Search SoC
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- S. Duncan on On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism
- FruitLupus on On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism
- Edith on The Case of Comrade Dallas
- James O'Brien on Wailings about Left Unity
- James O'Brien on Wailings about Left Unity
Archives
- July 2019
- January 2019
- March 2018
- August 2017
- June 2017
- April 2017
- December 2016
- October 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- May 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
Categories
Meta
Author Archives: yeksmesh
Centrism extremism: how horseshoe-politics silences brutality
Extremism as a concept is central to current popular political discourse. In its common definition, however, it is also a highly flawed. Its use shows a bias towards centrist politics that silences a history of extremism. Centrists are just as well … Continue reading
Posted in Bourgeois politics, Critique of the Left, History, Politics, Uncategorized
Comments Off on Centrism extremism: how horseshoe-politics silences brutality
Syriza and Israel: Syriza’s response
A few weeks ago the story broke that the Syriza-led Greek government continued military cooperation with Israel. Since the party has advocated ceasing all military cooperation with Israel, commentators on the left quickly classified this behaviour as degeneration and betrayal. … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Uncategorized
Comments Off on Syriza and Israel: Syriza’s response
The four contradictions of liberalism
Liberalism produced some of the greatest political advances of our age. As socialists we often obscure this, but civil and political rights combined with representative democracy make for one of the most potent and liberating achievements of the period following the … Continue reading
Posted in Bourgeois politics, History, Politics, Proletarian politics
3 Comments
Trotsky and TTIP: how secret diplomacy serves elite interests
“Secret diplomacy shall not be tolerated for a single moment during the negotiations. Our flyers and our radio service will keep all the nations informed of every proposition we make, and of the answers they elicit from Germany. We shall … Continue reading
Posted in Geopolitics, Politics
Comments Off on Trotsky and TTIP: how secret diplomacy serves elite interests
Why autonomists make good journalists
Much loathed and admired within the leftist community, autonomists represent a small but mixed bunch. With their focus on the daily, small-scale class struggle, their squats and auto-reduction, and their sometimes incomprehensible jargon they elicit both fascination and contempt from … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Culture, Politics, Proletarian politics, Uncategorized
Comments Off on Why autonomists make good journalists
Why is the left so obsessed with degeneration?
There is a specter haunting the radical left, the specter of degeneration. Okay, that might sound a bit dramatic but the left today really is scared a great deal of something called various things to various people. Whether we call … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Uncategorized
Comments Off on Why is the left so obsessed with degeneration?
Spontaneity, control and socialist organization
In this article I wish to write down some of my thoughts on socialist organization, more specifically on spontaneity and control within the working class and how this relates to socialist organization(s). The thinking underlying this article starts with the … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Proletarian politics
Comments Off on Spontaneity, control and socialist organization
Review – Bourdieu’s Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography – Georgi M. Derluguian
The title of this book by itself could already warrant a read, yet there is much more to find in this book, its interesting title aside. The work mainly deals with the question of the Soviet Union and particularly its … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural analysis, Geopolitics, History
Comments Off on Review – Bourdieu’s Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography – Georgi M. Derluguian
Revolution: towards a new approach
The first article I wrote on this Spirit of Contradiction was one on revolution, and more specifically a critique of the radical leftist approach to revolution. In this article I wish to return to this subject and repeat some of … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left
Comments Off on Revolution: towards a new approach
On ideology and culture
“Related to this, but not entirely the same, is the tendency to classify certain movements not by their actual structure, forms, and ways of struggle, but by the specific, formal ideology they adopt to describe themselves. As such, a movement … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural analysis, Culture, Politics, Proletarian politics
Comments Off on On ideology and culture
Notes on electoralism
For the record this article is not an attempt by me to sketch out an all encompassing view on the uses of electoralism in the revolutionary process, as I think that such a view needs to be based upon thorough … Continue reading
Posted in Critique of the Left, Politics, Proletarian politics
6 Comments
Some notes on the historiography of revolutions and revolutionary events
The study of revolutionary events, and besides that the study of the movements that aspire to create them, is one area of historical study that is very relevant and very popular within the radical left, and as I would argue … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics, Proletarian politics
2 Comments
Crime and migration: towards a leftist response
In recent years, and particularly in reaction to the latest wave of austerity measures, we have seen an upswing in the size and importance of parties that are to the left of social democracy, a development that is greeted with … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Proletarian politics
1 Comment
The nature of the economic transition
This is the third article in my series on having an economic transition prior to a political seizure of power, which stands in contrast to the dominant view in the radical left that emphasises the seizure of political power from … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics, Proletarian politics
Comments Off on The nature of the economic transition
