«Socialism under siege» (original) (raw)
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Saying No to capitalism has traditionally been the point of departure for socialist movementsincluding social democracy and the universe of groups to its left, 'the Left' of this essay. Doing so credibly has involved connecting fundamental critique of the capitalist system with an alternative vision of socialism. The act of saying No to capitalism has been historically and materially conditioned, varying with the stage of capitalism. Since World War I1 capitalism has changed tremendously, moving from the postwar boom to today's crisis and reconfiguration. In each moment of this evolution the Left has had to reconsider its ideas and practices. At present, the Left's ability to say No is in crisis. The circumstances of the Left's existence have changed dramatically, as have the questions the Left must answer. This essay tries to analyze the sources and nature of this crisis and the opportunities that it presents. I The Odd Couple-The Socialist Left and Social Democracy in the PostWar Boom. .. a 'reformist' strategy, if it is taken seriously and pursued to its necessary conclusion, must lead to a vast extension of democratic participation in all areas of civic lifeamounting to a very considerable transformation of the character of the state and of existing bourgeois democratic forms. Ralph Miliband, Marxism and Politics'
Marx's Capital After 150 Years: Revolutionary Reflections
Socialism and Democracy, 2017
On its 150th anniversary, as contemporary capitalism shows some signs, albeit fitful, of mutating beyond neoliberalism toward a new form of authoritarianism rooted in economic nationalism and protectionism, Marx's Capital helps to illuminate the system's underlying structure and the way out, especially if we allow that he has something to tell us not only on capital and class, but also on race and gender. Among the most salient concepts in Capital I are the dehumanization of the worker via commodity fetishism, a problem rooted in the production processes of capitalism, and the concomitant quest for free and associated labor by the working people. Equally salient today is the absolute general law of capital accumulation, which shows that mass unemployment is a permanent feature of highly developed capitalism, as machines replace human labor in a process that also leads to stagnation and the tendency toward a decline in the rate of profit. Finally, Marx's mature theory of revolution shows not only labor rising up against capital, but also how in particular capitalist societies, this process can be either retarded or hastened by ethnic and national divisions within the working classes. What does it mean to celebrate and concretize for today Marx's greatest work, Capital, Vol. I? Such a discussion is terribly important at this juncture, when we are in a new situation where even some sectors of the right have started to attack neoliberalism. The Brexit vote in the UK, the large vote for Le Pen in France despite her eventual defeat by a neoliberal candidate, and above all, the Trump campaign have placed on the agenda a new form of rightwing populism with neofascist overtones that breaks with some key features of neoliberalism, such as free trade pacts, somewhat more open borders, and "humanitarian" intervention. At the same time, Trump as president has put forth an incoherent agenda that contains major continuities with neoliberal austerity and old-style militarism, above all in the attempt to gut Obamacare. The open racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and nativism that marked the Trump campaign have if anything intensified, while his administration has made only fitful gestures toward the economic nationalism and protectionism that helped to win him a decisive swath of white working class voters. Whether we are on the cusp of a new era of capitalism, or whether this is more of a rhetorical turn, remains to be seen, especially in the case of Trump. But at the very least, the ideological underpinnings of capitalism seem to be undergoing an alteration. This makes it more urgent than ever that we on the left target capitalism as such, root and branch, not merely one form or another of it like neoliberalism. 1
Questioning Marx, Critiquing Marxism Reflections on the Ideological Crisis on the Left
While celebrating the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the ideologues of capitalism cannot gloss over the parallel crisis that is tearing apart the major capitalist societies. They declare Marxism dead, but "the grave-diggers of capitalism" hound them everywhere. For as long as capitalism continues to devastate the lives of the working people Marxism will always be relevant as a method of analysis. Some Marxist parties, however, are making themselves irrelevant by holding fast to outdated doctrines and pursuing political lines that have lost the power to convince.
Virtue and Economy: Essays on Morality and Markest, 2015
The chapter engages with two related issues: it gives a brief historical outline of the Left prior to the project of neoliberalism and confront the shift in the post-Cold War power balance during the dominance of neoliberalism. The second part is theoretical and normative. It briefly looks at Marx’s conceptions of alienation and exploitation. It argues that despite the essential significance of Marx for the Left today we need to find new theoretical resources for the renewal of neo-Marxist thought. The teleological notion of ‘practice’ in Alasdair MacIntyre’s work and the idea of ‘immaterial labour’ developed by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri are, among other things, also employed to serve us in the important task of providing new fuel for the anti-capitalist politics.