New Realism, New Barbarism

Neo-liberalism has fundamentally altered the relationship between the global political forces. In this radical overview of the post-communist world, Boris Kagarlitsky argues that the very success of neo-liberal capitalism has made traditional socialism all the more necessary and feasible. He argues that leftists exaggerate the importance of the "objective" aspects of the "new reality" - globalization - and the weakening of the state, while underestimating the importance of the hegemony of neo-liberalism. As long as neo-liberalism retains its ideological hegemony, despite its economic failure, the consequence is a "new barbarism" - already a reality in eastern Europe, and now also emerging in the West. Kagarlitsky challenges the political neurosis of the left and prevailing assumptions of Marxism to argue that Marx's theories are now more timely than they were in the mid 20th century. Kagarlitsky analyzes theories of the "end of the proletariat" and the "end of work", and assesses the potential of the new technologies - such as the Internet - which create fresh challenges for capitalism and new arenas for struggle.