- Genre:political science
- Sub-genre:Political Economy
- Language:English
- Pages:184
- eBook ISBN:9780996836166
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Book details
Overview
This book argues for building a political opposition to challenge the two major parties' ideological control over US politics. An opposition built around a campaign for a peaceful US foreign policy and shared, universal social benefits. The analysis suggests that a political alternative along these lines can gain traction among tens of millions. An effort to organize such a political project, independent of the two parties, is long overdue. It is also step along a pathway to confront the political rule of capitalists over economic, social and foreign policy. In short, it is a way out of our present political quagmire. The question to ask is whether left, progressive and peace groups will commit to, plan, implement and sustain the multiyear campaign that is needed. This book offers a strategic framework through which to do so.
Published August 2024
Description
This book offers a pathway forward, strategically and tactically, to break the hold the two major political parties have on political discourse and social and economic policy. Challenge Capitalist Political Power includes a concise history of neoliberal capitalism and the reasons for its demise in the economic crisis of 2008. Readers learn why US capitalism is shifting from neoliberal globalized to nationalist economics. While Trump's 2016 campaign placed nationalist economics on the nation's political agenda, the Biden administration is implementing the scheme. Different name, same system. The book includes a critique of the Biden-Democratic social benefits program, Build Back Better (BBB), that is/was woefully inadequate. To raise aspirations beyond BBB, the author urges left and progressive forces to plan and implement a multiyear campaign for peace in conjunction with an expanded version of Bernie Sanders, 2016 working class economic program. On foreign policy the author assesses the Biden administration's actions and policies by examining the documents of think tanks involved in formulating what is a continuation of the decades-long bipartisan imperialist foreign policy. If you are you are a socialist, communist or peace and social justice activist in US or elsewhere you'll find this book useful, informative and for US activists a practical guide to action. For US activists who aspire to fight for something more than reforms at the margins, this is a must read.
Permissions for graphics used in Appendix fliers
- Graphic showing statutory minimum paid vacation used with permission of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Chart from article, “No-Vacation Nation,” by Adewale Maye, May 2019.
- Logo on childcare flier used with permission from $10aday.ca campaign.
- High speed rail map used with permission from US High Speed Rail Association.
