The end of illusions
Editorial // George Morris, Emily Robinson, James Stafford, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite
Labour’s strong performance at the 2017 general election demonstrated that policy ambition need not be a barrier to electoral success for parties of the left. Yet it also allowed all of us – including this journal – to sidestep hard and necessary reflection about the work needed to build a social democratic majority in twenty-first century Britain. After last year’s electoral rout, the future is uncertain. We must face it without illusions.
Getting the basics right
Commentary // Bridget Phillipson
Labour needs to win big in 2024. It’s time for the party to re-learn the art of professional leadership and communication, and to accept the limits of its existing electoral coalition.
Hanging in the balance: the democratic economy after Corbyn
Feature // Joe Guinan, Sarah McKinley
Under Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, a space was created for left thinkers and activists to advance a detailed and intellectually coherent alternative to our plutocratic, extractive and environmentally devastating economic model. After Labour’s defeat, we need to hold our nerve and build a broader, more durable movement for radical change.
Where next for the Green New Deal?
Feature // Adrienne Buller
Keeping the Green New Deal alive in the face of opposition, and finding routes to develop it while out of power, will be a key task for the left in the coming years.
The long road back for Labour in Scotland
Essay // Lina Nass
The UK Labour Party has been gesturing at the need to ‘win back Scotland’ since 2015. Only uniting behind positive left-wing policies and adopting a radical stance on the constitution will enable it to do so.
A Constitutional Convention for the Labour Party
Essay // Dan Hind
How can Labour claim to be able to transform Britain, if it cannot democratise its own opaque and moribund structures? A mass membership party should aspire to create new social, communicative and material capacities, and to do so at speed.
Why we don’t need a ‘strong leader’
Essay // Sue Goss
How can progressive parties develop forms of leadership that enable them to bring about transformative change in twenty-first century Britain? While media discourse largely focuses on ‘strength’ and entertainment value, academic research suggests that inclusiveness, flexibility and vision are the essential attributes.
Technology and inequality: can we decolonise the digital world?
Essay // Padmashree Gehl Sampath
Despite a dominant narrative that sees technology as a force for social progress, it is never neutral. Current ways of thinking about tech promote a coloniality of knowledge and create a new form of technoimperialism. Creating a fairer data economy requires us to think again about how we frame the debate.
The Green New Deal and global justice
Feature // Harpreet K. Paul
Proposals for a ‘Green New Deal’ focus on the ability of nation states in the global north to drive radical, investment-led change in their own economies. How can these be embedded within a broader agenda for global justice – one that recognises the historic legacies of colonialism and fossil capitalism?
The dog that didn’t bark: inflation and power in the contemporary capitalist state
Essay // Maximilian Krahé
More than a decade after the global financial crisis, inflation in major capitalist economies remains very low. This tells us something important – and disturbing – about the weakness of social democracy in the twenty-first century.
Ideas of England
Review // Nick Garland
In the aftermath of December’s general election, Alex Niven’s latest book, New Model Island, though a welcome contribution to an often tedious debate, feels like a product of another time.
Two new socialist manifestos
Review // Cain Shelley
Popular new books by Aaron Bastani and Bhaskar Sunkara, two leading figures in the new left media landscape, shine a revealing light on the potential – and limits – of the case for socialism in the twenty-first century.
