The Left Strikes Back

James Petras shows that the current stage of capital globalization and the weakening of the ability of established popular groups to defend themselves have generated an important organized response on the part of those whose standard of living is most undermined and threatened by the process. The book argues convincingly that we can now see the emerging forms of resistance in new, popular organizations that, while frequently local and provincial, nevertheless have developed an international consciousness. By discussing their spatial-economic focus, social base, style of political action, and political perspective, The Left Strikes Back both identifies and differentiates the different waves of the left. Further, it presents data documenting the growth, contradictions, and political challenges that confront these burgeoning socio-political movements.

James Petras is professor of sociology at SUNY-Binghamton. He is the coauthor of Democracy and Poverty in Chile: The Limits to Electoral Politics (Westview, 1994).

Foreword -- Introduction: Ten Theses on Latin America -- Resistance, Pragmatism, and Alternatives -- Latin America: The Left Strikes Back -- Intellectuals: A Marxist Critique of Post-Marxists -- Pragmatism Unarmed -- Perspectives for Liberation: The Ambiguous Legacy -- Elections and Extraparliamentary Politics -- Alternatives to Neoliberalism -- Neoliberal Political Cycles -- The United States and Latin America -- Liberalization and U.S. Global Strategy -- Clinton's Cuba Policy -- Mexico and the United States: Cures That Kill the Patient -- Globaloney and the State -- Beyond the Free Market: The Resurgence of the Left