1st Edition

Radical Left Movements in Europe

    296 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    296 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    When the Iron Curtain lifted in 1989, it was seen by some as proof of the final demise of the ideas and aspirations of the radical left. Not many years passed, however, before the critique of social inequalities and capitalism was once again a main protest theme of social movements. This book provides an account of radical left movements in today’s Europe and how they are trying to accomplish social and political change.

    The book’s international group of leading experts provide detailed analysis on social movement organizations, activist groups, and networks that are rooted in the left-wing ideologies of anarchism, Marxism, socialism, and communism in both newly democratized post-communist and longstanding liberal-democratic polities. Through a range of case studies, the authors explore how radical left movements are influenced by their situated political and social contexts, and how contemporary radical left activism differs from both new and old social movements on one hand, and the activities of radical left parliamentary parties on the other. Ultimately, this volume investigates what it means to be ‘radical left’ in current day liberal-democratic and capitalist societies after the fall of European state socialism.

    This is valuable reading for students and researchers interested in European politics, contemporary social movements and political sociology.

    1. Radical Left Movements in Europe: An Introduction

    Magnus Wennerhag

    2. Radical Left Parties and Movements: Allies, Associates or Antagonists?

    Luke March

    3. Radical Left Parties and Left Movements in Northern Europe

    Daniel Keith

    4. Radical and Moderate Left Activism in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia (1989–2010)

    Jiří Navrátil

    5. Contentious Labour in Italy and Greece: Movements and Trade Unions in Times of Precarity and Austerity

    Lorenzo Zamponi and Markos Vogiatzoglou

    6. Left Without Its Party: Interest Organizations of Former GDR Elites and the Transformation of the PDS/Linke

    Amieke Bouma

    7. "History Bites Us by the Neck" – Contemporary Communism(s) in Finland and France

    Ainur Elmgren

    8. Troubles With the (Troubled) Past: Anarchists in Poland After 1989

    Grzegorz Piotrowski

    9. Rethinking Transformative Events to Understand the Making of New Contentious Performances: The "Autonomous Left" and the Anti-Fascist Blockade in Lund 1991

    Andrés Brink Pinto and Johan Pries

    10. The Radical Left Movement, Revolutionary Groups and Syriza: Framing Militant Dissidence During the Greek Crisis

    Sotirios Karampampas

    11. Diffusion of Radical Repertoires Across Europe: The Arrival of Insurrectionary Anarchism to Finland

    Mari Kuukkanen

    12. The Ukrainian New Left and Student Protests: A Thorny Way to Hegemony

    Volodymyr Ishchenko

    13. Taking Every Opportunity Against the State: Anarchists in Contemporary Russia

    Christian Fröhlich

    14. Radical Anti-Fascism in Scandinavia: Shifting Frames in Relation to the Transformation of the Far Right

    Jan Jämte

    15. A Resurgence of the Radical Left? Some Notes

    Donatella della Porta

    Biography

    Magnus Wennerhag is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden.

    Christian Fröhlich is an Assistant Professor at the School of Sociology, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

    Grzegorz Piotrowski is a faculty member at the European Solidarity Centre, Gdańsk, Poland. He is also Researcher at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden.