Description
Book SynopsisForty years after its first publication, In and Against the State returns with a new introduction and featuring an interview with John McDonnell
Trade Review'The questions discussed in this gem of workers' inquiry and activist reflection are as relevant in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, when massive stimulus packages signal a departure from monetarism, as they were in 1979, when Thatcher's public spending cuts started to ravage an already problematic welfare state. Only by struggling against the state's reproduction of inequality and struggling for a democratisation of its functions we can start imagining a just and sustainable alternative'
-- Paolo Gerbaudo, Reader in Digital Politics, King's College London and author of 'The Digital Party' (Pluto, 2018)
'How can we fight both inside and outside the state for the socialist futures we so urgently need? There never was a better time to revisit the 'in and against the state' formulations of the radical left. Essential reading for everyone eager for change in these dangerous times'
-- Lynne Segal, author of 'Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy' (Verso, 2018)
'This new edition of a seminal 1980 text is a revelation. The interview with ex-Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and a new, contextualising introduction reveals a decades spanning red thread which will prove vital for the left's continued renewal'
-- Keir Milburn, author of 'Generation Left' (Wiley, 2019)
'Superbly timely. 'In and Against' is such a creative strategic concept, avoiding dogmatic binaries'
-- Hilary Wainwright, Founding Editor of 'Red Pepper' and author of 'A New Politics From the Left' (Polity Press, 2018)
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Seth Wheeler (University of Royal Holloway)
Preface to Second Edition
Preface to First Edition
1. In the State
2. The Predicament
3. Understanding the Capitalist State
4. Crisis
5. Against the State
6. Oppositional Possibilities
Original Postscript
1 Living the Crisis
2 The New Mode of Domination
3 Anger, Resistance and the Making of Socialism
4 Interview with John McDonnell
