The attempt to establish a 'new social contract' between the Government and the unions, with a view to stabilising the economy and restraining industrial militancy, emerged as a burning issues of contemporary British politics during the 1970s. This study uncovers the roots of this development in the incomes policies of successive post-war Governments, especially of the 1964 70 Labour Government, and traces the way in which wage restraint was secured from the unions, or imposed upon them, in the context of the attempted registration of the unions within the existing economic and political order. Professor Panitch concentrates on the crucial role of the Labour Party and shows how Labour's incomes policies, and industrial relations generally, have derived less from a concern with socialist economic planning than from the Party's 'integrative' ideology, its rejection of the concept of class struggle in favour of affecting a compromise between the different classes in British society.

Around the world, the aftershocks of an economic crisis brought on by neoliberal economics and aided by the austerity measures of governments continue to be felt. Yet, we are told that there is simply no alternative; that our current form of capitalism is here to stay. This book sets out to challenge this statement by arguing that the long-neglected theory of libertarian socialism can help us understand more fully the problems of our late modern society, as well as offering a plausible and attractive alternative. Matt Dawson draws upon classical and contemporary sociology to argue that individualization and late modernity are best realised in the associational forms advocated by theorists such as Emile Durkheim through discussing themes such as: everyday life, the state, economic democracy and social movements. Dawson encourages the reader to think anew about our contemporary concern with individualization, and how this is realised politically.

Twenty years after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, historians still struggle to explain how an apparently stable state imploded with such vehemence. This book shows how 'national' identity was invented in the GDR and how citizens engaged with it. Jan Palmowski argues that it was hard for individuals to identify with the GDR amid the threat of Stasi informants and with the accelerating urban and environmental decay of the 1970s and 1980s. Since socialism contradicted its own ideals of community, identity and environmental care, citizens developed rival meanings of nationhood and identities and learned to mask their growing distance from socialism beneath regular public assertions of socialist belonging. This stabilized the party's rule until 1989. However, when the revolution came, the alternative identifications citizens had developed for decades allowed them to abandon their 'nation', the GDR, with remarkable ease.

It was Philippe van Parijs' conviction that the Marxist tradition can be kept alive as an essential political component of the Left not through dutiful conservation, but through ruthless recycling: the discarding of encumbering elements, and the reshaping of the remainder using the latest intellectual 'technology'. The essays collected in this book examine the structure and potential of historical materialism as a general theory of social change. They draw on the lessons of the failure of Marxist crisis theory, and show how a rejuvenated notion of exploitation can illuminate the analysis of the class structure of welfare state capitalism or the assessment of international migration. They explore and advocate a 'capitalist road to communism' that expands the realm of freedom while bypassing socialism, and they develop those aspects of the Marxist project consistent with ecological concerns.

Performing a political identity usually involves more than just casting a vote. For Left-wingers in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus - countries that emerged as the only non-socialist constituents of South-eastern Europe after WWII - political preference meant immersion to distinct ways of life, to 'cultures': in times of dictatorship or persecution, the desire to find alternative ways to express themselves gave content to these cultures. In times of political normality, it was the echoes of such memories of precarity and loss that took the lead. This book explores the intersection between the politics and cultures of the Left since the sixties in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. With the use of 12 case studies, the contributors expose the moments in which the Left has been claimed and performed, not only through political manifestos and traditional political boundaries, but also through corporeal acts, discursive practices and affective encounters. These are all transformed into distinct modalities of everyday life and conduct, which are commemorated, narrated or sung, versed, painted, or captured in photographic images and on reels of tape. By focusing on culture and performance, this book highlights the complex link between nationalism and internationalism in left-wing cultures, and illuminates the entanglements between the ways in which left-wingers experienced transitions from dictatorship to democracy and vice versa. As the first book to analyse cultures and performances of the Left in the three countries, The Politics of Culture in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus causes a rethinking of the boundaries of political practice and fosters new understandings of the formation of diverse expressions of the Left. As such, it will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of cultural and social anthropology, modern European history and political science.

