Left-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisThis book is a comprehensive synthesis of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has fought on various fronts for survival since the reform refuting the China Collapse thesis by scrutinizing current realities, the proactive strategies adopted by the CCP and the critical role of traditional political culture, and the international environment in shaping state-society dynamics in China. More importantly, the book conducts a deep analysis of the reasons that this authoritarian regime could act responsively and progressively. The CCP possesses strong vigilance and adaptability assets which have helped it survive various crises over the past decades. This book scrutinizes the Chinese cultural environment as well as the political perception and economic interests of major social actors presumed to be forces with potential power to topple the regime. Both the state-dependency resulting from a late developer context and the elements of collectivism and rule by virtue in traditional Trade ReviewChallenging Western scholars and journalists who foresee China's collapse, Sun (Troy Univ.) and Zhang (Florida Institute of Technology) propose that communist leadership has devised a resilient, flexible system through what they call "Comcapitalism," a blend of capitalism and socialism, and "Comfucianism," a graft of traditional values on to Party rule. Coercion remains, but officials "channel mass discontent into constructive activities" that address local issues. Clever, but is it a stable, long-term solution? The authors present empirical data showing that most Chinese are content and patriotic, and they refute the Western modernization theory that economic growth forms a middle class and thus leads to democracy. That scenario, they write, does not fit Chinese history and culture. Sun and Zhang deem factionalism, corruption, and labor and peasant unrest under control. This book was published a little too early to include Xi Jinping's tightening and reemphasis on state-owned enterprises and difficulties with debt, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. Middle-way communist experiments (e.g., those of Tito and Gorbachev) alternated between loose and tight, never finding stability. This is now possibly China's pattern. The authors' offer a testable proposition: if the Beijing regime endures without systemic upheaval, they will have been proven right. . . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *“Why has the Chinese Communist Party not collapsed? The answer is simple: because it has gained the trust of the people. Why has it gained the trust of the people? The answer is complex and this book sheds much light; it is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand contemporary Chinese politics.” -- Daniel A. Bell, Shandong University, author of The China Model“Why Communist China Isn’t Collapsing attempts to explain the survival of the Chinese Communist regime. The authors argue that its legitimacy has a solid foundation in terms of Chinese political theory and political culture. As China now faces a deteriorating domestic and international environment, their thesis deserves careful consideration by those concerned with its future.” -- Joseph Y.S. Cheng, City University of Hong Kong“This book is a timely overview of the factors behind China’s remarkable economic success and rise to power that challenges conventional wisdom predicting either the collapse or democratization of China. While drawing on, and often dismissing the relevance of the western academic literature and theories, Sun and Zhang present a detailed insiders’ view of state-society relations that is largely sympathetic to the leadership role of the Chinese Communist Party as a responsive authoritarian regime.” -- Randall Peerenboom, retired professor of law, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest?Table of ContentsChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2:“Comcapitalism”—The CCP’s Legitimacy Battle on the Political and Economic FrontChapter 3: “Comfucianism”—The CCP’s Fight on the Ideological and Cultural FrontChapter 4: “Blocking, Dredging, and Channeling”—The CCP’s Struggle on the Social FrontChapter 5: Stability at Risk? Party Elites and FactionalismChapter 6: Unexpected Allies—Coopted Capitalists and The Middle Class Chapter 7: The Marginalized Social Class—Workers and PeasantsChapter 8: The Calculated Strategies of Hard Power and Soft TreadChapter 9: International Political Crisis and the CCP’s New OpportunitiesChapter 10: Conclusion

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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

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Book SynopsisAccording to renowned Marxist economist Samir Amin, the recent Arab Spring uprisings comprise an integral part of a massive "second awakening" of the Global South. From the self-immolation in December 2010 of a Tunisian street vendor, to the consequent outcries in Cairo's Tahrir Square against poverty and corruption, to the ongoing upheavals across the Middle East and Northern Africa, the Arab world is shaping what may become of Western imperialism - an already tottering and overextended system.The Reawakening of the Arab World examines the complex interplay of nations regarding the Arab Spring and its continuing, turbulent seasons. Beginning with Amin's compelling interpretation of the 2011 popular Arab explosions, the book is comprised of five chapters - including a new chapter analyzing U.S. geo-strategy. Amin sees the United States, in an increasingly multi-polar world, as a victim of overreach, caught in its own web of attempts to contain the challenge of China, while confronting the staying power of nations such as Syria and Iran. The growing, deeply-felt need of the Arab people for independent, popular democracy is the cause of their awakening, says Amin. It is this awakening to democracy that the United States fears most, since real self-government by independent nations would necessarily mean the end of U.S. empire, and the economic liberalism that has kept it in place. The way forward for the Arab world, Amin argues, is to take on, not just Western imperialism, but also capitalism itself.

