real utopias

The making and remaking of class
International Socialism Journal
Radice wants to construct a politics “against” class and says we need clearly to set out an aim of a post-capitalist society.

Like the cultural and professional shifts that arose from white collar, blue collar, and pink collared workers, we are now in the era of the “uncollared worker.” The rise of this new uncollared workforce will fundamentally and permanently change the...

There is now a widespread consensus that mainstream/neoclassical economists failed miserably to either predict the coming of the 2008 financial implosion, or provide a reasonable explanation when it actually arrived. Not surprisingly, many critics have argued that neoclassical economics has created more confusion than clarification, more obfuscation than elucidation. Economic “science” has, indeed, become “an ideological construct which serves to camouflage and justify the New World Order” [1].

There is now a widespread consensus that mainstream/neoclassical economists failed miserably to either predict the coming of the 2008 financial implosion, or provide a reasonable explanation when it actually arrived. Not surprisingly, many critics have argued that neoclassical economics has created more confusion than clarification, more obfuscation than elucidation. Economic “science” has, indeed, become “an ideological construct which serves to camouflage and justify the New World Order” [1].

The American political system, so highly polarized between conservative Republicans and moderate Democrats, has experienced in the last year some interesting changes on the left-hand margin of the national political scene. From Bill de Blasio's victory in the mayoral election in New York City, to Kshama Sawant's winning of a city council seat in Seattle, from the late Chokwe Lumumba's popularly-based campaign in Jackson, Mississippi, to self-described socialist Bernie Sanders’ talk of a run for the presidency, something new appears to be happening. Independent politics and socialist party campaigns, so long marginal to American political life and from discussion in the media, seem to be back on the radar again. This is all the more remarkable given our terrible election laws that make it so difficult in so many states to get parties and candidates on the ballot.

She went onto analyze the importation of “pre-capitalist” love (from the Global South) into post-modern caring situations in the United States.

Are the Greens a progressive party? Are they enemies of the labour movement that need combatting alongside the Tories, UKIP, LibDems and the rest? I ask because, as Graun readers may have seen, Ian Sinclair posed the question last week; "why does the left ignore the Green Party?" It's a fair enough question to ask. Ian provided a list of policies most Labour types wish we would take on board. Wild ultra-leftist promises like renationalising rail and public utilities, which also happen to be backed by the public at large. All progressive, all would go some way to making Britain a better place to be. Yet the reasons why the left and the labour movement don't treat the Greens favourably is only partly thanks to the enduring image of sandal-wearing, lentil-snorting hippy-types. The main reason, which is occasionally articulated by the far left, is that the Greens are anti-modernist and mainly based on an "alien" class force - the petit bourgeoisie. Or so we're told. Is that really the case? Are the Greens an organisation the left should shun, despite their demonstrably centre-left political programme?

Chris Steele: An article that recently came out in Rolling Stone,titled “Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail,” by Matt Taibbi, asserts that the government is afraid to prosecute powerful bankers, such as those running HSBC. Taibbi says that there’s “an arrestable class and an unarrestable class.”  What is your view on the current state of class war in the U.S.?