The Socialist Register 2022
New Polarizations, Old Contradictions: The Crisis of Centrism
The word “polarization” is on the lips of every commentator today, from mainstream journalists to the left, but the significance of this widely recognized phenomenon needs far more scrutiny than it has had.
About the book
The 58th annual volume of the Socialist Register takes up the challenge of exploring how the new polarizations relate to the contradictions that underlie them and how far ‘centrist’ politics can continue to contain them. Original essays examine the multiplication of antagonistic national, racial, generational, and other identities in the context of growing economic inequality, democratic decline, and the shifting parameters of great power rivalry.
Where, how, and by what means can the left move forward?
Canadian Studies Capitalism & Alternatives Cultural Studies Health & Illness
Contents
- A contemporary portrait of neoliberalism: The rise of the one per cent (Simon Mohun)
- At the summit of global capitalism: The US and China (Walden Bello)
- Market polarization means political polarization: Liberal democracy’s eroding centre (Ingar Solty)
- Trump and the danger of right-wing populism in the US (Bill Fletcher Jr.)
- What is wrong with social media? An anti-capitalist critique (Marcus Gilroy-Ware)
- The evolution of ‘race’ and racial justice under neoliberalism (Adolph Reed Jr. and Touré F. Reed)
- The crisis of US labour, past and present (Samir Sonti)
- American workers and the left after Trump: Polarized options (Sam Gindin)
- Pandemic polarizations and the contradictions of Indian capitalism (Jayati Ghosh)
- Epidemiological neoliberalism in South Africa (Vishwas Satgar)
- Loft offices and factory towns: Social sources of political polarization in Russia (Ilya Matveev, Oleg Zhuravlev)
- The far right, corporate power, and social struggles in Brazil (Ana Garcia, Virginia Fontes, Rejane Hoeveler)
- Identity crisis: The politics of false concreteness (Samir Gandesha)
- The double consciousness of capital (David Harvey)
- Finding a way forward: Lessons from the Corbyn project in the UK (James Schneider Interviewed by Hilary Wainwright)