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Leo Panitch, Greg Albo and Vivek Chibber, eds. The Socialist Register 2014, Registering Class New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2014
Reviewed by Howard A. Doughty
It seems that, despite the disrepute that Marxism has endured since the implosion of the Soviet Union, the old fellow may have gotten a few more things right than is commonly accepted within briefly triumphant neoliberal circles. These circles have pretty much defined the dominant ideological perspective among Western liberal democracies and also in those developing nations, especially on the Pacific Rim, that have displayed remarkable economic growth over the past few decades.
Mainly stuck away in small fissures in the solid rocks of the North American academy and in the geological crannies and nooks of European intellectual formations, Marxist theory and scholarship is fairly safely contained. It barely intrudes into the world of corporate think-tanks, financial media and the policy development stratagems of mainstream political parties. In fact, it seems no longer to be very interesting to agents of the national security state who are apparently more preoccupied with Islamic jihads, Ukrainian separatists and opportunities for covert actions and regime changes elsewhere.
That said, initially in the land where "the Moor" spent his most fruitful years in the British Museum, and now at York University in Canada, one of the most durable intellectual journals devoted to leftist perspectives on events continues to offer refreshing analyses and criticisms of late capitalist political economy. I speak, of course, of The Socialist Register. (Another is The Monthly Review which has been operating since 1949 and which enjoys convivial relations with The Socialist Register, an annual publication printed in North America by the Monthly Review Press and in London, England by Merlin.)
The Socialist Register was begun by the exemplary British historians, John Saville and Ralph Miliband (whose son, Ed, currently leads Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the United Kingdom). This year marks its Fiftieth Anniversary and the event should be marked with celebration by any serious student (or teacher) of contemporary political thought whether or not the annual periodical's expressed views are consistent with their own. You don't have to be a "socialist" to enjoy The Socialist Register, all that's needed is an appreciation of rigorous thinking and intelligent writing on...