Futures of Socialism : The Pandemic and the Post-Corbyn Era

How should the left respond to electoral defeat, the leadership of Keir Starmer and a global crisis? British politics is in an extraordinary place. Grace Blakeley introduces an indispensable collection of analysis and comment. In Futures of Socialism , Sam Gindin and James Meadway reassess socialist strategy after the coronavirus; Dalia Gebrial and Siân Errington debate austerity and precarity; Joshua Virasami and Simukai Chigudu explore anti-racism and the legacy of Empire; and Leo Panitch and Momentum co-founder James Schneider probe the limits of parliamentary socialism. Chris Saltmarsh assesses the prospects for an eco-socialist Green New Deal and Cat Hobbs argues for the ongoing centrality of public ownership to socialist policy. Futures of Socialism takes an in-depth look at the reasons for Labour's 2019 election defeat, with Unite's Andrew Murray on Labour's Brexit position, Tom Mills on the British media, Gargi Bhattacharyya and Jeremy Gilbert on better ways to build a political project, and Keir Milburn on generation left. The anthology also compares the fortunes of the British left with socialist movements overseas, in despatches from Europe and America. Blakeley draws on the talents of all sections of the post-Corbyn left to survey the prospects of a movement that has dominated the horizons of our lives . There are no easy answers to the general election disaster of 2019, only urgent questions. Grace Blakeley introduces a collective stock-taking by leading voices on the British left. In Futures of Socialism, Novara editor Ash Sarkar and Unite's Andrew Murray debate where Labour went wrong, James Butler (also of Novara) evaluates Johnson's new-look Conservatives, and Cat Hobbs and James Meadway grapple with public ownership and the financialisation of the UK economy. Plus despatches from the Labour heartlands, Owen Hatherley on the politics of nostalgia, Keir Milburn and Lola Seaton on 'generation left', Amelia Horgan and Chris Saltmarsh on feminism and the climate crisis, and Momentum co-founder James Schneider on the prospects for parliamentary socialism. "Grace Blakeley draws on the talents of all sections of the post-Corbyn left - activists, academics, trade unionists, Labour Party intellectuals and writers for outlets such as Novara, New Socialist and New Left Review - to survey the prospects of 'a movement that has dominated the horizons of our lives'"-- Provided by publisher