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The Return of Radicalism

The Return of Radicalism

Boris Kagarlitsky

(2000)

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Abstract

The rise of neo-liberalism has had a devastating impact on the institutions and organisations with which the left has traditionally been associated. Boris Kagarlitsky examines this crisis and explores areas of opportunity for the left.

He begins by focusing on the decline of trade unions in the West and the attempts to revive them, contrasting this with the rapid growth of unions in the nations of the developing world and the new industrial countries. He argues that trade unionism has a vital role to play in the twenty-first century.

Kagarlitsky then provides a critique of the post-modernist left, arguing that the experiences of Eastern Europe and of the Third World demonstrate the vital need for a universal left as the only viable alternative to the emerging 'new barbarism'.

The state of the contemporary left is explored, with an assessment of the contributions of the 'third left' and 'third socialism' and the new wave of left parties and movements, such as the German Party of Democratic Socialism, the Workers’ Party in Brazil, and the Zapatistas in Mexico.
'This ambitious trilogy offers an intriguing diagnosis of the plight of the Left at a moment when its fortunes may be starting to change for the better'
Times Literary Suplement

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Contents iii
Preface vi
Introduction: Pride and Protest 1
1 Does Trade Unionism Have a Future? 13
The Crisis of Unionism 13
The Post-Soviet Trade Unions 18
South Korean Activism 20
African Militancy 23
Third World Workers Form Fighting Unions 26
New Social Unionism in Europe 28
Changing the Concept of Unionism 31
2 Beyond Identities 40
Changing Fashions 40
Identity Politics 43
Discursive Struggles 47
Feminism: from Protest to Career Politics 52
Individualist Mass Movements 56
Moving East 61
The Real Differences 63
The Marxist Approach 67
Hegemony and Postmodernist Strategy 70
Universalism and Democracy 73
3 The Third Left or the Third Socialism 98
The 'Third Left' 98
The 'Third Socialism' 100
The Zapatistas 102
Return to the Arms 110
Protests and Programmes 113
Rifondazione in Italy 115
Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany 117
The Workers' Party in Brazil 127
Struggles in Eastern Europe 129
The Pluralist Left 134
Between Resistance and Constructive Work 140
From Networking to Challenging the System 146
Conclusion: The Stage We are In 149
Notes 161
Preface 161
Introduction: Pride and Protest 161
1 Does Trade Unionism Have a Future? 161
2 Beyond Identities 164
3 The Third Left or the Third Socialism 169
Conclusion: The Stage We are In 175
Index 176
Adolphi, Wolfram 125 125
advertising 41