Rosa Luxemburg’s defense of socialist democracy and her critique of the Bolsheviks in her pamphlet The Russian Revolution (1918) are well known. Less well known and often forgotten is her critique of bourgeois democracy, its limits, its contradictions, and its narrow and partial character. We propose to examine this critical line of thought in some of her political writings without any pretentions to completeness.
Remembering the riots of spring 1976 in China
14 June 2016, byIt’s 40 years since workers, students and school-students broke the oppressive regime that had come out of the Cultural Revolution in China and forced a change of direction on their rulers with mass protests in the spring of 1976.
Escalation of terror in Lahore – We live in the same world
7 June 2016, byA bombing in Lahore on Easter Sunday (the end of March) targeted Christians, but also children and Muslims sharing together a popular place of conviviality. The similarity in targets and modality reminds us of earlier events in Brussels and Paris.
What’s Next for Nuit Debout?
31 May 2016, byNuit Debout, France’s massive mobilizations against a proposal to dismantle the country’s labor code, has drawn comparisons to similar international movements — Occupy, Turkey’s Gezi Park, the movement of the squares in Greece. This wealth of experience helps us look at Nuit Debout and its prospects going forward.
Alternatives to Neoliberal Capitalism
21 April 2016, byNeoliberal capitalism today has become unpopular, but imagining alternatives is difficult nonetheless. During the 1980s and 1990s, the glitzy world of big money impressed not only people who were invested in it, but even many who were increasingly indebted to or sidelined by it. Even those who didn’t like it very much thought that there was no alternative to the neoliberal remaking of capitalism. [1]
From Slaveholders to Sanders: A Brief History of the US Democratic Party, for British Readers
13 April 2016, byAmerican socialist Bill Crane provides a brief history of the Democratic Party from its inception to the present, and asks how revolutionaries might relate to the movement behind presidential nominee Bernie Sanders.
What do Syrian and Lebanese activists think?
12 April 2016, byMiriyam Aouragh introduces interviews with activists Syrian and Lebanese that aim to cut through the confusion that has clouded much of the British left in recent months. The activists’ responses to questions about the nature of Daesh, the role of sectarianism and whether class can still be a source of analysis in the uprising, how we should regard the Kurdish resistance, what differences does receiving weapons or help from western powers make, and what can we do here to support their movements, follow Miriyam’s introduction. [2]
Origins, dynamics and developments of the revolutionary process
1 March 2016, byThis is the English language version of an interview that was done for the Greek publication Ela Liberta.
Erdo?an’s Victory by Violence
8 January 2016, byThe right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) is back in power, having easily won a clear majority of members of parliament (MPs) in the Turkish elections. While President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s party did not reach the necessary number of MPs to change the constitution and push through his desired presidential system, the AKP, their talking heads, and their media (just recently expanded through the seizure of more opposition media outlets) will put the issue back on the agenda. Indeed, they have already begun: one of Erdo?an’s senior advisors, Yi?it Bulut, said in his statement celebrating the AKP’s electoral victory, “Welcome, presidential system!”
New capitalist domination and imperialism in Africa
29 October 2015, byThe decolonization that began in the 1940s was essentially a passage towards neocolonialism, a mutation of the former colonies, a reconfiguration of the mechanisms of domination and exploitation by both the former colonial powers and other capitalists of the centre. It was necessary to adapt to the new balance of power on the international stage (the new economic-military hierarchy, the “Cold War”) in both the colonial metropolises and the colonial territories. Three or four decades later, the disappearance of the so-called “communist” camp gave rise to a restructuring of the world order based on the dynamic of the neoliberalisation of capitalism that had been set in motion in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is characterized by a permanent strengthening of the global hold of capital on the world (globalization) and a dynamic of abolition of the “private estate” (concerning the former French colonies), the “backyard” (Latin America for the United States), etc., which were said to limit the free movement of capital, hitherto considered as an intrusion.
Footnotes
[1] Author’s content warning: This text includes a certain amount of Keynes-bashing. Readers who find this offensive may take comfort from the Marxist self-critique offered at the end.
[2] The author would like to thank Ashley Inglis for helping copy-edit the text as well as all the correspondents for taking the time to think about the questions and answer them so insightfully.
