Editorial
- With the death of Eric Hobsbawm the left has suffered a heavy loss. Transform! is honouring him in this issue by publishing a text that makes immediately evident the famous hallmarks of this great historian – a universal historical culture, the capacity for systematic and bold analysis as well as his accessible style free of all academic jargon. If, at the end of his deliberations Hobsbawm points to the alternative of “socialism or barbarism” that the 21st century must confront, he provides a clear indication of the direction in which the left should attempt to go.
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Leading Articles
The Communist Manifesto in Perspective
- The following text is taken from the manuscript of Eric Hobsbawm’s opening address to the international conference organised by Espaces Marx on the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto and held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in 1998. The text was subsequently included in slightly revised versions in books published in France, Germany and the UK. We thank Hinrich Kuhl for his support.
Class Struggle and Class Compromise in the Era of Stagnation and Crisis
- In the decades following WWII, Social Democracy (broadly understood)2 built and consolidated three main achievements: A system of various forms of publicly supported social insurance to deal with a...
Focus on the EU and the German Model
The Stability Treaty: An Error or a Crime?
- As this autumn begins, the governments of member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) are struggling to ratify as quickly as possible the EMU’s Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (the so-called Budgetary Pact).
The “Hard Core” of European Integration
- Dimitris Sotiropoulos notes quite rightly that the Euro is not just a currency, but a mechanism: “It has set up a particular form of symbiosis among different capitalist economies” (Sotiropoulos 2012, 66). But what is the material nature of this “symbiosis among different capitalist economies”?
Germany as Hegemonic Power: The Crisis of European Integration
- From its inception, Europe has been a political project – aimed at overcoming conflicts and creating cooperation. Over the course of the last decades European nations – led by economic and political elites – were able to overcome their long-established enmities.
Recent Developments Inside the EU and its Implications for European Foreign Trade Policy
- In recent months dramatic changes in the EU have taken place. This article addresses the role of Germany in the multilevel governance structure of the EU.
German Capitalism and the European Crisis: Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
- Germany is riding high once again. It is true that the German economy suffered its worst slump since the founding of the Federal Republic owing to the global crisis of 2008, but the effects on its labour market were less severe than in any other EU country.
The Puzzle of European Integration: Will Greece Be the First Piece to Fall Through?
- A jigsaw puzzle is a picture made up of interlocking pieces. If we think of the EU as a gigantic puzzle, then it is clear that its interlocking pieces do not fit.
Challenges for the Left
Europe: Existential Danger – New Political Challenges
- In Europe we are at a new stage of class confrontation. Despite the systemic crisis not only of finance but of the whole of the mode of accumulation and reproduction of “financial market capitalism”, this system has been able to maintain itself.
Hegemony and Neoliberalism
- The very name of the seminar “Political Mindsets – Development of Political and Cultural Hegemony in Conjunction with the Crisis – New Challenges Posed to the Left”, which was held in Paris last September, invited us to think about “hegemony” and, more exactly to interpret the European elections (in Greece, Denmark, Spain, etc.) as confirming neoliberal hegemony.
Solidarity Within the European Left
- Paris in autumn 2007: The global economic and financial crisis continues to advance. The members of the Left Group of the European Parliament (GUE/NGL), in Paris for study days on the occasion of French EU-Presidency, are tensely listening to the scenarios one of Sarkozy’s advisors is laying out.
The Greek Left in the 2012 Elections: The Return to the Class Vote
- The elections on May 5 and June 17, 2012 have opened, in Greece, a period of profound change in the political scene.
Democracy in Times of Crisis
- The capitalist social formation finds itself in one of its major crises. The economic and financial crisis has primarily struck the centres of capitalism.
Left Political Forces in Russia
- It was already clear from the parliamentary and presidential election campaign itself that President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power would prolong the conditions in which the left operate. During the...
The Basic Income Debate in Finland
- This article represents one point of view in the ongoing debate on the question of basic income.
Engagement of the Youth
Youth, Public Commitment and Social Transformation
- Let us straight away point out that the concept of youth is uncertain and even improbable if it is taken to mean a homogenous generational melting pot, ignoring the many fracture lines combined and...
Quebec Spring: The Roots of Resistance
- By Olivier Clain, André Drainville, Gérard Duhaime, Andrée Fortin, Gilles Gagné, Sylvie Lacombe, Simon Langlois, Richard Marcoux, Daniel Mercure, and Stéphanie Rousseau from the Laval University
Review
Asbjørn Wahl on the Rise and Fall of the Welfare State
- This book is a manifesto in the best sense of the word. Asbjørn Wahl is already well-known for his studies of socio-political and trade-union issues. Now he is presenting a study dealing with...
Additional Articles (Lang specific)
Eric J. Hobsbawm
- Er hatte das „kurze“ 20. Jahrhundert“ um mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte überlebt. Eric J. Hobsbawm war einer der großen Denker, die jenes vergangene Säkulum hervorbrachte. Von der Berufung her Historiker,...
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