The Long Shot of Democratic Socialism Is Our Only Shot
Mass workers’ movements transformed much of the world in the twentieth century, but they couldn’t overcome the power of capital. Today, we need a new democratic socialism to remake politics and revive working-class organizing.
A 1931 march of social-democratic workers in Ådalen, Sweden.SCANPIX SWEDEN
There are few people that Jacobin is more indebted to than York University professor Leo Panitch and the group of thinkers around the journal that he co-edits, Socialist Register.
The Register was founded in 1964, right as the New Left was emerging. Its early issues, naturally, display a warranted criticism of conservative social-democratic parties eager to forge corporatist pacts with capital.
Today, in our vicious neoliberal era, it’s common to look back with more fondness on those governments. But in the interview below, Panitch offers a reminder that even if we want to preserve the gains of social democracy, we have to go beyond traditional social democracy and to a more radical democratic socialism.
Sorry, but this article is available to active subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.