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International Socialism, Winter 1981

 

Editorial

 

First published in International Socialism 2 : 11, Winter 1981.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg, with thanks to the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

 

The deepening crisis provides the backdrop for a large part of this issue of International Socialism.

This appears most obviously in Chris Harman’s major re-examination of Marx’s theory of crisis and the objections that have been raised to it. This is the second – and most abstract – part of a series devoted to a fundamental reappraisal of the dynamics of aging international capitalism East and West.

But the crisis has also had its effect on politics more directly. The sharp turn to the right has led to a resurgence of fascist terrorism in Europe: the subject of our brief survey in this issue too.

Alongside anger and bitterness it has also led to a sharp down-turn in strikes and the acceptance by large groups of workers of declining real wages; circumstances that could lead even sections of the left to despair of a socialism based on workers’ self-emancipation – a theme that Alex Callinicos deals with in his Politics or abstract propagandism.

The spectacular rise of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in response to the lurch towards war of the crisis-ridden system is one of the most spectacular and hopeful signs of the new political climate, and our current article on its previous heyday is intended to illuminate some of the questions posed again today. We particularly invite contributions from our readers on this topic.

 
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