Left Politics

From the Sixties to the Present

An Interview with Lisa Lyons

by Kent Worcester

Winter 2013

Which came first, your interest in politics or your interest in cartooning?

      They actually began together, when I was 13 or 14, with a badly drawn, over-the-top, heartfelt diatribe against my mother’s consumerism. Even though I was just a white, middle class teenager in Connecticut, I was indignant about inequality and injustice.

How did you get started as a political cartoonist?

Italian Lessons

by Bhaskar Sunkara

Winter 2013

Amid twinkling fingers and Guy Fawkes masks, few were pining for central committees. Occupy’s emergence was welcomed. The movement galvanized radicals, bringing the language of class and economic justice into view. Yet an unwarranted arrogance underlined the protests. Occupy, in part a media event that mobilized relatively few, was quick to assert its novelty and earth-shattering significance.

After the Elections: Which Way for the Left?

by Thomas Harrison

Winter 2013

In contrast to the intense euphoria so widespread in 2008, the dominant emotion in the run-up to the 2012 election was fear, a well-founded fear of Republican savagery. Once the results were in, rather than entertaining hopes for a brighter future, most Democratic voters were probably just relieved. Obama was swept back into office chiefly by a coalition of blacks, Latinos, unionized workers, youth, and low income Americans—that is, by the very people who have suffered most from the policies of his administration.

The Church and the Critical Left in Cuba

by Samuel Farber

Winter 2013

The influence of the Catholic Church in Cuba is growing, a recent and unanticipated development. Why? Has there been a big religious revival that has filled the Church pews? Not really. So, if there has not been a major increase in Catholic religiosity, why has the Catholic Church become important? For entirely political reasons.

The Left in Europe: From Social Democracy to the Crisis in the Euro Zone An Interview with Leo Panitch

by Adaner Usmani

Winter 2013

Adaner Usmani: I wanted to begin by asking you about the history that precedes the crisis, and specifically about the evolution of European social democracy. On the one hand we have seen social democratic governments in Greece, France and elsewhere entirely complicit in the evisceration of the welfare state, and in the imposition of austerity. On the other hand, the tradition of which they’re a part brought many benefits to Europe’s working classes.

The State of Anti-Austerity Struggles in Greece

by Costas Panayotakis

Winter 2013

In recent years Greece has come to exemplify the attempt of capitalist elites to respond to the global capitalist crisis through an attack on the rights and living standards of workers and ordinary citizens around the world.

Europe at a Dark Crossroads: Letter from France

by Richard Greeman

Winter 2013

When New Politics asked me this July to write a piece about France under the new Socialist government, I excitedly drove out to Serviers-et-La Baume — my Provençal sweetheart Elyane’s little village located in the heart of la France profonde — to interview her rural neighbor Robert about this big change (and sip some of his home-made plum brandy).

We Stand with the Greek People Fighting Austerity, For Their Sake and Ours

by Campaign for Peace and Democracy

Winter 2013

SEPTEMBER 2012—What is happening today in Greece is only the most extreme example of a global phenomenon: the world’s political and economic elites, who are responsible for the current economic crisis, want to make the rest of us pay for that crisis, no matter how much suffering this creates.