Michael A. Lebowitz is the author of Build It Now: Socialism for the 21st Century, The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”: The Conductor and the Conducted, and The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now. He was recently in Australia for the Socialism in the 21st Century conference, which was co-hosted by Links. In this interview, Lebowitz covers some of the topics he discussed during his visit regarding the opposition to neoliberalism and the prospects for a socialist alternative in Latin America today.
Links: “Since the election of Chavez in 1998, there has been a reaction against neoliberalism in Latin America that is often called the ‘pink tide’. Why did neoliberalism flourish across the continent?
Lebowitz: What do we mean by neoliberalism? I think it is essential to understand that it is not simply a set of policies which support capitalism and which remove all obstacles to the growth of capital; significantly, it is also ideology — an ideology which has supported the growth of capitalism for centuries. Indeed, many of the perspectives of neoliberalism parallel very closely the arguments of Adam Smith and, in general, classical liberalism….”
Read the entire interview in Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
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