Pierre Beaudet
 
Abstract
 
The ups and downs of progressive struggles over the past decade have refuelled a worldwide debate about reform/revolution, class/state, organization/spontaneity, as well as the key question of ‘agency’. This essay will address these issues specifically in relation to the ‘Carrés rouges’ in Québec, the leading si......

 
Adolph Reed
 
Abstract
This essay is motivated by the centennial of 1917 providing occasion for reflection on the great revolutionary projects of the last century and rumination on the status of the notion of revolution now. My concern is fundamentally ‘presentist’ and best characterized as demystification or ideology-critique. Specifically, m......

 
Henri Pelkonen & Paul Cockshott
 
Abstract
Deconvolution is a technique commonly used in image processing. This study shows that it is possible to apply deconvolution to infer past nutritional levels if we know the recorded adult heights over a long time period. This study is a demonstration of how we can use deconvolution to investigate histori......

 
Darko R. Suvin
 
Abstract
Fascism is discussed as a pathology of masses under capitalism, and its components are defined. It was a class block between rulers and segments of the middle classes while neutralising the working classes and any deviant political forces by terror and ideology. Ultra-nationalism is presented as its key element, and min......

 
Greig Charnock
 
Abstract
 
The sudden rise to power in Barcelona of the citizens’ municipal platform Barcelona en Comú (Barcelona in Common, or BeC) is quite remarkable.  In the fall of 2014, BeC formed the ‘citizen platform’ Guanyem Barcelona (Let’s Win Barcelona) as its electoral vehicle, and ‘crowd-sourced’ its code of ethics and allo......

 
Xiaoping Wang
 
Abstract
This paper aims to re-evaluate Mao’s ‘Yan’an Talks’ by reading it against the social-historical concreteness to examine its historical particularity as well as its political universality. It traces the historical origin of this speech, and then discusses Mao’s vision of the new historical subject of ‘the people’ t......

 
Paul Raekstad
 
Abstract
 
In recent years, we’ve seen more and more calls for ‘democracy’ – not only among familiar reformist and liberal groups, but from far more radical ones as well. Radical calls for democracy are seen in movements and organizations from the Arab Spring, Occupy, and the Movement of the Squares to the efforts at construct......

 
Sharryn Kasmir
 
Abstract
 
Cooperatives play an important role in the imagination of the left for their purported potential to democratize the workplace, nurture non-capitalist social relations in the interstices of capitalism, and anchor social or solidarity economies. They are seen, as well, as levers for a soft transition to socialism, ‘qui......

 
Slavoj Zizek
 
Abstract
 
Giorgio Agamben said in an interview that ‘thought is the courage of hopelessness’ – an insight which is especially pertinent for our historical moment, when even the most pessimistic diagnostics as a rule finish with an uplifting hint at some version of the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The true courage......

 
Andreas Malm
 
Abstract
 
It doesn’t take much imagination to associate climate change with revolution. If the planetary order upon which all societies are built starts breaking down, how can they possibly remain stable? Various more or less horrifying scenarios of upheaval have long been extrapolated from soaring temperatures. In his novel The......