A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-first Century Socialism

by Marta Harnecker

Overview

Over the last few decades Marta Harnecker has emerged as one of Latin America’s most incisive socialist thinkers. In A World to Build, she grapples with the question that has bedeviled every movement for radical social change: how do you construct a new world within the framework of the old? Harnecker draws on lessons from socialist movements in Latin America, especially Venezuela, where she served as an advisor to the Chávez administration and was a director of the Centro Internacional Miranda.


A World to Build begins with the struggle for socialism today. Harnecker offers a useful overview of the changing political map in Latin America, examining the trajectories of several progressive Latin American governments as they work to develop alternative models to capitalism. She combines analysis of concrete events with a refined theoretical understanding of grassroots democracy, the state, and the barriers imposed by capital. For Harnecker, twenty-first century socialism is a historical process as well as a theoretical project, one that requires imagination no less than courage. She is a lucid guide to the movements that are fighting, right now, to build a better world, and an important voice for those who wish to follow that path.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583674680
Publisher:	Monthly Review Press
Publication date:	01/09/2015
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Marta Harnecker is director of the Center for Research on Popular Memory in Latin America (MEPLA) in Havana and author of Venezuela: Militares Junta al Pueblo and numerous books on the Latin American left.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Part 1 Latin America Advances 12

1 The Pioneer in Rejecting Neoliberalism 13

2 Correlation of Forces 30

3 Typology of Latin American Governments 46

4 "Left" Governments Facing More Objective Limitations 49

Part 2 where are we going? Twenty-first century socialism 56

5 Why Talk about Socialism? 57

6 Recovering the Original Socialist Thinking 62

7 Some Current Reflections on Twenty-First Century Socialism 68

8 Transition and Its Varieties 98

9 Making Progress When the Government Is In Our Hands 113

10 A Guide to Judging How much Progress is Being Made 158

Part 3 A New Political Instrument for a New Hegemony 162

11 Building a New Hegemony 163

12 A New Political Instrument 173

Bibliography 197

Notes 205

Index 217