June 27th: Online workshop on Socialist Register 2026
Marxist Education Project: June 27th, 2-4:00 ET REGISTER HERE
Panelists: Michael Roberts, “Capitalism in the 2020s and Beyond”; Alfredo Saad-Filho, “The Rise of Neoliberal Fascism and the Challenges for the Left”; and Stephen Maher, “Profitable Immiseration: Finance Capital at the End of the World.” Invited commentator: Catarina Principe, a political activist from Portugal, a co-editor of Europe in Revolt, and a contributing editor of Jacobin magazine.
The newly published 2026 volume of Socialist Register – entitled “Late-Stage Capitalism? Accumulation in the Ruins” – interrogates anew the notion that global capitalism is in its end time (a recurring theme among Marxists since 1848). At the heart of this concept are indications that capital accumulation is running up against some inherent limits. just as the hucksters of private capital are crowing that so-called Artificial Intelligence will usher in a capitalist utopia of unlimited prosperity (for whom?). Socialists warn the world’s working classes to prepare instead for a late-capitalist dystopia, characterized by irreversible damage to the natural environment, wars brought on by new modes of global competition among capitals, and the inevitable squeeze on capitalist profits and human labor if robotic production alters the organic composition of capital to the extent predicted by the AI boosters. Based on their essays in the 2026 Socialist Register, our panelists speak to the utility of the concept of “late-stage capitalism,” both for understanding contemporary political economy and for devising strategies for the working class to defend itself and advance a universalist vision of human emancipation.
DIGEST: Reviews, interviews, appearances
WATCH:
American Empire in Crisis? Live with Ibrahim Shikaki, Paul Heideman, Costas Lapavitsas, Steve Maher and MRP editor Arun Kundnani
Watch below the first-ever live launch of the Socialist Register in New York City, with our new editor, Arun Kundnani, alongside the (relatively new) coeditor of the Socialist Register, Steve Maher, joined by three contributors to this year’s volume: Ibrahim Shikaki, Costas Lapavitsas, and Paul Heideman. Together they considered these and other questions:
–What kind of world order is now emerging?
-Is capitalism entering a terminal crisis, or being violently reconstituted?
-How is American empire being reshaped from Palestine to New York?
-And what possibilities remain for socialist politics in an age of ecological breakdown, geopolitical fracture, and resurgent authoritarianism?
LISTEN:
Against the Grain, with Sasha Lilley:
“The left has a long history of predicting the decline of US capitalism and empire. Some argue that Trump is a symptom of that decline — a strongman chosen by capital to set things right — and that the ill health of U.S. capitalism is paralleled by the decline of the dollar. Political economist Stephen Maher counters that U.S. capitalism is robust — to the detriment of most of us….” Listen here….
OTHER EVENTS COMING UP THIS FALL: HM 2026
This fall, Socialist Register will be presenting at London’s Historical Materialism Conference. If you will be there, here are three workshops you can look forward to:
Steve Maher, Scott Aquanno, Michael Roberts:
The 2026 Socialist Register interrogates the usefulness of the notion of “late-stage capitalism” for understanding contemporary political and economic trends, crises, and challenges. Is capitalism now entering a “late” stage in which productive investment is being displaced by “neofeudal” rentier extraction as the primary means through which the ruling class accumulates wealth? Is capital running up against inherent limits, and facing the exhaustion of its potential as a revolutionary force? Or are the overlapping social, ecological, and political crises we now face better understood as the contradictory outcomes of successful accumulation and capital’s unchallenged dominance? This panel launching the new 2026 volume brings together contributors to explore these questions – and to assess paths forward for the left and the working class as accumulation rattles on amidst the ruins.
Sebnem Oguz, Adam Hanieh, Alfredo Saad-Filho:
The 2026 Socialist Register interrogates the usefulness of the notion of “late-stage capitalism” for understanding contemporary political and economic trends, crises, and challenges. Among the most urgent of these is the rise of neo-fascist and authoritarian forces around the world, as well as the shift to more nakedly coercive and authoritarian forms of rule supported by nationalist, racist, and misogynist ideologies. What forms are these forces are now taking? What opportunities and limits do they face in making further inroads with states and classes? How have they navigated the challenge of maintaining nationalist bases while accommodating the imperatives of capitalism? How far have they succeeded in transforming states, and what are the prospects for resistance to these forces and regimes? This panel launching the 2026 Socialist Register features contributors addressing authoritarian politics from Turkey and the Middle East to the United States.
Feyzi Ismail, Rodrigo Nunes, Catarina Principe, “Socialist Register 2027 – From Protest to Power: Social Movements and the Left”:
The political sequence that stretches from the neoliberal decline of the labor movement and marginalisation of socialist politics to the supposed rebirth of the left in the form of a ‘movement of movements’ seeking amorphously to ‘change the world without taking power’ has been extensively analyzed and its deficiencies criticized. The subsequent shift ‘from protest to politics’ brought a new set of tactics and strategies oriented around the state. Yet as this shift has itself come to face barriers, social movements have again come to be seen as filling a void left by what some have seen as a narrow electoralism. Nevertheless, if the setbacks faced by these forces highlights the importance of base-building and mass mobilization, another round of social movements have left little in the way of an organizational or programmatic legacy, and none have halted the slide into hard-right authoritarianism. This panel will bring together contributors to the 2027 Socialist Register to explore the nature of the strategic and organizational constellations capable of advancing a genuine alternative to a grim future of working class immiseration and ecological breakdown.
For a full list of contributors to this year’s Socialist Register and the questions they contend with, watch below.…
