About the book
The ideological and material sweep encompassed by the proud capitalist assertion, ‘There Is No Alternative’, has been the clearest marker in our time of the contemporary crisis of socialism. How to take full measure of the power of ‘TINA’ (which really means treating seriously what it tells us about global capitalist economic, political and cultural power in the late 20th century) while at the same time not succumbing to the ‘end of history’ claim implicit within it (which means not becoming complicit with the extension of the present conjuncture into the foreseeable future) is the central political challenge of our time. In posing the sober question ‘Are There Alternatives?’ as its theme, this 32nd issue of The Socialist Register seeks to take up this challenge. It does so not by canvassing the many new ‘models’ of (market, participatory or other) socialism which have been advanced in recent years (this will be the focus of a later volume), but by looking at alternatives that arise out of the present conjuncture.
Contents
- Preface
- The British Labour Party’s Transition from Socialist to Capitalism (Colin Leys)
- Developing Resistance and Resisting ‘Development’: Reflections from the South African Struggle (Patrick Bond & Mzwanele Mayekiso)
- The Use and Abuse of Japan as a Progressive Model (Paul Burkett & Martin Hart-Landsberg)
- A Kinder Road to Hell? Labor and the Politics of Progressive Competitiveness in Australia (John Wiseman)
- In Defence of Capital Controls (Jim Crotty & Gerald Epstein)
- The Challenge for Trade Unionism: Sectoral Change, ‘Poor Work’ and Organising the Unorganised (Anna Pollert)
- The Tower of Infobabel: Cyberspace as Alternative Universe (Reg Whitaker)
- ‘Sack the Spooks’: Do We Need an Internal Security Apparatus? (Peter Gill)
- Sport, Gender and Politics: Moving Beyond the O.J. Saga (Varda Burstyn)
- Socialist Hope in an Age of Catastrophe (Norman Geras)
- Are There Left Alternatives? A Debate from Latin America (Carlos Vilas)
- Socialists, Social Movements and the Labour Party: A Reply to Hilary Wainwright (Barry Winter)
- Building New Parties for a Different Kind of Socialism: A Response (Hilary Wainwright)