Syriza Wave

Syriza Wave PDF Author: Helena Sheehan
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583676279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Utterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over. First, by profligate deficit spending benefitting only themselves; second, by agreeing to an IMF “bailout” of the Greek economy, devastating ordinary Greek citizens who were already enduring government-induced poverty, unemployment, and hunger. Finally, in response to dire “austerity” measures, the people of Greece stood up, forming, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza—the Coalition of the Radical Left. For those who caught the Syriza wave, there was, writes Helena Sheehan, a minute of “precarious hope.” A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. Along the way, she takes time to meet many Greeks in tavernas, on the street, and in government offices, engage in debates, and compare Greece to her own economically blighted country, Ireland. Beginning as a strong Syriza supporter, Sheehan sees Syriza transformed from a horizon of hope to a vortex of despair. But out of the dust of defeat, she draws questions radiating hope. Just how did what was possibly the most intelligent, effective instrument of the Greek left self-destruct? And what are the consequences for the Greek people, for the international left, for all of us driven to work for a better world? The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis.

Syriza Wave

Syriza Wave PDF Author: Helena Sheehan
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583676279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Utterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over. First, by profligate deficit spending benefitting only themselves; second, by agreeing to an IMF “bailout” of the Greek economy, devastating ordinary Greek citizens who were already enduring government-induced poverty, unemployment, and hunger. Finally, in response to dire “austerity” measures, the people of Greece stood up, forming, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza—the Coalition of the Radical Left. For those who caught the Syriza wave, there was, writes Helena Sheehan, a minute of “precarious hope.” A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. Along the way, she takes time to meet many Greeks in tavernas, on the street, and in government offices, engage in debates, and compare Greece to her own economically blighted country, Ireland. Beginning as a strong Syriza supporter, Sheehan sees Syriza transformed from a horizon of hope to a vortex of despair. But out of the dust of defeat, she draws questions radiating hope. Just how did what was possibly the most intelligent, effective instrument of the Greek left self-destruct? And what are the consequences for the Greek people, for the international left, for all of us driven to work for a better world? The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis.

Movement Parties Against Austerity

Movement Parties Against Austerity PDF Author: Donatella della Porta
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509511490
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
The ascendance of austerity policies and the protests they have generated have had a deep impact on the shape of contemporary politics. The stunning electoral successes of SYRIZA in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) in Italy, alongside the quest for a more radical left in countries such as the UK and the US, bear witness to a new wave of parties that draws inspiration and strength from social movements. The rise of movement parties challenges simplistic expectations of a growing separation between institutional and contentious politics and the decline of the left. Their return demands attention as a way of understanding both contemporary socio-political dynamics and the fundamentals of political parties and representation. Bridging social movement and party politics studies, within a broad concern with democratic theories, this volume presents new empirical evidence and conceptual insight into these topical socio-political phenomena, within a cross-national comparative perspective.

Saying Peace

Saying Peace PDF Author: Jack Marsh
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438482663
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Levinas's big idea is that our lived sense of moral obligation occurs in an immediate experience of the otherness of the Other, and that moral meaning is grounded in alterity rather than identity. Yet he also held what seemed an inconsiderate, or "eurocentric," view of other cultural traditions. In Saying Peace, Jack Marsh explores this problem, testing the coherence and adequacy of Levinas's central philosophical claims. Using a twofold method of reconstruction and critique, Marsh conducts a holistic immanent evaluation of Levinas's major works, showing how the problem of eurocentrism, and abiding ambiguities in Levinas's political and religious thought, can be traced back to specific problems in his general philosophical methodology. Marsh offers an original analysis of Levinas's method that verifies and extends existing critical work by Jacques Derrida, Robert Bernasconi, Judith Butler, and others. This is the first book to foreground the normative question of chauvinism in Levinas's work, and the first to perform a holistic critical diagnosis of his general philosophical method.

The Anarchist Imagination

The Anarchist Imagination PDF Author: Carl Levy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317435508
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This is a broad ranging introduction to twenty-first-century anarchism which includes a wide array of theoretical approaches as well as a variety of empirical and geographical perspectives. The book demonstrates how the anarchist imagination has influenced the humanities and social sciences including anthropology, art, feminism, geography, international relations, political science, postcolonialism, and sociology. Drawing on a long historical narrative that encompasses the 'waves' of anarchist movements from the classical anarchists (1840s to 1940s), post-war wave of student, counter-cultural and workers' control anarchism of the 1960s and 1970s to the DIY politics and Temporary Autonomous Zones of the 1990s right up to the Occupy! Movement and beyond, the aim of this volume is to cover the humanities and the social sciences in an era of anarchist revival in academia. Anarchist philosophy and anarchistic methodologies have re-emerged in a range of disciplines from Organization Studies, to Law, to Political Economy to Political Theory and International Relations, and Anthropology to Cultural Studies. Anarchist approaches to freedom, democracy, ethics, violence, authority, punishment, homelessness, and the arbitration of justice have spawned a broad array of academic publications and research projects. But this volume remembers an older story, in other words, the continuous role of the anarchist imagination as muse, provocateur, goading adversary, and catalyst in the stimulation of research and creative activity in the humanities and social sciences from the middle of the nineteenth century to today. This work will be essential reading for scholars and students of anarchism, the humanities, and the social sciences.

