Böcker utgivna av Verso Books

Set 16 of Verso's Radical Thinkers series.On the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth, four titles that consider the life and works of Karl Marx.

What did Marx think that communism could be like?

One of the world's best-known radicals relives the early years of the protest movement

Against the centre groundSince 1989, politics has been a contest to see who can best serve the needs of the market. In this urgent and wideranging case for the prosecution, Tariq Ali looks at the people and events that have informed this development across the world. It is an investigation that reaches its logical conclusion with the presidency of Donald Trump, the success of En Marche! in France, and the dominance of Merkel's Germany throughout Europe.In this fully updated edition of The Extreme Centre, Ali considers recent events that suggest, despite everything, that there is room for hope. He finds promise in Latin America and at the edges of Europe. Emerging parties in Scotland, Greece, and Spain, formed out of the 2008 crisis, are offering new promise for democracy. Even in the UK, with the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, there are indications that the hegemony of the centre may be weaker than imagined.

A passionate attack on the tyranny of experts

In the aftermath of Brexit, it is time to call time on the EU? Updated and revised

"Poulantzas is a sophisticated Marxist theoretician who straddles the fields of sociology and political science. His book is one of the most thoughtful exercises in Marxist reinterpretation, and has justifiably won him widespread respect among many scholars. Recommended for all self-respecting college libraries as well as for seminars for graduate and more sophisticated seniors." Choice"This is a book which deserves a very wide audience. Of great interest for Americans is the fact that he bridges Marxist and 'Western' social science writings with remarkable acuity. The translation is an excellent job." Journal of Politics"It is Poulantzas' great virtue to have seen so clearly that an adequate Marxist theory of politics must be able to deal with just those phenomena which non-Marxists have regarded as decisive refutations of Marxism. His range of reference is impressive." Times Literary Supplement

No-one and nothing, not even the Congress of a Communist Party, can abolish the dictatorship of the proletariat. That is the most important conclusion of this book by Étienne Balibar. Balibar spells out his reasoning against the background of the 22nd Congress of the French Communist Party, which decided to ‘drop’ the aim of the dictatorship of the proletariat and to substitute the objective of a ‘democratic’ road to socialism. His concrete references are therefore usually to arguments put forward within the French Party. But it is quite obvious that the significance of this book is much wider, not least because, in spite of the important political and economic differences separating the nations of western Europe, many of their Communist Parties are evolving in an apparently similar ideological direction, and indeed appear to be borrowing arguments from one another in support of their new positions.

The bicentenary of the French Revolution has been dominated by those who do not like the French Revolution or its heritage. This book deals with a surprisingly neglected subject: the history, not of the revolution itself, but of its reception and interpretation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.A Critical assumption of the book is that while it is necessary and inevitable that historians write out of the history of their own times, those who write only out of their own times cannot understand the past and what came out of it. The recent historiographical reaction against the centrality of the Revolution reflects the politics of those contemporary historians for whom progress and revolutionary democracy are dangerous concepts. Their reinterpretations, Hobsbawm argues, are misguided. The Revolution transformed the world permanently and, as recent events in Eastern Europe emphasize, introduced ideas that continue to transform it. ‘The French Revolution’, writes Hobsbawm, ‘ gave peoples the sense that history could be changed by their action ... [and] demonstrated the power of the common people in a manner which no subsequent government has ever allowed itself to forget.’Echoes of the Marseillaise is a stimulating mix of historiography and political analysis, a much-needed epilogue of clarity and reason to a muddled bicentenary.

Nicos Poulantzas’s third major work is a pioneering survey of some of the most fundamental, yet least studied, aspects of the class structure of advanced capitalist societies today. The book starts with a general theoretical essay that for the first time seriously explores the distinction between the “agents” and “positions” of capitalist relations of production, and seeks to avoid the typical errors of either functionalism or historicism. It also provides a polemical reconsideration of the problem of the “nation state” as a political unit today, and its relationship to the internationalization of capital.Finally, and most originally, Poulantzas develops a long and powerful analysis of the much-abused concept of the “petty-bourgeoisie.” In this, he scrupulously distinguishes between the “traditional” categories of petty-bourgeoisie—shopkeepers, artisans, small peasants—and the “new” categories of clerical workers, supervisors, and salaried personnel in modern industry and commerce. At the same time he demonstrates the reasons why a unitary conceptualization of their class position is possible. The difficult question of the definition of “productive” and “unproductive” labor within Marx’s own account of the capitalist mode of production is subjected to a novel and radical reinterpretation. The political oscillations peculiar to each form of petty-bourgeoisie and especially their characteristic reactions to the industrial proletariat, are cogently assessed.Poulantzas ends his work with a reminder that the actions and options of the petty-bourgeoisie are critical to any successful struggle by the working class, which must secure the alliance of important sections of the petty-bourgeoisie if the fateful experience of Chile is not to recur elsewhere tomorrow. Combining empirical and theoretical materials throughout, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism represents a notable achievement in the development of Marxist social science and political thought.

