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Futures of Socialism: The Pandemic and the Post-Corbyn Era
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.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 8, 2020
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About the author
Grace Blakeley
12 books298 followersGrace Blakeley is a British economics commentator and author.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2025
Unfortunately this isn't by Grace Blakeley, she does the introduction and edits it. This was a really disappointing selection that reeked of a rushed, unfinished collection desperately put together to meet some deadline.
Owen Hatherley's contribution is good value and a handful of the others are OK, but overall this was really thin on the ground, with too much repetition, too much whingeing and stating the obvious with very little in the way of quality, depth, analysis or possible solutions.
February 17, 2021
Futures of Socialism is a hastily gathered collection of chapters to look at where socialists go from here, after the defeat of the Corbyn Project and the admission from the Bernie Sanders campaign that he wasn’t going to be the Democratic Party nominee for the Presidency in late 2020. In amongst all this is a socialist analysis of Covid-19; what happens subsequently and specifically how socialists can react to the inevitability of further “shock doctrine” capitalism after the world has moved on.
The book is introduced by left wing economist Grace Blakeley who has been fairly prolific of late with several books of her own as well as a new weekly podcast in association with the political journal Jacobin. From there each chapter is by a different figure on the left; it’s not a book where you will find yourself agreeing with everyone but each chapter will prompt a debate with your own internal monologue. Most are well written with a perhaps one or two being quite bogged down in the lamentable language of academic Marxism which at times becomes impenetrable to anyone not steeped in the world of dialectical materialism.
In Part One, Foundations, Tom Hazeldine described what happened in the north of England among working class voters at the 2019 election and how to react to it. Lola Seaton gives a personal experience as a doorstep campaigner for the first time during that election. Rory Scothorne gives us an overview of Scotland and why Labour have no room for manoeuvre between Tories and what he sees as the faux progressivism of the SNP. Andrew Murray of Unite the union gives a treatise on why the Lexit project was right which I found to be a challenge to my own beliefs, but well written and passionate. Gargi Bhattacharyya gives us the five bad habits of “nearly successful political projects” and questions whether we can create new, winning habits. Media commentator Tom Mills describes the challenges our movement faced during the Corbyn years and continues to face in the anti-democratic sphere of our current media, both in print and the audio-visual world. Keir Milburn (you kind of have to be involved in the Labour movement with a name like that don’t you?) speaks of the youth movement that was brought into the open by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, how their first defeat will shape their politics in the years to come, and why they should not be abandoned by the current leadership of Labour. Owen Hatherley looks at the what he sees as the peculiarly English obsession with misery, politically speaking. Rory MacQueen examines the similarities between earlier socialist projects and Corbynism while the section is finished off with an interview with Leo Panitch who gives his appraisal of what happened and happens now.
In Part Two, Futures, Sam Gindin takes a look at Covid-19, how socialists can react to it and utilise current economic changes such as emergency nationalisations to consolidate power in the hands of ordinary people. Joshua Virasami writes about how the anti-racism movement needs to move towards activism rather than “passive sympathy”. Cristina Flesher Fominaya gives an interesting appraisal of the situation in Spain and the Podemos party; how it has made important changes as a junior coalition partner, but also how it is being sucked into the world of “Party politics” as opposed to a grass-roots insurgency, disappointing some of its early supporters. Three authors collaborate on an article about food distribution and how to improve things on a global scale for the poorest people in the world. Jeremy Gilbert presents a chance to build and organise the labour movement both inside and outside of mainstream politics while Ashok Kumar takes a worldwide view of socialist strategy. Sita Balani writes passionately about the corrupt nature of our politics at the moment; how we need a commitment to truth to force a confrontation to reality. James Meadway on finance and capital in reaction to Covid and the scale of the challenge facing indebted nations coming out of the pandemic. Chris Saltmarsh has a chapter on the Green New Deal and wider ecological outcomes from Covid and Dalia Gabriel gives an eye-opening overview of the global precariat and how the working class, and those who organise the working class, should react to it. Sian Errington makes a defence of the Corbyn Project and details the levels of austerity that it fought and changes that it forced in government policy. Joe Guinan and Sarah McKinley collaborate on a chapter looking at the “transatlantic left” and see parallels between the Corbyn and Sanders supporters which must be harnessed for future tilts at electoral victory. Cat Hobbs makes an appeal for further public ownership, not just for the pandemic emergency period, but for a permanent shift and lays out how this can happen, and the popularity behind it. Daniel Gerke gives an assessment of current thinkers on the left and pays homage to Mark Fisher and how his analysis of the present day in “capitalist realism” seems to be accurate. Simukai Chigudu gives an update on the Rhodes Must Fall movement, linked to Black Lives Matter and how change is happening, even at Oriel College where an infamous statue of Cecil Rhodes stands. Amelia Horgan takes on corporate and centrist feminism as poor replacements for socialist feminism and finally James Schneider looks at the Corbyn years in terms of Jeremy’s Labour leadership; how it came about and what important philosophies it encouraged which aren’t going away any time soon, despite the best wishes of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
If any or some of that sounds up your street, you will enjoy the book. All chapters are roughly seven or eight pages long and easily digestible. A recommended text.
The book is introduced by left wing economist Grace Blakeley who has been fairly prolific of late with several books of her own as well as a new weekly podcast in association with the political journal Jacobin. From there each chapter is by a different figure on the left; it’s not a book where you will find yourself agreeing with everyone but each chapter will prompt a debate with your own internal monologue. Most are well written with a perhaps one or two being quite bogged down in the lamentable language of academic Marxism which at times becomes impenetrable to anyone not steeped in the world of dialectical materialism.