In these spirited and powerfully written essays, a new generation of intellectuals makes its mark, challenging conservatives and liberals alike to chart a new course for a responsible politics in contemporary society. A new intellectual movement on the left emerges here. No longer trapped by the old polarizing antagonism between Marxism and feminism, these authors demonstrate as never before the need for an awaremess of gender as it affects every aspect of our society. At the same time, these paradigmatic essays map out a new terrain for feminist thinking, one that fully recognizes the complex workings of gender and leaves oppositional feminism far behind.
In the keynote essay, Ambivalence as Alibi, Rosemary Hennessy challenges the most basic assumptions of postmodern sophistication to forge a compelling sytheseis of political, economic, and artistic theory. Betty Joseph, Jennifer Brody, and Poonam Pillai break through the shibboleths of Western liberal tolerance to describe gender inequalities that are intrinsically inter-cultural. Eileen Cleere demonstrates that novels are an important source for understanding how people interpret the economic conditions in which they live, linking social history and literary criticism in a provocative new way. Bridget Elliott uncovers the unusual social and artistic imagination of Marie Laurencin, an artist who was both working-class and avant-garde, and who makes us rethink basic assumptions of artistic form in the visual representation of women. Laura Lyons, analyzing the no-wash protest among IRA prisoners, discovers a new kind of political protest that draws on performance art and the discourse of the body for its political symbolism. And Joseph Litvak, in a highly suggestive critical reading, makes us wonder if the New Historicism may possibly owe its greatest debt to the charming young men of Jane Austen's fictitious world.

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Militarism is usually regarded as a phenomenon of the political right. It has traditionally been seen as alien - indeed, as antithetical - to the values and principles of the left. In Britain during the years before the Great War, however, the relationship between militarism and the politics of the left was a highly complex one. Militarism in pre-war British society was manifest in a variety of forms, from popular enthusiasm for war and martial values, to demands for greater provision to be made for the nation's defence, and even in calls for the militarization of society itself. The response of the political left to these challenges was ambivalent and contested. Whilst militaristic sentiment and practice did not always sit comfortably alongside progressive principles, an ideological space existed on the left in which militaristic ideas could take root. Indeed, militarism could take on ostensibly 'progressive' forms that proved particularly appealing to some elements on the left. Moving beyond the focus on pacifism and anti-militarism that has characterized much of the existing scholarship on this subject, this book explores the ways in which Liberals, socialists, and others on the left of British politics were able to accommodate aspects of militarism during the years before 1914. In doing so it offers an intriguing new perspective on the nature of militarism itself.

Divided into two volumes, The Cambridge History of Socialism offers an up-to-date critical survey of the socialist movements and political practices that have arisen thus far throughout the world. A much-needed corrective of the current state of the study of socialism from a historical perspective, the volumes use a wider geographical and temporal focus to track the changes and trends in global socialisms and to move beyond the European trajectory. Together they cover anarchism, syndicalism, social democracy, labour, the New Left, and alternative socialist movements in the Global South in one encompassing reconstruction. Featuring 55 essays by experts across the field, the volumes will serve as examples of the rich variety of socialist histories and, together, endeavour to reveal the major contours of its development.

On 28 October 1918, sailors of the German High Seas Fleet disobeyed orders to put to sea and challenge the British Grand Fleet in what they saw as a suicidal gesture. Crews of the battleships at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven let their fires go out, defied their admirals, hoisted the red flag and elected sailors' councils. Troops sent to suppress the mutiny joined it. Thus started the German Revolution. Dr Ryder begins this full-scale treatment of the German Revolution by summarizing the origins and development of German Social Democracy up to the party's historic vote for war credits on 4 August 1914. He then considers the socialists' attitudes to the war, notably in relation to the controversial question of annexations, and traces the growth of a threefold split inside the socialist party. The half-completed revolution is seen and evaluated in relation to the German past - Bismarck - and future - the weakness of Weimar democracy - and to the Marxist ideology of the revolutionary leaders.

This is a study of the men and women who pioneered socialist and Marxist ideas among the Poles in the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century, and the dramatic history of the underground party, 'Proletariat', which they formed. It opens with an outline of the state of Polish society after the final defeat of the 1863 uprising against Tsar, which caused the eclipse of the gentry as the leading elite of the nation. There follows an account of the assimilation by the new urban intelligentsia of ideas coming from the west, which turned some of them into pioneers of the capitalist and liberal movements, others into pure nationalists and yet others on the left into followers of Marx and Proudhon. On this latter part of Polish society the influence of Russian revolutionary populist thought was greater and more lasting than most historians of Poland are ready to admit. The author underlines the importance of the appearance for the first time in Polish history of a mass movement which sought common cause with the neighbours of Poland - mostly with Russians (Narodnaya Volya), but also with Germans (Social Democrats). Mr Blit's study is an important contribution both to the history of Marxism and social democracy in Russia and to the history of European social democracy.