Carl Schmitt's thought serves as a warning against the dangers of complacency entailed by triumphant liberalism. His conception of politics is a challenge to those who believe that there is a third way between the left and right and that the increasing moralisation of political discourse constitutes an advance for democracy.

In the wide ranging arguments about the fundamental tenets of Marxism nothing has had greater political significance than the theoretical questioning of the central role assigned to class struggle in the process of social transformation.The Politics of Production demonstrates, brilliantly, the pivotal importance of working class struggles through a rejection of both economistic conceptions of class and notions of the working class as innately revolutionary. This opens the way for an investigation of the political conditions in production that shape the character of working class action. Burawoy theorizes political regimes within production and the way they relate to state politics and then uses this framework to make a comparative analysis of factory regimes under capitalism and socialism.

Focusing on Marx's private life as well as his public persona and work, this classic biography looks in detail at his relationship with his family, his early life and writings, and his intellectual development and political activity.

Reviewing the large, disparate, and often contradictory western discourse on gender and sexuality of the Other.

Considers Leon Trotsky's achievements both as a revolutionary and as a writer on politics, history, literature and philosophy. The book argues that Trotsky repeatedly produced convincing alternatives to the catastrophes of capitalism, Stalinism and fascism.

This defense of the concept of bourgeois revolution reasserts the importance of basic historical materialist precepts to an understanding of the rise of European capitalism. In a wide-ranging analysis of British, French and German history—from feudalism to the system of rival capitalist states that was consolidated in the second half of the nineteenth century—Colin Mooers challenges both Marxist and non-Marxist revisionist interpretations of European history. He argues for an alternative conception of capitalist transition and bourgeois revolution which distinguishes between the conscious aims of social classes and the consequences of their actions for the long-term development of capitalism.Situating the continental revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the wider context of capitalism’s ¿combined and uneven development,¿ the author shows how late-developing capitalist states like France and Germany were able to surpass British capitalism towards the end of the nineteenth century. The book concludes with a powerful critique of normative conceptions of bourgeois revolution which mistakenly counterpose the backwardness of English development to the supposedly more advanced bourgeois revolutions of the continent.

With racial justice struggles on the rise, a probing collection considers the past and future of Black radicalism

A radical anti-capitalist alternative to Eurozone austerity On the 25th January 2015 the Greek people voted in an election of historic importancenot just for Greece but potentially all of Europe. The radical party Syriza was elected and austerity and the neoliberal agenda is being challenged. Suddenly it seems as if there is an alternative. But what? The Eurozone is in a deep and prolonged crisis. It is now clear that monetary union is a historic failure, beyond repairand certainly not in the interests of Europe's working people. Building on the economic analysis of two of Europe's leading thinkers, Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas (a candidate standing for election on Syriza's list), Against the Troika is the first book to propose a strategic left-wing plan for how peripheral countries could exit the euro. With a change in government in Greece, and looming political transformations in countries such as Spain, this major intervention lays out a radical, anti-capitalist programme at a critical juncture for Europe. The final three chapters offer a detailed postmortem of the Greek catastrophe, explain what can be learned from itand provide a possible alternative. Against the Troika is a practical blueprint for real change in a continent wracked by crisis and austerity.

The Belgrade Circle was established as an intellectual forum to promote the establishment of a free, open, democratic and rational civil society around the world. This volume sets out to describe the political and philosophical underpinnings to the idea of human rights by bringing together a collection of original essays.

Addresses the challenges posed by a globally integrated economy and the economic roles played by information and motivation. The text argues for an egalitarian redistribution of assets - land, capital and housing - and the beneficial disciplining effects of competition.

