Socialist Register 2013: The Question of Strategy

Socialist Register 2013 seeks to explore and clarify strategy for the Left in the light of new challenges and new opportunities. Socialists today have to confront two realities: that they cannot avoid the question of reforms and a gradualist path out of capitalism, and that the organizational vehicles for socialism will most likely have to abide by different structures and principles than those that dominated left politics in the 20th century. Though solutions are not obvious, Socialist Register 2013 interrogates these dilemmas and critiques some unhelpful radical thinking that obstructs the reconsideration of socialist strategy for the 21st century. It asks, how have the occupations of public squares around the world changed the political scene? What are the most useful forms of political organization in the new conjuncture? Which features of past organizational models should be retained, and which discarded?

Table of Contents

Preface by Leo Panitch, Gregory Albo, Vivek Chibber

1. “The Crisis and Economic Alternatives” by Gregory Albo
2. “Rethinking Unions, Registering Socialism” by Sam Gindin
3. “Occupy Wall Street: After the Anarchist Moment” by Jodi Dean
4. “Occupy Oakland: The Question of Violence” by Barbara Epstein
5. “Occupy Lenin” by Mimmo Porcaro
6. “Left Strategy in the Greek Cauldron: Explaining Syriza’s Success” by Michalis Spourdalakis
7. “The Rise of Syriza: An Interview with Aristides Baltas” by Aristides Baltas, Leo Panitch
8. “Transformative Power: Political Organization in Transition” by Hilary Wainwright
9. “Die Linke Today: Fears and Desires” by Christoph Spehr
10. “What is Left of Leninism? New European Left Parties in Historical Perspective” by Charles Post
11. “Whatever Happened to Italian Communism? Lucio Magri’s The Tailor of Ulm” by Stephen Hellman
12. “On Taming a Revolution: The South African Case” by John S. Saul
13. “Strategy and Tactics in Popular Struggles in Latin America” by Atilio Boron
14. “Twenty-first Century Socialism in Bolivia: The Gender Agenda” by Susan Spronk
15. “Socialist-Feminist Strategy Today” by Johanna Brenner, Nancy Holmstrom
16. “Feminism, Co-optation and the Problems of Amnesia: A Response to Nancy Fraser” by Joan Sangster, Meg Luxton
17. “Reconsidering the American Left” by Eli Zaretsky
18. “Alain Badiou and the Idea of Communism” by Alex Callinicos
19. “The State and the Future of Socialism” by Michael Lebowitz

Leo Panitch and Greg Albo are Professors in the Department of Political Science at York University, Toronto; Vivek Chibber is Professor of Sociology at New York University.