Thomas Linehan offers a fresh perspective on late Victorian and Edwardian socialism by examining the socialist revival of these years from the standpoint of modernism. In so doing, he explores the modernist mission as extending beyond the concerns of the literary and artistic avant-garde to incorporate political and social movements.

Thomas Linehan offers a fresh perspective on late Victorian and Edwardian socialism by examining the socialist revival of these years from the standpoint of modernism. In so doing, he explores the modernist mission as extending beyond the concerns of the literary and artistic avant-garde to incorporate political and social movements.

In his book Dr Morgan describes the relations between the First International and the first German socialist parties, the General German Workers' Union, founded by Ferdinand Lassalle and led by J. B. von Schweitzer, and the rival organisation of Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, whose programme was partly inspired by Marx. In particular Dr Morgan studies the attempts of the International's leaders, especially the German exiles Marx and Johann Philipp Becker, to spread its influence in Germany. Dr Morgan's study is not simply a history of socialist ideas, but an analysis of one source of these ideas - the International - and its influence on the problems of organisation and personalities facing the German Labour movement. As he shows in his concluding chapter, although the International played a subsidiary role, it did influence the development of German socialist thinking.

A comprehensive study of the ideas and practice of the French Labour Movement between 1900 and 1914. Part one sets the syndicalist movement against its historical background, pointing to the forces which helped to shape the attitudes of the French worker, French political culture, economic developments, the influence of earlier socialist and anarchist thinkers and the failure of parliamentary democracy. The central section examines in detail the ideological development of the French Labour Movement during the syndicalist phase. As Professor Ridley points out, syndicalist ideas are interesting in their own right as part of the history of socialist thought but also because many of them are echoed today by supporters of the 'extra-parliamentary opposition'. There are obvious parallels too, between the 'direct action' of syndicalism and the tactics of present-day movements. In a final section professor Ridley discusses syndicalism in the wider political and ideological context of its time, taking into account the development of the inter-war years.

A sensitive analysis of the thought and intellectual development of G. D. H. Cole (1889 1959) the distinguished Labour historian. Cole's career is traced from his earliest days in the Labour movement to his final years as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Thought at Oxford. Professor Carpenter examines Cole's role in the creation of Guild Socialism; his work in the early 1920s when after the decline of Guild Socialism, he turned towards the analysis of policies, research through the New Statesman and the New Fabian Research Bureau and teaching at Oxford; his attempts to provide a policy for the Left in the 1930s, the idea of economic planning and the Popular Front; his activities during the Second World War; and his place in the debates over the Labour movement's cause after the 1945 government. Finally Professor Carpenter discusses Cole's courageous recognition, towards the end of his life, that Socialism had not come and his attempts to start a new cycle of research in one of the first efforts to create a New Left.

This book focuses on the beleagured position of the SPD in Imperial Germany after the fall of Bismarck and underlines the enormous difficulties the party faced in establishing a right to political dissent. Dr Hall describes the development of the party press and analyses the relationship between SPD journalists and officialdom. He looks at Wilhelmine society and politics through the magnifying glass of the socialist press and shows how the law courts and the police were directed towards the suppression of free speech, as well as highlighting the important role of non-democratic forces in the state, such as the military. This use of the law as an instrument of repression, coupled with official discrimination against the working class, and the plethora of political malpractices, together with evidence of the personal failings and weaknesses of leading establishment figures, were all used by the SPD press as propaganda against the establishment and as a barometer of the impending collapse of society. The book will appeal to political scientists, especially those interested in the development of socialist thought, as well as to historians of Imperial Germany.

This is the third and final volume of the letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb. As leading figures in the Fabian Society, prominent historians and public figures, they numbered among their correspondents some of the most outstanding personalities of their day, including E. M. Forster, H. G. Wells, J. M. Keynes, William Beveridge and Leonard Woolf. The letters in this volume run from 1912, when the Webbs signalled a fresh start in British politics by founding the New Statesman, to the death of Beatrice in 1943 and Sidney in 1947.

