transform! yearbook 2023

Explore the 9th edition of the transform! yearbook, delving into the social fabric of the modern nation-state and left strategies for transformation. Uncover the historical context of the state's role and its impact on class dynamics, and dive into an analysis of the delicate balance between politics and economics.

The publication will soon be available in print from the Merlin Press webshop.

transform! yearbook 2023 considers the class character of the contemporary nation-state, its measure of relative autonomy from capital, and the left's strategies for transforming it. While neoliberalism has curtailed the state's function as guarantor of public welfare, it has strengthened its role as organiser of global marketisation and finance. However, with the pandemic, the crucial necessity of public healthcare services became a burning issue for large sections of the population, and worker-led initiatives to transform production and protect the environment raised the question of the possible role of the state in socio-ecological transformation.

This year's transform! yearbook addresses the following aspects:

State Theory
State Transformation and Its Effects
Rivalries at the International Level
Authoritarian Capitalist States
Country Case Studies
Marxist Christian Dialogue

Facing the State: Left Analyses and Perspectives
transform! yearbook 2023
David Broder, Eric Canepa, Haris Golemis
Merlin Press

Preface
David Broder, Eric Canepa, Haris Golemis: Facing the State: Left Analyses and Perspectives

State Theory
Dunja Larise: State Theory in ‘Western Marxism’ Revisited
Athena Athanasiou: Decentring the State
Michalis Spourdalakis: State Transformations: From the ‘Powerless’ to the ‘Entrepreneurial State’

State Transformation and Its Effects
Étienne Balibar: On the State, the Public, and the Common: Thoughts from the Pandemic
Hilary Wainwright: Transforming Production to Save the Planet: What Does This Mean for the Left and the State?
Ulrich Brand: The Role of the State in Social-Ecological Transformations: Some Theoretical Considerations and Current Observations
Panos Ramantanis: Repressive State Mechanisms and Biopolitical Practices in the Age of Covid-19: The Example of Greece
Ankica Čakardić: Who Cares? Neoliberalism, Informal Labour, and Life-Making
Steven Forti: The Extreme Right and the State: What Should the Left Do?

Rivalries at the International Level
Antonios Tzanakopoulos: The Left, the State, and International Institutions
Göran Therborn: The Capitalist State and the Looming Endgame
of Western World Domination. Interviewed by Haris Golemis
Walter Baier: National Self-Determination and European Integration Are Not Mutually Exclusive. Interviewed by Haris Golemis

Authoritarian Capitalist States
Boris Kagarlitsky: The State and Restoration
Gavin Rae: The Left and the Changing Authoritarian State in Capitalist Poland Country Case Studies
Alberto Garzón: State vs. Government: The Experience of Unidas Podemos in Spain
Aristides Baltas: The Greek State: Theory, History, Policies
Jukka Pietiläinen: Finland’s Left Alliance in Government
Mariana Mortágua: The Left and the State: The Case of the Portuguese Geringonça
Giulia Russo: The Redistribution of the Common in Serbia

Marxist Christian Dialogue
Franz Segbers: A Plea for a Left Religion Policy in Europe

Anniversary
Mario Amorós: Fifty Years After the Coup d’État in Chile: Salvador Allende, a Revolutionary for the 21st Century

Authors and Editors

Members and Observers of transform! europe

Yearbook 2022

transform! yearbook 2022 looks at how left politics has been challenged by the Covid pandemic and asks what a programme of left demands for pandemic research, prevention, and treatment might look like. There have been great changes over the last thirty years: the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, triumphant neoliberalism, the rise of China as an economic power, transform! yearbook 2022 asks what are the resulting geopolitical shifts behind the war in Ukraine? Also, what are the new imperatives for public intervention in the economy; the emergence of social democracy in the US, and what are the structural difficulties for any left politics face in the EU?

This year's transform! yearbook addresses the following themes:

The Covid Pandemic and the Left
War and Peace in the Changing World System
The Marxist-Christian Dialogue
A Democratic Europe?
Social Democracy, the Radical Left in the Face of the Socio-Ecological Crisis
Ecosocialism/Ecofeminism

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Yearbook 2021

transform! 2021 looks at capitalism's impact on the world ecosystem and the concomitant economic crisis, with their effects on logistics and borders, the structure of work, healthcare systems, European integration, geopolitical power relations, and gender relations – but at the same time the breaches in neoliberal hegemony.

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Yearbook 2020

transform! europe's 2020 yearbook explores the future of Europe in the emerging multipolar world. What is the impact of the global crisis of hegemony? What is at stake for democracy and labour and what opportunities are opening up for political and social subjects in the era of digital capitalism? Can art and history still provide some answers? For the transformation of this brave new world there needs to be a continuous battle for the hegemony of left emancipatory ideas, which is impossible without a concrete analysis of the present situation. It is to this effort that transform! 2020 hopes to contribute.

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transform! yearbook 2019

The transform! yearbook 2019 examines current challenges for the left forces in several European countries, explores the lessons of super majority strikes and other recent organising experiences, and looks at the alternatives opened up in '68 - '69 in the West as well as the countries of state socialism with their history of attempts at renewing Marxist theory and council democracy.

transform! yearbook 2018

The 2018 yearbook is online now! Read the interview by Walter Baier with Samir Amin from Nov 2017 here! This volume is appearing one year before the European Parliament elections. Despite moderate economic growth the process of European integration is in political crisis. Our volume is characterised by a critical evaluation of integration as such.