Vol 9 No 1
Spring 2025Why the Democrats Are So Useless
The Democratic Party’s transformation into a network of policy clientele organizations has left it incapacitated as an opposition party. These groups, which lack strong mass-membership bases and sources of structural power, have struggled to respond to Donald Trump’s attack on the state. Turning the tide will require transcending the politics of programmatic liberalism.
Lula’s Popular Front
This article analyzes Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s embrace of a broad front against far-right forces associated with former president Jair Bolsonaro. It explores Lula’s ideologically expansive 2022 presidential campaign and his challenges governing amid partisan fragmentation and argues that broad coalitions, while effective electorally, complicate progressive governance in polarized democracies.
The Modi Phenomenon
This article examines the political economy of Narendra Modi’s ascent to power, focusing on the pivotal role played by Indian big capital in the transition from Indian National Congress to Bharatiya Janata Party governance. It argues that the defection of leading corporate actors from the former party to the latter was not merely a political realignment but a structural shift in India’s post-liberalization regime. Since Modi’s election, neoliberal reforms have accelerated, deepening the state’s alignment with capital while marginalizing the political influence of labor.
The Fantasy of Revolution
Socialist revolutions have all but disappeared during the past half century, even if they remain a remote possibility in authoritarian countries with corrupt, long-standing autocrats. By contrast, the achievements of broad social and democratic rights have rendered insurrectionary politics a strategic cul-de-sac in advanced capitalist countries. The era of revolutions is likely over.
Technofeudalism Is Just Capitalism
Cédric Durand and Yanis Varoufakis have recently argued that the capitalist mode of production is being replaced by a more exploitative and less productive mode of production that they call techno-feudalism. But their case depends on implausible claims about the constitution of classes, the status of online platform users, and the sources of rent extraction. Capitalism is alive and well.
How Can Workers Organize Against Capital Today?
John Womack’s labor strategy is about workers finding the capacity to "wound capital to make it yield anything.” But the massive challenge in today’s deindustrialized economy is locating where that leverage actually lies.
New Labour Totally Subordinated Labour to Capital
Why was New Labour “intensely relaxed” about “people getting filthy rich”? The answer lies in a comprehensive analysis and critique of Labourism itself, which the new book Futures of Socialism fails to deliver.
Austerity Is an Antidemocratic Strategy to Boost Capital
Austerity policies have their roots in efforts by economic elites to crush working-class power after WWI and redistribute income upward. To reverse austerity, democratic control over economic policymaking is essential.
How Did the Paris Commune Shape British Culture?
British literary responses to the Paris Commune of 1871 expressed shock and fear about the collapse of the bourgeois social order. But they also registered sympathy with the Communards and their revolutionary aspirations.
Culture Can’t Explain the Arab Revolts
Violence and Representation in the Arab Uprising shows how the Arab revolts empowered democratic citizenship. But a focus on vibrant cultural creativity is no substitute for concrete analysis of political agency and economic structure.
“Settler Colonialism” Can’t Fully Explain Our World
Settler colonialism is often described as a singular, transnational mode of domination. But it’s impossible to understand colonialism without political economy and material interests.