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What's Left? Radical Politics in the Postcommunist Era, by Charles Derber with Karen Marie Ferroggiaro, Jacqueline A. Ortiz, Cassie Schwerner, and James A. VelaMcConnell. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995. 225 pp. $40.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-87023-953-8. $14.95 paper. ISBN: 0-87023954-6.
The unpredictable collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe led to predictable responses. Mainstream opinion proclaimed the death of the Left and celebrated accordingly. Marxists repudiated state socialism and argued that democratic socialism is now a viable possibility. Charles Derber and his associates find both responses problematic, and they outline a new direction for radical politics that they call "left communitarianism."
The first part of the book assesses the "death-of-the-left" thesis through four essays. Ortiz critiques mainstream arguments, but concludes that the left has ignored civil society. Schwerner argues that the left is now poised to move into a third stage beyond socialism and identity politics. VelaMcConnell suggests that the collapse of state socialism initiated a paradigm crisis for Marxism. Ferroggiaro examines Central American political struggles to illustrate the Eurocentric quality...