Theory and Strategy // New Socialist

Providing a horizon beyond the day-to-day struggles in parliament or the party in order to grasp longer-term, strategic possibilities.

Reformist tactics within a revolutionary strategy
E. P. Thompson

The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question
Karl Marx

The project and nascent movement associated with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has often been absorbed in the day-to-day business of politics, besieged both inside and outside the party. This is understandable, but it has also proved limiting. In our “Theory and Strategy” section New Socialist aims to provide a horizon beyond the day-to-day struggles in parliament or the party in order to grasp longer-term, strategic possibilities.

Aims

To provide a horizon which goes beyond the day to day business of parliament, opinion polling and elections but remains linked to the Corbyn project and to possible policies.

To provide theoretical perspectives which both draw upon the struggles and experiences of the “movement”, such as it is, especially the struggles of people from marginalised groups, and offer strategic direction to our struggles.

To interact with and support the rest of New Socialist, providing a theoretical and strategic foundation for the tactical side of the project and being nourished itself by being linked to the making of policy whether by left MPs or through the mechanisms of the party.

To challenge the intellectual basis of the positions being articulated by the Labour Right and Soft Left, especially those that make use of our language and concepts.

But also, to be open to what other tendencies both within Labour and outside Labour on the left can offer both in terms of useful criticism and their own theoretical and strategic perspectives.

On Theory

New Socialist understands theory as a step back from the day to day in order to grasp the relations between things as part of a whole, within a longer-term horizon, both in terms of the past and future. We do not, however, understand theory as unworldly; for us, any useful theory will be grounded in a practical view of the world that is dedicated towards changing it. Theory helps show reality as dynamic and contradictory and aids our capacity to understand and work on those contradictions towards collective ends. We aim to clarify how far (and what) theory can help guide positions we take now as well as exploring what is the proper task and form of left intellectualism in our current situation. These considerations will always be rooted in addressing how theory relates to practice, not only in the possibility that theory may guide practice but also, and more importantly, how theory emerges from and clarifies practical struggles.

New Socialist seeks essays of any length in order to grasp our present situation in its contradictions and fluidity to locate and develop strategic openings for the left. As well as essays we are interested in other forms of writing as part of our efforts to nurture and cultivate a new intellectualism of our movement, these may include discussions between various participants or shorter contributions detailing experiences, particularly the experiences of the marginalised, to form part of a general analysis including and organising various perspectives and experiences. These accounts of experiences would be particularly welcome for our series.

Series

We aim to run a number of series featuring connected essays and responses as well collecting experiences relevant to the subjects under consideration. We will begin with two series, “Starting as we mean to go on?”, jointly with the “Beyond Westminster” section of New Socialist, and “The Politics of Contemporary Motherhood”. “Starting as We mean to go on?” will collect and explore experiences of the everyday practices and culture of the movement, addressing how far these reflect and reinforce dominant social practices and values and how far they do and could transcend them, prefiguring new forms of social organisation. “The Politics of Contemporary Motherhood” will draw on a wide and diverse range of experiences in order to grasp the unique and contradictory position of mothers and motherhood in contemporary capitalist society and the political, organisational and strategic consequences of this.

Theory and Strategy

Aims

On Theory

Series

Send pitches to [email protected] Editors: Chris Green (@chrsgrn on Twitter) and Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann on Twitter).

New Socialist is, and will always be, not for profit. Help us sustain and develop this project by subscribing on Patreon or Donorbox.

New Socialist is, and will always be, not for profit. Help us sustain and develop this project by subscribing on Patreon.

articles

There are potential contradictions between decarbonisation in the Global North and the needs of communities in the Global South. How should we handle them?

by Daniel Willis / Nov. 18, 2019 / International & Foreign Policy, Theory and Strategy, Political Ecologies

Debates between partisans of “reform” or “revolution” presume that the Bolsheviks really “smashed” the Tsarist state. What if this isn’t true?

by Ed Rooksby / Nov. 3, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

How collectivism, mutual aid and political education formed a fundamental part of working-class community and culture.

by Rhian E. Jones / Oct. 11, 2019 / Culture, Theory and Strategy, The World Transformed 2019

John McDonnell's UBS report offers a potential framework for a revolution in the ways we conceive of and meet our needs.

by Tom Gann, josie sparrow / Sept. 23, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

In advance of the TWT policy lab, what might a socialist media look like and how would it relate to other commitments to a democratised everyday life.

by Leo Watkins, Tom Mills, Dan Hind / Sept. 18, 2019 / Culture, Theory and Strategy, The World Transformed 2019

Leaked documents reveal the Tories' plans to offer teachers a massive pay rise and more power—but at what cost?

