Vol 8 No 1
Spring 2024Israel’s Bonaparte
To decipher the secret of Benjamin Netanyahu’s success in clinging to power for so many years, this essay follows the history of the class struggle in Israel since the Likud party came to power in 1977. Netanyahu merely tended to a social coalition that was created before he entered politics. However, he proved especially adroit in preserving it.
The Rise and Fall of Imran Khan
Elections held in Pakistan in February witnessed an upsurge of support for the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, despite a brutal wave of military-led suppression. This essay looks at the contours of this upsurge, focusing on its roots in middle-class anger and a crisis of legitimacy for traditional political forces.
Race and the New Deal
This essay reexamines the common scholarly and political refrain that the New Deal was fundamentally racist. In a close examination of the most influential arguments from this view, I show that they fail to make the case that racial animus was the main driver behind the legislation’s shortcomings and present little guidance for moving forward.
The Cargo Cult of Woke
This essay reviews six recent books on woke ideology and argues that wokeness is not a mirage or distraction but is real and constitutes a major problem for the Western left.
The Antifascist Left
This article focuses on Joseph Fronczak’s important work on the genealogy of the Left, or what has been called the Left since the mid-1930s, rooted in antifascism and antifascist struggles. It is an overview of the history of antifascism worldwide for present use.
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.