Welcome to new issue.
New Politics Vol. XVII No. 2, Whole Number 66
In this issue:
From The Editors
From the Editors
One need not be a Christian or religious at all to feel that the human race, if it does not change its behavior, seems to be heading toward an apocalypse, toward the destruction of the planet and human life.
Opening Articles
Whistling Past the Graveyard
For those who expected the midterm elections to be a slow grinding of the far right and the nation’s wax museum-Bonapartist president, the mills of the gods on election night operated as if on seasonal layoff.
The Left and the Democratic Party
What can socialists today learn from the experience of the left in the past as it grappled with the issue of electoral politics? Over the last 50 years, American leftists have in general adopted two alternative . . .
The American Left After Black Lives Matter
The American Left After Black Lives Matter
Historian Cedric Johnson’s essay “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now,” published in 2017 in the new socialist journal Catalyst, generated a lot of discussion and won the Daniel Singer Memorial Prize.
Addressing a . . .
Who’s Afraid of Left Populism?
My 2017 Catalyst article, “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now,” was addressed to a specific conundrum within contemporary left politics and anti-policing struggles in particular: that is, the strategic problem of building a counterpower capable of . . .
Only a Class Politics Can Save Us From Police Violence and Fascism
How Johnson’s critique of the Black Lives Matter movement elaborates on Luxemburgist themes and provides a path to addressing not only police killings, but also the larger capitalist assault that drives them.
Black Exceptionalism and the Militant Capitulation to Economic Inequality
Cedric G. Johnson’s “The Panthers Can’t Save Us Now” is a compelling, historically grounded critique of contemporary anti-racist campaigns against police brutality and mass incarceration. While Johnson is encouraged by the swell of organized opposition to . . .
In Defense of Black Sentiment
Johnson asks the reader not to pivot on certain ethnically motivated political affiliations lest we lose our class-conscious focus, and yet I find myself thinking about the ways Blackness is constructed in the arguments presented and how that matters.
Articles
Syria, the United States, and the Left
As the war in Syria draws to a close, the debate on the U.S. left over that conflict seems as intractable as ever.
The Philippine Left in a Changing Land
Under Duterte’s authoritarian rule, the Philippine left is faced with new difficulties.
Palestine on a Precipice
The rise and expansion of right-wing populism and the dramatic unfolding of global politics in the Trump era have had significant and alarming implications for the Palestinian people, leadership, and question overall.
Two Articles on Political and Labor Upheaval in China
Jasic Workers Fight for Union Rights
The central problem was the blatant violations of workers’ rights and interests by both the Jasic employer and the Chinese government, including the country’s only official trade union organization, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).
The Jasic Struggle in China’s Political Context
The Jasic case, in particular relationships that were forged between students and workers, reveals important developments in China’s politics.
Symposium on Ecosocialism
Symposium on Ecosocialism
Despite the dire threat posed by our multiple ecological crises, and despite shelves of books theorizing the relationship between capitalism and our ecological crisis, even radical environmentalists find themselves lost for a strategy. How . . .
A Greener New Deal?
Demands for a Green New Deal (GND) are a beacon of hope in an otherwise dystopian contemporary landscape. In her platform document, for example, newly elected Representative and Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez states that “it’s time . . .
A Radical Direction for the Environmental Movement
Climate scientists tell us we face a “climate crisis”: Since the 1990s, scientists have been trying to convince governments to keep atmospheric CO2 concentrations below 350 ppm in order to keep the global temperature below 1.5 . . .
What Do Eco-Socialists Have to Say About the Climate Movement?
To me the role of eco-socialists is to raise transitional demands, demands that bring a broader understanding of the role of capital in creating climate change and the ways that capital-ism can be challenged by working people and people most affected by the vast inequality it has created.
Reviews
review
An Economist’s Case for Socialism
It is all too rare that an economist makes the case: socialism or barbarism. Or, in Alan Nasser’s more piquant alternatives, socialism or fascism. Economics is a hedging profession of carefully detailed countervailing forces and measured . . .
review
From Marx to Ecosocialism
There is a growing body of ecomarxist and ecosocialist literature in the English-speaking world, which signals the beginning of a significant turn in radical thinking.
review
Remembering the English Revolution
In 1649, a pamphlet titled Tyranipocrit Discovered was published in Rotterdam. Fusing the terms “tyrant” and “hypocrite,” the anonymous author called for an end to economic, religious, and political oppression in England.
Letters
letter
Russian Revolution
Muraskin and Epstein criticize Harrison’s view of the Russian Revolution; Harrison replies.
New Politics has depended on readers like you for financial support since its first issue fifty years ago. We publish material from an independent socialist perspective on our website and print issue you won’t find anywhere else. You can get rid of this annoying box without