Until We Fall

Until We Fall PDF Author: Helena Sheehan
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1685900275
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Offers vivid first hand accounts of encounters with fellow socialists following the fall of the Soviet Union Most westerners glimpsed the breakup of the Soviet Union at a great distance, through a highly distorted lens which equated the expansion of capitalism with the rise of global democracy. But there were those, like Helena Sheehan, who watched more keenly and saw a world turning upside down. In her new autobiographical history from below, Until We Fall, Sheehan shares what she witnessed first-hand and close-up, as hopes were raised by glasnost and perestroika, only to be swept away in the bitter and brutal counterrevolutions that followed. In Until We Fall, we come along on Sheehan’s travels as she tracks the fallout from the transition from flawed forms of socialism to a particularly predatory form of capitalism. As a sequel to Navigating the Zeitgeist — which captured 1950s cold-war America, the 1960s new left, the 1970s social movements and communist parties of Europe — Until We Fall takes us through Eastern Europe from the 1980s onward and moves on to offer vivid accounts of encounters with fellow socialists in many other places, such as Britain, Greece, and Mexico. It includes an entire chapter on South Africa, where Sheehan participated in its political and intellectual life for extended intervals of the post-apartheid period. And it offers her unique take on her birthplace, the United States, along with the unfolding realities confronting her chosen home, Ireland. She also reveals major changes in the culture of academe in the decades she has taught in universities. As a philosopher, she scrutinizes the various intellectual currents prevailing, particularly positivism and postmodernism, and makes a persuasive case for the explanatory and ethical superiority of Marxism. As she moves through time and space, Sheehan pursues the perspectives of the vanquished in a world where the triumphalist narratives of the victors hold sway. The central storyline of the book is her political activism as waves of history swept through the left and challenged it in ever more formidable ways, bringing some victories but many defeats. She raises questions of how to keep going in this time of monsters, when the old is dying and the new cannot be born, when capitalism is decadent yet still dominant.

Europe in Revolt

Europe in Revolt PDF Author: Panagiotis Sotiris
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1608466582
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This authoritative survey of the new radical left forming across Europe offers “ammo for the struggles ahead, not to be ignored” (Susan Weissman, award-winning journalist and editor of Victor Serge). In Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, the debt crisis that began with the 2008 global recession helped trigger severe austerity measures. These policies, intended to address government debts, only worsened economic conditions. In response, something happened that few outsiders expected: A massive wave of political resistance erupted across Europe. With mainstream parties largely discredited by their support for austerity, room opened for radicals to offer a left-wing alternative. Collecting provocative, informative, and expert insights from leading scholars across the continent, Europe in Revolt examines the key parties and figures behind this insurgency. These essays and articles cover the roots of the social crisis—and the radicals seeking to reverse it—in Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

Back to the ‘30s?

Back to the ‘30s? PDF Author: Jeremy Rayner
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030415864
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The essays in this volume address the question: what does it mean to understand the contemporary moment in light of the 1930s? In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and facing a dramatic rise of right wing, authoritarian politics across the globe, the events of the 1930s have acquired a renewed relevance. Contributions from a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars address the relationship between these historical moments in various geographical contexts, from Asia-Pacific to Europe to the Americas, while probing an array of thematic questions—the meaning of populism and fascism, the contradictions of constitutional liberalism and “militant democracy,” long cycles and crisis tendencies in capitalism, the gendering and racialization of right wing movements, and the cultural and class politics of emancipatory struggles. Uncovering continuity as well as change and repetition in the midst of transition, Back to the 30s? enriches our ability to use the past to evaluate the challenges, dangers, and promises of the present.

Modern Greece

Modern Greece PDF Author: Elaine Thomopoulos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440854920
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This volume provides an overview of the history of Greece, while also focusing on contemporary Greece. Coverage includes such 21st-century challenges as the economic crisis and the influx of immigrants and refugees that is changing the country's character. This latest volume in the Understanding Modern Nations series explores Greece, the birthplace of democracy and Western philosophical ideas. This thematic encyclopedia is one-of-its kind in its down-to-earth approach and comprehensive analysis of complex issues now facing Greece. It analyzes such topics as government and economics without jargon and brings a lighthearted approach to chapters on such topics as etiquette (e.g., what gestures to avoid so as not to offend), leisure (how Greeks celebrate holidays), and language (the meaning of "opa"). No other book on Greece is organized like this thematic encyclopedia, which has more than 200 entries on topics ranging from Archimedes to refugees. Unique to this encyclopedia is a "Day in the Life" section that explores the actions and thoughts of a high school student, a bank employee, a farmer in a small village, and a retired couple, giving readers a vivid snapshot of life in Greece.

Challenging Power

Challenging Power PDF Author: Cynthia Kaufman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350139076
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Arguing that we only have democracy when systems of power are held to account, Kaufman examines the real work being done to challenge the operations of power that underlie four unruly social problems: climate change, sweatshop labour, police abuse, and economic deprivation. In Challenging Power, Kaufman pairs each of these issues with an operation of power -- the large scale influence of multinational corporations; the power of governments; the authority of financial markets; and the control inherent in systems of meaning -- and using case studies like the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and the killing of Eric Garner, forcefully demonstrates what is involved in challenging these operations of power. Advancing a positive message, Kaufman maintains that these networks are not omnipotent and can be challenged if we develop 'mechanisms of accountability' which allow us to conceptualise the nature of these problems and the actions required to resist them. Kaufman provides then, a model for ethical action that allows us to investigate and appreciate our own connections to the powerful forces that control our world.

A Love Letter to the Many

A Love Letter to the Many PDF Author: Vishwas Satgar
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004692266
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 724

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Book Description
South Africa was the hope of the world. It had an impressive and rich tradition of left politics. At the heart of post-apartheid democracy-making was a revolutionary nationalist ANC, the oldest Communist Party in Africa, the SACP, and one of the most militant labour union federations in the world, COSATU. Yet, South Africa is at a crossroads and many are deeply concerned about its future. This book explains through a political economy/ecology analysis why and how the degeneration of national liberation politics has happened, while making praxis-centered arguments for a new transformative left politics.