. Outlining his own proposal to replace global neoliberal capitalism with political systems based on a combination of market socialism and state planning, Lane provides important insights for ways forward, and a challenge for parties seeking political and economic alternatives.Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Global Neoliberalism and What It Means 3. Neoliberalism: A Critique PART I Socialist Contenders and Their Demise 4. Socialist Visions 5. The State Socialist Challenge and Its Market Socialist Critics 6. The Decay of Social Democracy 7. The Conversion of Social Democracy to the ‘Third Way’ 8. State Socialism Moves to a Market Economy PART II Capitalist Globalisation and Its Adversaries 9. From Industrial to Global Capitalism 10. The Changing Global Class Structure and the Challenge of the Semi-Core 11. The Self-Destructing Propensities of Global Capitalism 12. The ‘Anti-Capitalist’ Critique 13. Ecological ‘Catastrophe’ 14. Social Democratic and Socialist Perspectives 15. The Challenge of State Capitalisms 16. Regulated Market Socialism

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn a time of great gloom and doom internationally and of major global problems, this book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of alternative societies that could be better for humans and the environment. Bringing together a wide range of approaches and new strands of economic and social thinking from across the US, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Luke Martell critically assesses contemporary alternatives and shows the ways forward with a convincing argument of pluralist socialism. Presenting a much-needed introduction to the debate on alternatives to capitalism, this ambitious book is not about how things are but how they can be!Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Alternative Economies 2. Social Alternatives 3. Utopianism and its Critics 4. Socialism and its Critics 5. The Democratic Economy 6. Alternative Globalization Conclusion

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeorgian social democracy was the most successful social democratic movement in Russia. Despite its size, it produced many of the leading revolutionaries of 1917. In the first of two volumes, Jones writes the history of this movement, which represented one of the earliest examples of European social democracy at the turn of the 20th century.Trade ReviewA splendid account, which breaks new ground. Stephen Jones brings Georgian Marxism back to life on its own terms and in its own time. He is brilliant at setting the national, social, and cultural context, and he succeeds in relating the Georgian movement to the wider frame of Russian imperial and indeed global history. -- Robert Service, author of Stalin: A BiographyThis fine book breaks new ground in its original and persuasive narrative of a unique social movement. Georgian Social Democracy was the first Marxist movement in the world to gain massive peasant support, something later achieved in China and Vietnam, but in the Georgian case also established a successful democratic socialist government in a time of revolution and civil war. The Georgians managed to marry socialism, democracy, and a moderate, tolerant form of nationalism. There are lessons to be learned in this history. -- Ronald Grigor Suny, author of The Soviet ExperimentThis is the first detailed study in English of Georgian social democracy based on archival and secondary sources in the Georgian language as well as in Russian. For this reason alone, it should hold a lasting place in the growing literature on the regional and ethnic revolutionary movements in the Russian Empire. -- Alfred J. Rieber * Journal of Modern History *Table of ContentsPreface 1. The Historical Context 2. The Intellectual Roots of Georgian Social Democracy 3. The Mesame Dasi 4. The Working People 5. The Split 6. The Gurian Republic 7. 1905 8. New Directions 9. War and Revolution 10. Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA smart and succinct history of the Labour leftTrade Review'A welcome corrective, This book astutely appraises British politics’ most frustrating but important dissident tradition' -- 'Guardian''Admirably clear-sighted' -- 'New Statesman''At a very crucial time in British politics, this book helps us to fill in important gaps in our knowledge' -- David Coates, author of 'Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour in Britain''A well-timed explanation of the class contradictions at the root of the Labour Party from its creation to the present day' -- 'Labour Briefing'Table of ContentsForeword to the Second Edition by Nadia Whittome MP Foreword to the First Edition by John McDonnell MP Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1. Divided Beginnings 2. Second Time as Disaster 3. The Age of Consent 4. The Civil War 5. 'Though Cowards Flinch...' 6. The Broad Church Collapses 7. The Single Idea 8. The Corbyn Supremacy 9. From Ancient Grudge Break to New Mutiny… Conclusion: …Where Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn is charting a new direction. Here, Nathan Yeowell has brought together a remarkable array of contributors to provide expert insight into twentieth-century British history and Labour politics and how they might shape thinking about Labour's future. Reframing the span of Labour history and its effects on contemporary British politics, the book provides fresh thinking and analysis of various traditions, themes and individuals. These include the shifting significance of 1945, the need for more grounded interpretations of Tony Blair's legacy, and the enduring importance of place, identity and aspiration to the evolution of the party. Contributions from leading historians such as Patrick Diamond, Steven Fielding, Ben Jackson, Glen O' Hara and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite are supplemented by those with experience of Labour electoral politics, such as Rachel Reeves and Nick Thomas-Symonds. The result is an intellectually rich and politically relevant rTrade ReviewThe book all wings of the Labour Party have needed for years. Lively, rigorous, and robust, Nathan Yeowell has assembled a timely corrective to the factional mythmaking that is too often an impediment to the candour required to make sense of a contested history. Those serious about interrogating the party’s traditions – and remaking them for the 2020s – should start here. A breath of fresh air. * Patrick Maguire, Political Reporter for The Times, author of Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn *A captivating, kaleidoscopic collection, packed with fresh thinking and new insights. Few volumes range as widely across Labour history, or bring together such an impressive range of authors. Rethinking Labour’s Past is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present or future of the Labour Party. * Robert Saunders, Reader in British History, Queen Mary University of London, author of Yes to Europe! The 1975 Referendum and Seventies Britain *Charting how leaders, intellectuals and activists navigated previous hinge points in Labour history, this excellent collection reconnects the party’s present period of transition with those of generations past. Its cast of contributors showing renewed signs of life on the centre-left, Rethinking Labour’s Past reveals how, for successive modernizers, the starting point has been to first interpret a shifting world as a springboard to change it. * Frederick Harry Pitts, Lecturer in Work, University of Bristol, author of Corbynism: A Critical Approach *If Labour is again to win political power it faces hard choices, as it has in the past. The essays in this well-written volume show how Labour has succeeded when it has faced up to those challenges, and not ducked them – and why it has to do that again now. * Charles Clarke, former Labour Home Secretary, editor of British Labour Leaders *As a historian, a Fabian and, latterly, a bit-player in some of this, I found every section a learning experience, and only regret this street map was not available earlier. * Dianne Hayter, former General Secretary of the Fabian Society, author of Fightback! Labour’s traditional right in the 1970s and 1980s *Table of ContentsList of contributors Acknowledgements ForewordRachel Reeves Part I 1. Introduction: Rethinking Labour’s past - Nathan Yeowell 2. The Disenchantment of the Labour Party: Socialism, Liberalism and Progressive History - Ben Jackson Part II 3. ‘A party not unlike the Democrats’: Labour, the Left, and encounters in America from the New Deal to the New Frontier - Richard Carr 4. The Shifting Significance of ‘The Spirit of ‘45’ - Steven Fielding 5. The Fall and Rise of Harold Wilson - Glen O’Hara 6. Crosland in the seventies: revisionist social democracy in a cold climate - Patrick Diamond Part III 7. Municipal socialism and municipal feminism: women and local Labour politics from the 1900s to the 1980s - Krista Cowman 8. Social democracy, the decline of community, and community politics in post-war Britain - Nick Garland 9. Linking up Labour: place, community and buses in 1980s Sheffield - Daisy Payling 10. Race and the left, from protest to power? The story of Black Sections - Robin Bunce and Samara Linton 11. ‘This party is a moral crusade, or it is nothing’: foreign aid and Labour’s ethical identity - Charlotte Lydia Riley Part IV 12. ‘What did the 1983 manifesto ever do for us?’ - Colm Murphy 13. Neil Kinnock: a reassessment - Jonathan Davis and Rohan McWilliam 14. Past, present and future: Tony Blair and the political legacy of New Labour - Andrew Hindmoor and Karl Pike 15. Renewal beyond New Labour: from the LCC to Corbynomics - George Morris, Emily Robinson and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite Part V 16. The Labour Party and aspiration - Jeremy Nuttall 17. Conclusion: shaping Labour’s future - Nick Thomas-Symonds