In this study Dr Zukin combines the approaches of a political scientist and a sociologist to examine the distance between theory and practice in the lives of ordinary Yugoslavs living under socialist self-management. Going beyond previous work on socialist societies, she asks how Yugoslavs - as workers, as citizens and as a society - have benefited from the form of socialism that they have pioneered. She also considers the relevance of the official ideology of self-management, institutions like workers' councils and communes, and political and economic controls to post-industrial as well as industrializing societies. The book includes long passages from intensive, in-depth interviews with members of ten Belgrade families. The families, which are described in terms of their place in the Yugoslav social structure, indicate their political and socialist ideology through telling their life stories, interpreting their own place in social changes, and reacting to these changes and pressures. Participant-observation of local voters meetings provides an examination of give-and-take in Yugoslav grass-roots politics.

Sidney and Beatrice Webb were among the outstanding political personalities in the period 1890 1945. They were leading figures in the Fabian Society, prominent historians, and founders of the London School of Economics and the New Statesman. They exchanged letters with many of the leading figures in the political, intellectual and literary worlds of the time, among them Herbert Asquith, Ramsay MacDonald, George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell. Volume II of the letters covers the years between the Webb marriage and their return from Asia in 1912. They were the prime years of the partnership, in which the Webbs came to dominate the Fabian Society, founded the London School of Economics and launched their campaign for the reform of the Poor Law.

The Webbs were a unique partnership. Their idea of 'the inevitability of gradualness' dominated the Fabian Society and Labour thinking for half a century, though their theory of political permeation also led them into close association with Liberal and Conservative politicians. They were scholars as well as propagandists, writing massive histories of trade unionism and local government, and the famous Minority Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law which paved the way for the welfare state. They were the founders of the London School of Economics and of the New Statesman. This crowded public life is reflected in the hundreds of letters they exchanged in their long lifetimes, as well as in their correspondence with many of the outstanding personalities of their day, including Herbert Asquith, Joseph Chamberlain, William Beveridge, E. M. Forster, R. B. Haldane, J. M. Keynes, Ramsay MacDonald, Alfred Marshall, Sydney Olivier, G. B. Shaw, Charlotte Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Herbert Samuel, Herbert Spencer, Graham Wallas, H. G. Wells and Leonard Woolf. Their letters also reveal the hidden but intense emotional character of their relationship.

Prisoners of the American Dream is Mike Davis's brilliant exegesis of a persistent and major analytical problem for Marxist historians and political economists: Why has the world's most industrially advanced nation never spawned a mass party of the working class? This series of essays surveys the history of the American bourgeois democratic revolution from its Jacksonian beginnings to the rise of the New Right and the reelection of Ronald Reagan, concluding with some bracing thoughts on the prospects for progressive politics in the United States.

This is a full-length biography of the founder and central figure of the Christian Socialist movement of 1845-54, the fellow worker with F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley, Tom Hughes and Daniel and Alexander Macmillan. From a Whig liberal and partly Scottish family who had learnt to rule in India, Ludlow was educated in revolutionary Paris and acted as a catalyst to a group of men brought up in the more established Britain of the nineteenth century. Outwardly the industrious and loyal subordinate of F. D. Maurice, he tried desperately to drive a group of men along a route of his own devising and thus goaded them to adopt alternative policies to his and to state why they did so. His whole career as lawyer and Christian Socialist co-operator, would-be politician and civil servant (for he finally ended up as the first Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies) was shaped, he maintained, by seven spiritual crises, and was a strange mixture of achievement and frustration, of insight and obtuseness.

Hudson explores the development of communists and other left forces, charting their survival and renewal after 1989. She shows how an open and democratic form of socialism has emerged which embraces environmental, gender and anti-war politics.

Marx's undeveloped ideas about how society presents a misleading appearance which distorts its members' understanding of it have been the subject of many conflicting interpretations. In this book John Torrance takes a fresh, un-Marxist approach to Marx's texts and shows that a more precise, coherent and cogent sociology of ideas can be extracted from them than is generally allowed. The implications of this for twentieth-century capitalism and for recent debates about Marx's conceptions of justice, morality and the history of social science are explored. The author argues that Marx's theory of ideas is sufficiently independent of other parts of his thought to provide a critique and explanation of those defects in his own understanding of capitalism which allowed Marxism itself to become, by his own definition, an ideology.