This book which combines the methods and results of both Freud and Marx is by one of the leaders of the West German student left during its most militant phase in the late 1960s. For reasons the author makes clear, the anti-authoritarian movement took more thorough¬going and trenchant forms in West Germany than anywhere else. A new sexual morality was not only preached but practised.Is it possible, however – the author asks – that this new emphasis on sexual enlight¬enment and liberty can become merely a characteristic of Western capitalism, which serves to activate the market economy, deflect rebellion, and hence contribute to the preservation of the system? In answering this question Reiche explains and develops Marcuse’s widely misunderstood concept of ‘repressive desublimation’. He exposes the artificial and illusory nature of many attempts – in Germany and elsewhere – at ‘sexual liberation’, and shows why it is impossible to overcome sexual oppression and mystification in our society in isolation from the political struggle.

This collection is designed to answer the demands of students and socialists, teachers and interested readers, for a comprehensive critique of the major schools of European Marxism since the October Revolution. It is composed of a series of carefully documented essays setting out the theories of the major thinkers of the tradition, and submitting them to searching criticism.Essays include critiques of Lukács by Gareth Stedman Jones and Michael Löwy; a survey of the Frankfurt School by Göran Therborn; an assessment of the legacy of Gramsci, by John Merrington; exposition and criticism of the work of Sartre by André Gorz and Ronald Aronson; major assessments of Althusser by Norman Geras and André Glucksmann and a wide-ranging interview with the Italian philosopher Lucio Colletti that provides an overview of Western Marxism.

Ernest Mandel's book is a study of Eurocommunism unlike any other. Written in the polemical tradition of Trotsky, its sweep extends well beyond the immediate prospects of the Communist Parties of Western Europe. Mandel traces the long historical process which has transformed the once embattled detachments of the Third International into the constitutionalist formations of ';historic compromise' and ';union of the people' today. He then goes on to argue that the national roads to socialism of contemporary Eurocommunism are the ';bitter fruits of socialism in one country' in the USSR.Mandel's book contains trenchant and documented criticisms of the ideas of Santiago Carrillo in Spain, the economic policies of the PCI in Italy, and the PCF's theories of the State in France. But it also sets these Western developments in the context of European politics as a wholediscussing the Russian response to Carrillo, the organizational attitudes of the CPSU to the Western parties, and the emergence of major dissident currents in Eastern Germany sympathetic to Eurocommunism.From Stalinism to Eurocommunism represents the first systematic and comprehensive critique from the Marxist Left of the new strategy of Western Communism. It can be read as a barometer of the storms ahead in the European labour movement.

A work of criticism on the cultures of imperialism. Fundamental to the editors' conceptualization is the premise that while colonialism may be a thing of the past for the majority of the world's people, its legacies in political, economic and ideological structures continue to shape the world.

The author charts the developments in feminist film theory, drawing on both recent and classic films, from the mainstream and alternative cinema. She also attempts to demystify current methods of analysis, including semiotic and psychoanalytical approaches.

This text provides an explanation of the political correctness argument: how it emerged and how right-wing pundits have used it to undermine contemporary criticism. In a series of essays, Berube examines such issues as the current state of cultural studies and the significance of postmodernism.

An attempt to resolve long-standing problems in contemporary class theory. The text brings together major critics of the author's work, and Wright's own responses and reformulation in the light of the criticisms.

Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, this prize-winning author offers reflections on how the history of white racism continues to have impact on political and social life today. His previous book, "The Wages of Whiteness" won the Merle Curti Prize for Social History in 1991.

This fully updated edition of Red Brotherhood at War – the most comprehensive account of events since 1975 in Indochina – explains why communist victory did not usher in a period of peace based on proletarian internationalism. While victorious revolutionaries in Vietnam and Laos strengthened their special relationship, Vietnam’s relations with fraternal Cambodia and China deteriorated into full-scale war. The Vietnamese overthrow of Pol Pot’s regime in 1979 was condemned by the West, which joined with China to support the Khmer Rouge-dominated anti-Vietnamese resistance in Cambodia. An inter-communist war thus became one of the focal points of the New Cold War in the 1980s.This complex and paradoxical tangle of events is skilfully analysed by Evans and Rowley in their frank and lively book. Drawing on a wide range of sources and first-hand research, this new edition has been thoroughly revised to chart the interaction between Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and the changing configuration of regional and great-power politics up to the present day.

The stories behind the inequality crisis-a forty-year investigation by In These Times