Author: Leo Panitch
Vivek Chibber/Several Contributors
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 328
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788187496991
Description
Crises have a way of clarifying things. The Left has always recognized that crises mean, first and foremost, untold suffering by the most vulnerable sections of society, the scars of which remain long after the crises abate. This is why serious socialists have never welcomed economic breakdown.
But precisely because of their disruptive effects on business as usual, economic crises also present political opportunities. In previous crises, such as in the Great Depression, and even in the late 1960s and 1970s, economic dislocation became the occasion for massive social explosions and gains for the working people.
Since the current crisis began, it is the ruling classes not labour movements which have seized the crisis as an opportunity. Even while the public stands disgusted with the speculative orgy that neoliberalism unleashed, even while the mythology of market fundamentalism has been discredited, and even while public sentiment is hostile to the bank bailouts - the response of capitalist states has been to shore up, however they can, the very model that brought the economy to ruins.
It appears we are entering a new age of austerity. This portends a further assault on trade unions and the social entitlements of the working classes.
Back the Book:
Are we entering a new age of austerity – with further assaults on trade unions and the social entitlements of working people?
Sober assessment and analysis of the crisis, in its political and economic dimensions, is needed if the Left is to revive.
The themes this volume encompasses include:
• putting ‘the crisis this time' in historical and theoretical perspective;
• analyzing the role of banks and derivatives in global financialization;
• interrogating Wall Street and City of London before and after the crisis;
• surveying the crisis in the USA, the UK, Europe, Japan and South Africa;
• taking the measure of the impact of the crisis on working class families;
• showing how ‘exit strategies' are reviving neoliberalism;
• surveying the struggles against the new public austerity in Greece, Ireland, UK and USA.
This volume – the first of two – offers critical perspective on ‘exit strategies’ geared towards revitalizing neoliberal capitalism and considers the social and political impact of the crisis on the working class. Next year’s volume will extend the geographical focus to China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America, and deepen the analysis of the epicentre of the crisis in the USA.
CONTRIBUTORS:
1. Greg Albo
2. Sam Ashman
3. Karl Beitel
4. Riccardo Bellofi ore
5. Johanna Brenner
6. Dick Bryan
7. Noam Chomsky
8. Bryan Evans
9. Ben Fine
10. Julie Froud
11. Francesco Garibaldo
12. Sam Gindin
13. Joseph Halevi
14. Doug Henwood
15. Michael Moran
16. R. Taggart Murphy
17. Susan Newman
18. Adriana Nilsson
19. Leo Panitch
20. Hugo Radice
21. Michael Rafferty
22. Alfredo Saad-Filho
23. Anwar Shaikh
24. Susanne Soederberg
25. Karel Williams
Contents
Preface by Leo Panitch, Greg Albo, Vivek Chibber
1. Capitalist Crises and the Crisis this Time by Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin
2. Confronting the Crisis: A Class Analysis by Hugo Radice
3. The First Great Depression of the 21st Century by Anwar Shaikh
4. Caught in the Whirlwind: Working-Class Families Face the Economic Crisis by Johanna Brenner
5. Before and After Crisis: Wall Street Lives On by Doug Henwood
6. Opportunity Lost: Mystification, Elite Politics and Financial Reform in the UK by Julie Froud, Michael Moran, Adriana Nilsson, Karel Williams
7. The Global Crisis and the Crisis of European Neomercantilism by Riccardo Bellofiore, Francesco Garibaldo, Joseph Halevi
8. A Loyal Retainer? Japan, Capitalism, and the Perpetuation of American Hegemony by R. Taggart Murphy
9. The Crisis in South Africa: Neoliberalism, Financialization and Uneven and Combined Development by Sam Ashman, Ben Fine, Susan Newman
10. Deriving Capital’s (and Labour’s) Future by Dick Bryan, Michael Rafferty
11. Cannibalistic Capitalism: The Paradoxes of Neoliberal Pension Securitization by Susanne Soederberg
12. Crisis in Neoliberalism or Crisis of Neoliberalism? by Alfredo Saad-Filho
13. The Crisis, the Deficit, and the Power of the Dollar: Resisting the Public Sector’s Devaluation by Karl Beitel
14. From Rescue Strategies to Exit Strategies: The Struggle over Public Sector Austerity by Gregory Albo, Bryan Evans
15. The Centre Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination by Noam Chomsky