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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.Trade Review"What is splendid in Amin's writing ... is his lucidity of expression, his clear consistency of approach, and, above all his absolutely unwavering condemnation of the ravages of capital and of bourgeois ideology in all its forms ... Amin remains an essential point of reference, and an inspiration." -Bill Bowring, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

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Book SynopsisUtterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over. First, by profligate deficit spending benefitting only themselves; second, by agreeing to an IMF "bailout" of the Greek economy, devastating ordinary Greek citizens who were already enduring government-induced poverty, unemployment, and hunger. Finally, in response to dire "austerity" measures, the people of Greece stood up, forming, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza-the Coalition of the Radical Left. For those who caught the Syriza wave, there was, writes Helena Sheehan, a minute of "precarious hope."A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza's surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. Along the way, she takes time to meet many Greeks in tavernas, on the street, and in government offices, engage in debates, and compare Greece to her own economically blighted country, Ireland. Beginning as a strong Syriza supporter, Sheehan sees Syriza transformed from a horizon of hope to a vortex of despair. But out of the dust of defeat, she draws questions radiating optimism. Just how did what was possibly the most intelligent, effective instrument of the Greek left self-destruct? And what are the consequences for the Greek people, for the international left, for all of us driven to work for a better world? The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis.Trade Review"Deeply grounded in philosophy and Marxist theory, Sheehan shows in plain language that the leadership of SYRIZA proved vacuous in theory and opportunist in practice. Her intellectual and political honesty will be a benchmark in the debate in the coming years." -Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics at University of London, and Syriza MP from January to August 2015

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Book SynopsisA socialist response to the looming ecological crisisAs the Anthropocene advances, people across the red-green political spectrum seek to understand and halt our deepening ecological crisis. Environmentalists, scientists, and eco-socialists share concerns about the misuse and overuse of natural resources, but often differ on explanations and solutions. Some blame environmental disasters on overpopulation. Others wonder if Darwin s evolutionary theories disprove Marx s revolutionary views, or if capitalist history contradicts Anthropocene science. Some ask if all this worry about climate change and the ecosystem might lead to a catastrophism that weakens efforts to heal the planet.Ian Angus responds to these concerns inA Redder Shade of Green, with a fresh, insightful clarity, bringing socialist values to science, and scientific rigor to socialism. He challenges not only mainstream green thought, but also radicals who misuse or misrepresent environmental science. Angus s argument that confronting environmental destruction requires both cutting-edge scientific research and a Marxist understanding of capitalism makes this book an essential resource in the fight to prevent environmental destruction in the 21st century."

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Book Synopsis“In The Russians are Coming Again, Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano present an excellent and well researched effort to remind liberal America of how awful the Cold War was and how it was based on a cynical exaggeration of a largely fictional `Russian threat.’ Their warning against creating a new Cold War with post-communist Russia is well worth considering.”—David N. Gibbs, University of Arizona, author, First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia Karl Marx famously wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon that history repeats itself, “first as tragedy, then as farce.” The Cold War waged between the United States and Soviet Union from 1945 until the latter's dissolution in 1991 was a great tragedy, resulting in millions of civilian deaths in proxy wars, and a destructive arms race that diverted money from social spending and nearly led to nuclear annihilation. The New Cold War between the United States and Russia is playing out as farce – a dangerous one at that. The Russians Are Coming, Again is a red flag to restore our historical consciousness about U.S.-Russian relations, and how denying this consciousness is leading to a repetition of past follies. Kuzmarov and Marciano's book is timely and trenchant. The authors argue that the Democrats’ strategy, backed by the corporate media, of demonizing Russia and Putin in order to challenge Trump is not only dangerous, but also, based on the evidence so far, unjustified, misguided, and a major distraction. Grounding their argument in all-but-forgotten U.S.-Russian history, such as the 1918-20 Allied invasion of Soviet Russia, the book delivers a panoramic narrative of the First Cold War, showing it as an all-too avoidable catastrophe run by the imperatives of class rule and political witch-hunts. The distortion of public memory surrounding the First Cold War has set the groundwork for the New Cold War, which the book explains is a key feature, skewing the nation’s politics yet again. This is an important, necessary book, one that, by including accounts of the wisdom and courage of the First Cold War's victims and dissidents, will inspire a fresh generation of radicals in today's new, dangerously farcical times.Trade Review“In The Russians are Coming Again, Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano present an excellent and well researched effort to remind liberal America of how awful the Cold War was and how it was based on a cynical exaggeration of a largely fictional `Russian threat.’ Their warning against creating a new Cold War with post-communist Russia is well worth considering.”—David N. Gibbs, University of Arizona, author, First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia

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Book SynopsisA simple and revolutionary toolbox to help any group create an actual and functioning democracy In this book, Marta Harnecker, with Spanish economist Jose Bartolome, shares some of her wisdom on how communities everywhere can gain empowerment. For, when impoverished people became involved in the planning process, they no longer feel like beggars demanding solutions from the state; they become the creators of their own destiny. Set out in two parts; this book first demonstrates the importance of community participants working outside a hierarchy, to allow as much decentralization as possible. The second part of the book centers on the methodology of this process: the various tasks taken on by participants and how, in planning processes over years, they are carried out.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster's Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx's revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that will help us comprehend and counter today's unprecedented planetary emergencies. The Return of Nature begins with the deaths of Darwin (1882) and Marx (1883) and moves on until the rise of the ecological age in the 1960s and 1970s. Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from William Morris and Frederick Engels to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen J. Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism. In the process, he delivers a far-reaching and fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology. Ultimately, what this book asks for is nothing short of revolution: a long, ecological revolution, aimed at making peace with the planet while meeting collective human needs.

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Book SynopsisBridges the gap between social and environmental critiques of capitalism In the nineteenth century, Karl Marx, inspired by the German chemist Justus von Liebig, argued that capitalism's relation to its natural environment was that of a robbery system, leading to an irreparable rift in the metabolism between humanity and nature. In the twenty-first century, these classical insights into capitalism's degradation of the earth have become the basis of extraordinary advances in critical theory and practice associated with contemporary ecosocialism. In The Robbery of Nature, John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark, working within this historical tradition, examine capitalism's plundering of nature via commodity production, and how it has led to the current anthropogenic rift in the Earth System.

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