In Part One, Foundations, Tom Hazeldine described what happened in the north of England among working class voters at the 2019 election and how to react to it. Lola Seaton gives a personal experience as a doorstep campaigner for the first time during that election. Rory Scothorne gives us an overview of Scotland and why Labour have no room for manoeuvre between Tories and what he sees as the faux progressivism of the SNP. Andrew Murray of Unite the union gives a treatise on why the Lexit project was right which I found to be a challenge to my own beliefs, but well written and passionate. Gargi Bhattacharyya gives us the five bad habits of “nearly successful political projects” and questions whether we can create new, winning habits. Media commentator Tom Mills describes the challenges our movement faced during the Corbyn years and continues to face in the anti-democratic sphere of our current media, both in print and the audio-visual world. Keir Milburn (you kind of have to be involved in the Labour movement with a name like that don’t you?) speaks of the youth movement that was brought into the open by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, how their first defeat will shape their politics in the years to come, and why they should not be abandoned by the current leadership of Labour. Owen Hatherley looks at the what he sees as the peculiarly English obsession with misery, politically speaking. Rory MacQueen examines the similarities between earlier socialist projects and Corbynism while the section is finished off with an interview with Leo Panitch who gives his appraisal of what happened and happens now.
In Part Two, Futures, Sam Gindin takes a look at Covid-19, how socialists can react to it and utilise current economic changes such as emergency nationalisations to consolidate power in the hands of ordinary people. Joshua Virasami writes about how the anti-racism movement needs to move towards activism rather than “passive sympathy”. Cristina Flesher Fominaya gives an interesting appraisal of the situation in Spain and the Podemos party; how it has made important changes as a junior coalition partner, but also how it is being sucked into the world of “Party politics” as opposed to a grass-roots insurgency, disappointing some of its early supporters. Three authors collaborate on an article about food distribution and how to improve things on a global scale for the poorest people in the world. Jeremy Gilbert presents a chance to build and organise the labour movement both inside and outside of mainstream politics while Ashok Kumar takes a worldwide view of socialist strategy. Sita Balani writes passionately about the corrupt nature of our politics at the moment; how we need a commitment to truth to force a confrontation to reality. James Meadway on finance and capital in reaction to Covid and the scale of the challenge facing indebted nations coming out of the pandemic. Chris Saltmarsh has a chapter on the Green New Deal and wider ecological outcomes from Covid and Dalia Gabriel gives an eye-opening overview of the global precariat and how the working class, and those who organise the working class, should react to it. Sian Errington makes a defence of the Corbyn Project and details the levels of austerity that it fought and changes that it forced in government policy. Joe Guinan and Sarah McKinley collaborate on a chapter looking at the “transatlantic left” and see parallels between the Corbyn and Sanders supporters which must be harnessed for future tilts at electoral victory. Cat Hobbs makes an appeal for further public ownership, not just for the pandemic emergency period, but for a permanent shift and lays out how this can happen, and the popularity behind it. Daniel Gerke gives an assessment of current thinkers on the left and pays homage to Mark Fisher and how his analysis of the present day in “capitalist realism” seems to be accurate. Simukai Chigudu gives an update on the Rhodes Must Fall movement, linked to Black Lives Matter and how change is happening, even at Oriel College where an infamous statue of Cecil Rhodes stands. Amelia Horgan takes on corporate and centrist feminism as poor replacements for socialist feminism and finally James Schneider looks at the Corbyn years in terms of Jeremy’s Labour leadership; how it came about and what important philosophies it encouraged which aren’t going away any time soon, despite the best wishes of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
If any or some of that sounds up your street, you will enjoy the book. All chapters are roughly seven or eight pages long and easily digestible. A recommended text.
February 24, 2021
A serious, sober-minded assessment of what the future holds for the British left following the 2019 election and the ravages of the COVID pandemic; it's reflective, occasionally inconsistent (but then that's set out in the plural of the title) but ultimately hopeful reading if you're a socialist feeling dispirited.
April 4, 2021
Vital reading for anyone on the left in the UK right now. A really decent anthology, provides hope amongst the hopelessness and apathy.
October 26, 2020
Following the general election defeat for Labour in 2019, many commentators rushed to write of the left and anything approaching a socialist solution to the deep-seated problems faced by the UK and its citizens. This collection of writings, excellently curated and edited by the economist and writer Grace Blakeley, provides a thoughtful and insightful antidote to those in the commentariat who argue that Boris Johnson’s victory in 2019 has ushered in a new period of right wing hegemony. In a post-Covid era, this collection of essays reminds us, ideas that challenge the status quo are even more relevant and at a time when governments are spending fortunes of public money to keep their countries afloat, the idea of state intervention is well and truly still on the agenda. As well as highlighting some of the reasons for Labour’s defeat in 2019, Futures of Socialism also compares the rise and temporary fall of the left in the UK with kindred movements across the pond in the USA. While not shying away from the realities of defeat, this book provides some hope and much analysis for the future and is an essential read by all those with an interest in politics and who wish to see real change.
April 6, 2022
A bunch of essays really looking at how the Corbyn years failed in elective terms despite early hope and also the future for socialism.
I found some of the essays more 'readable' than others but it was good to find something in a charity shop on more recent political history.
The pandemic is touched on and how this may impact on future political doctrine but..whatever..we live in strange times..at this point I'm not wholly sure what to expect next.
I found some of the essays more 'readable' than others but it was good to find something in a charity shop on more recent political history.
The pandemic is touched on and how this may impact on future political doctrine but..whatever..we live in strange times..at this point I'm not wholly sure what to expect next.
February 15, 2023
Wish they pared down and lengthened the contributions. Instead, tons of short hits that never get out of first gear.
Read
April 3, 2024kinda depressing that four years later the British left hasn't achieved a single thing that this book calls for. I miss Corbs (but I do not miss being a member of the labour party lmao)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews