1st Edition
The Radical Left and Social Transformation Strategies of Augmentation and Reorganization
This comprehensive collection draws upon and reengages with a long history of Marxian-anchored thought to analyze the potential for social transformation through a reinvigorated radical Left, all within the context of the ascendance of an increasingly ethnonationalist, patriarchal, and authoritarian far Right worldwide. The authors identify and reflect on strategies, tactics, and possibilities for analyzing and intervening in advanced capitalist societies by increasing and deepening popular participation and support on the far Left.
The chapters are framed in terms of conceptualizing the capitalist present, organizing "the people" and reimagining the radical Left. Together, in diverse ways that draw upon both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the authors evaluate the difficulties of augmentation across multiple planes, from the tension between migrants and citizen workers, to the uneasy relationship between sovereignty and class, to the contradictions operating across international versus domestic dynamics. How and why (if at all) should the radical Left reexamine its understanding of political consciousness, identity, ideology, and institutions, as they relate to Marxian analysis and various threads of critical theory? The authors suggest new approaches for understanding what the radical Left is up against and how problematic barriers might be torn down, thus disrupting unhelpful binaries such as state versus capital, national versus international, worker versus migrant, activist versus candidate, and freedom versus necessity.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the online journal Global Discourse.
1. Introduction: Augmenting the Left A. T. Kingsmith, Julian von Bargen, Karen Bridget Murray and Robert Latham 2. Contemporary capitalism, uneven development, and the arc of anti-capitalism Robert Latham 3. War as politics: a reply to Latham Arto Artinian 4. Neoliberalism as a historical stage Kojin Karatani 5. Capitalism, imperialism, and modes of exchange: a reply to Karatani Joel Wainwright 6. ‘Life finds a way’: mapping a post-positivist marxian science A. T. Kingsmith and Julian von Bargen 7. Did life find its way? A reply to Kingsmith and von Bargen Athina Karatzogianni 8. Who’s afraid of the people? The debate between political agoraphobia and political agoraphilia Francis Dupuis-Déri 9. Democracy and etceteras: a reply to Dupuis-Déri Žiga Vodovnik 10. Rethinking the left: a view from Latin America Ronaldo Munck 11. Deconstructing Latin American development: postdevelopment critical theory or Marxist political economy?: A reply to Munck Henry Veltmeyer 12. Refugees in Greece: the Greeks as ‘refugees’ Aspasia Velissariou 13. Transcending the nation: a communist strategy in the era of globalization. A reply to Velissariou John Milios 14. The national question, partition and geopolitics in the 21st century: the Cyprus problem, the social question and the politics of reconciliation Nicos Trimikliniotis 15. Domesticating radicalism or radicalising domestic politics? A reply to Trimikliniotis Vasilios Ioakimidis 16. Re-imagining the left through an ecology of the commons: towards a post-capitalist commons transition Michel Bauwens and Jose Ramos 17. Commons manifestos: a reply to Bauwens and Ramos Graham Murdock 18. Strategies for a radical left Kieran Allen 19. Power beyond the state: a reply to Allen Craig Willse 20. Expanding the horizon: for a Libertarian Marxism Michael Löwy and Olivier Besancenot 21. The possibility of a libertarian Marxism? A reply to Löwy and Besancenot Michael D. Yates
Biography
Robert Latham teaches in the Politics Department at York University, Toronto, Canada. He has published widely on topics including political economy, digital activism, technologies of border surveillance, critical theories of sovereignty, transnational relations, migration, and radical political alternatives. He is the author of Politics of Evasion: A Post-Globalization Dialogue Along the Edge of the State.
Karen Bridget Murray is Associate Professor in the Politics Department at York University, Toronto, Canada. Her research evaluates and theorizes changing forms of modernity with respect to cities, as well as the governance of children and families. Recent publications include articles in BC Studies, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Global Discourse, and Urban Geography.
Julian von Bargen is a Doctoral Candidate in the Politics Department at York University, Toronto, Canada. He employs ethnographic, participatory, and experimental methods to explore how states and societies are reassembling after the Internet. He has published on state surveillance and the information freedom movement.
A. T. Kingsmith teaches in the Politics Department at York University, Toronto, Canada. His research explores the intersections of digital surveillance, social anxiety, and production in urban space. He has published on affect theory, sensory studies, social movements, speculative philosophy, and mixed methodologies.
