Vol 7 No 4
Winter 2024Israel’s March to a Second Nakba
Pursuing its long-held goal of territorial aggrandizement and tilting at enemies of its own making, Israel has freed itself of all moral constraints. This essay shows that not only were alternatives always available, Israel consistently and remorselessly eschewed them at every opportunity.
Can Palestine Survive?
For the last three decades, Amira Hass has been charting the everyday practices of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Through her pioneering journalism and intricate knowledge of Palestinian life under occupation, she exploded the myth of the Oslo peace process by conveying how it has led to deepening occupation, the increasing expropriation of Palestinian territory, and the subordination and domination of Palestinians. This interview is focused on the period following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and Israel’s genocide in Gaza and expulsion plans, situated in the context of Oslo’s occupation regime and the destruction of Palestinian self-determination.
Understanding Class Dealignment
This essay offers a detailed description of the contours and political stakes of the debate around working-class dealignment from the Democratic Party. It shows that the phenomenon is real and explains why it matters, surveys prominent accounts of how working-class drift can be addressed, and offers a set of tentative paths forward.
Organizing Soldiers
The recent activities of reactionary movements illustrate how the military is viewed as an ally in promoting the Right’s agenda. However, the history of left organizing also suggests that the military can be a source of anti-capitalist politics. Ceding this institutional space to the Right would represent a strategic error undermining short-term reforms today and a socialist transition tomorrow.
The Sixties’ Lost Promise
Ellen Schrecker’s The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s chronicles the rise and crisis of mass higher education in the United States over the course of that decade. This review essay engages with her impressive study to explore how the enduring dependency of the American left on the university was forged at this critical juncture.
How Can Workers Organize Against Capital Today?
John Womack’s labor strategy is about workers finding the capacity to "wound capital to make it yield anything.” But the massive challenge in today’s deindustrialized economy is locating where that leverage actually lies.
New Labour Totally Subordinated Labour to Capital
Why was New Labour “intensely relaxed” about “people getting filthy rich”? The answer lies in a comprehensive analysis and critique of Labourism itself, which the new book Futures of Socialism fails to deliver.
Austerity Is an Antidemocratic Strategy to Boost Capital
Austerity policies have their roots in efforts by economic elites to crush working-class power after WWI and redistribute income upward. To reverse austerity, democratic control over economic policymaking is essential.
How Did the Paris Commune Shape British Culture?
British literary responses to the Paris Commune of 1871 expressed shock and fear about the collapse of the bourgeois social order. But they also registered sympathy with the Communards and their revolutionary aspirations.
Culture Can’t Explain the Arab Revolts
Violence and Representation in the Arab Uprising shows how the Arab revolts empowered democratic citizenship. But a focus on vibrant cultural creativity is no substitute for concrete analysis of political agency and economic structure.
“Settler Colonialism” Can’t Fully Explain Our World
Settler colonialism is often described as a singular, transnational mode of domination. But it’s impossible to understand colonialism without political economy and material interests.