For the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, an analysis of Marx’s views on the Commune and its historical possibilities.
Issue: Summer 2021
New Politics Vol. XVIII No. 3, Whole Number 71
review
Marxism and Art
In his most recent book, John Molyneux provides a well-researched overview and analysis of the visual arts in Western society, written from the standpoint of revolutionary Marxism. Molyneux was a longtime member of the UK Socialist Workers Party and is . . .
Satire and Healing
A Conversation with Singer/Songwriter Roy Zimmerman
An interview with the political singer-songwriter whose anti-Trump song got over 100 million views on social media.
Learning about Prisons
A Personal Reflection
Even before I’d been inside a prison, I was sympathetic to the circumstances of some people who are incarcerated.
I’d twice interviewed former professional boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who spent almost twenty years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. . . .
Capturing “the Spirit of Struggle”
Rosa Luxemburg on Literature
Luxemburg’s recognition of the paradoxical push and pull of creative literature speaks to contemporary debates in the context of both a resurgent far right and mass movements against systemic racism.
“Conscious Linkage”
The Proletarianization of Academic Labor in the Algorithmic University
The attempt to deskill teaching in higher education is hardly new. Technology is being used to transform the academic worker into a “conscious linkage” of the machine.
Medicare for All Is Not Enough
The Two Souls of Socialized Medicine
While Medicare for All may be a necessary first step toward change in healthcare, it cannot challenge the quality, or current culture and class basis, of the way contemporary healthcare is delivered.
American Gothic; or, What Melville Can Teach Us
What Melville crafted might paradoxically be called a gothic humanism. While probing the depths of human depravity with lyricism and wit, Melville’s fiction directly confronted slavery and capitalism.
Nigeria: #EndSARS, Workers’ Power, and War
In October 2020, millions in Nigeria marched for two weeks in a revolt that shook the world. From Badagry to Yola, youth and workers rose in unity against the barbarism of police brutality and bad governance. Raising radical slogans and . . .
Assad’s Pyrrhic Victory
It’s difficult to recollect the euphoria of the early days of the 2011 uprising in Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Reflecting on that time, Syrians speak of the breaking of the “fear barrier”—the suffocating authoritarianism and repression that . . .
South Africa
“The Masses Are Not Protected”
Post-Apartheid Symptoms of Morbidity
Everyone’s focus is on trying to save what is dying in South Africa. Few are paying attention to what is struggling to be born.
Deplatforming: The Risk of Success
Deplatforming has deep flaws, and reliance on it tends to reinforce unhealthy top-down dynamics within the left.
Can a Disoriented Storming of the Center Lead to Organizational Maturity?
Why was the American far right, the least organized among advanced capitalist nations, able to mount the (apparently) most threatening attack on the institutions of liberal democracy?
Twenty-First-Century Fascism: Where We Are
It is now clear that the seemingly inexorable dynamic of fascization has experienced a significant setback. The most evident sign of this change came with Trump’s defeat in November 2020.
New Politics Vol. XVIII No. 3, Whole Number 71
FROM THE EDITORS
THE UNMAKING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM?, Sam Gindin
TEN YEARS SINCE THE ARAB SPRING
ASSAD’S PYRRHIC VICTORY, Leila Al-Shami
REFLECTIONS OF AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST AFTER TEN YEARS OF DEBATE, Gilbert Achcar
ECOLOGICAL IMPERIALISM AND JAIR BOLSONARO’S AGENDA IN BRAZIL, Sabrina Fernandes
PERSPECTIVES ON THE DSA . . .
review
Making Black Neighborhoods Matter
Lawrence Brown’s book, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America looks at the long history of intentional harm and damage done to Black communities caused by white supremacist practices, policies, and budgets.
Will Africa Be the Last Oil Frontier?
In the wildlife preserves of the Okavango Delta—home to 200,000 people and spanning parts of Namibia and Botswana—a Canadian oil company is drilling for oil over the fierce opposition of indigenous people, activists and environmental experts.
Reflections of an Anti-Imperialist after Ten Years of Debate
An Interview with Gilbert Achcar
What does it mean to be a left anti-imperialist today? Stephen R. Shalom interviews Gilbert Achcar.
Perspectives on the DSA Convention
The backdrop for the last two DSA conventions was resistance to Donald Trump and the anticipation of a second Sanders campaign. In 2021, that is gone: Trump is no longer president. Sanders lost. In the Biden era, what is DSA?
Ecological Imperialism and Jair Bolsonaro’s Agenda in Brazil
The case of Brazil under Bolsonaro helps to illustrate how authoritarian governments in the Global South see ecological concerns as impediments to capitalist growth.
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