Read more less

Book SynopsisDrawing on radical democratic theory and the ideas of political theorist Guy Debord, Rethinking the Spectacle examines the tension between spectacles and political agency in our digital society.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 The Spectacle in Theory: Debord’s Conception and Beyond2 Practical Implications: From the Situationist International to Autonomist Marxism3 Rethinking the Spectacle 1: Lessons from the Situationist International4 Rethinking the Spectacle 2: Toward a Radically Democratic Approach5 The Spectacular Politics of the 2011 Occupy MovementConclusionNotes; Bibliography; Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the sixth and final volume of L&W's comprehensive history of the British Communist Party, covering the debates of the last years - a period of accelerated change and reassessment, and ultimately dissolution. The book begins by situating the CPGB within the major social and cultural changes of the 1960s, and documents the hopes for renewal that were symbolised by the new social movements associated with May 68, and the Prague spring. It ends with the collapse of the party and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite all the new thinking and idealism, the party could not hold together. The book covers the Young Communist League's engagement with popular culture in the 1960s; the influence of the new social movements, especially feminism; the party's strong presence in the trade unions; CPGB relations with the Labour Party and labour movement; the increasing influence of Gramsci within the party, especially among a new generation of intellectuals; the Communist Universities of London;

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a turning point in politics. This imperialist grab for territory and resources has divided the left around the world. Socialists and trade-unionists in Ukraine are determined to resist occupation and destruction of the country, and that there is a reconstruction based on social, economic and climate justice. This book is essential reading as it gives a platform for these left and progressive forces in Ukraine and those around the world who support them

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFutures of Socialism overhauls the history of 'modernisation' and the British Left and recasts our understanding of New Labour. It provides an innovative, iconoclastic history of debates over the 'modernisation' of the Labour Party, beginning with the shocks of the 1970s and ending with the emergence of New Labour.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The plural modernisations of the British left; Part I. Social Democracy and the Challenge to the Nation-State: 1. 'Keynes is dead, Beveridge is dead': modernisation, globalisation, and European integration; 2. Industrial democracy, market socialism, and stakeholder capitalism: modernisation and socioeconomic democracy; Part II. Identities and Mmodern Socialism': 3. 'An old working class may be waning, but a new one is being born'? Gender, Labour, and modernisation; 4. A telling absence: race, multiculturalism, and modernisation; Part III. The Search for a Modernising Social Democracy; 5. 'A modern democracy': modernisation and constitutional reform; 6. White heat to interactive whiteboard: modernisation and Labour's economic strategy; Conclusion: contested futures of socialism in Britain's late twentieth century.

Read more less