by M Jane / Aug. 28, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

The self-image of the celebrity centrist relies on the stereotype of an uneducated, bigoted, 'White Working Class'. It's time for them to take responsibility for their own beliefs.

by Phil McDuff / Aug. 12, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

The achievements of mining communities and unions are celebrated in spite of the conditions in which they arose, not because of them, and this heritage also fuels today's struggles.

by Tom Blackburn, Rhian E. Jones / July 17, 2019 / Beyond Westminster, Culture, Theory and Strategy

The decision not to readmit Williamson offers a sliver of hope that the left of the Party, and its apparatus, may yet be able to tackle antisemitism.

by The Editors / June 30, 2019 / Westminster, Theory and Strategy

Technocratic policy fixes and sci-fi fantasies won’t save us—ecological collapse calls us to rethink our attitudes to extraction, exploitation, and interconnection.

by josie sparrow / June 16, 2019 / Theory and Strategy, Political Ecologies

Radical music, like radical politics, can energise and mobilise us towards collective liberation—but physical and conceptual borders are threatening this potential.

by Fielding Hope / June 4, 2019 / Culture, Theory and Strategy

Owen Hatherley discusses "The Adventures of Owen Hatherley in the Post-Soviet Space" and Tribune magazine.

by Tom Gann, Owen Hatherley / May 31, 2019 / Culture, Theory and Strategy

For political education to work, it must connect theory to what is local, material, and concrete. Southampton Transformed is one of a number of regional events aiming to do this.

by Tom Williams / May 31, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

Ralph Miliband and the new left's analysis of the failures of the 1945 Attlee Government, allows us to predict the obstacles that would face a socialist government and offers ideas how these might be overcome.

by Dan Evans / March 24, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

Works by Doris Lessing and Vivian Gornick on the fall-out around 1956 uncover the passion that's missing from conventional political histories. What can we learn from them?

by Larne Abse Gogarty, Hannah Proctor / March 13, 2019 / Theory and Strategy, Culture

Recent attempts to rehabilitate vitalism, despite claims to be radically ecological, are an example of how fascism re-appropriates the past in an attempt to colonise the future.

by josie sparrow / March 10, 2019 / Theory and Strategy, Political Ecologies

To claim that working-class women don't do politics is to overlook past and present experience of how, and what happens when, they do.

by Rhian E. Jones / March 8, 2019 / Theory and Strategy, Westminster

To get further than vapid statements about ‘change’ and ‘politics being broken’, centrists must ask themselves some fundamental questions about beliefs and strategy.

by Juliet Jacques / March 5, 2019 / Theory and Strategy, Westminster

What does the Independent Group’s claimed “duty to lead” tell us about their attitude towards the world-making capacities of the working class?

by josie sparrow / Feb. 25, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

The longing for a vanished world can't be assuaged by pretending the dark history of working-class defeat encoded in 'A Design For Life' never happened. It can only answered by the production of a new world.

by Dan Barrow / Feb. 8, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

Despite the many gains made by feminist and LGBTQ activists, society - including the mainstream left - remains more invested in the couple and the nuclear family than in broader ideas of community.

by Spinsters for Corbyn / Feb. 6, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

Asad Haider’s Mistaken Identity, one of the stronger contributions to the ‘identity debate’, is a convincing defence of coalitions and class struggle but an all too subtle argument against political pessimism

by Jules Joanne Gleeson / Jan. 6, 2019 / Theory and Strategy

How might re-conceptualising pregnancy as work—that is, alienated labour—help us radicalise the politics of care in trans-inclusive ways?

by Sophie Lewis / Dec. 26, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

Only a particular sort of socialism can make the necessary junction between the satisfaction of needs and ecology

by Raymond Williams / Dec. 9, 2018 / Theory and Strategy, The World Transformed 2018

For all the talk of radicalising democracy and partisan interventions in Mouffe's "For a Left Populism" what is actually offered is not especially bold.

by Chris Green / Dec. 6, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

Alongside economic and political struggle, socialism will involve overcoming elitist gatekeeping to apply shared ownership and democratic control to everyday cultural activities.

by Mike Quille / Dec. 5, 2018 / Theory and Strategy, Culture

The Very British Coup megagame provides much food for thought on how Labour should approach its present internal and external battles, and the bigger ones still to come.

by John Foster / Nov. 23, 2018 / Theory and Strategy, The World Transformed 2018

Three lessons from history about labour movements drifting to the right, and how we can guard against it.

by Matteo Tiratelli / Nov. 15, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

A genuinely democratic system that is open to popular knowledge is an essential part of defining our lived social spaces

by Gareth Fearn / Nov. 11, 2018 / Theory and Strategy, Beyond the Manifesto

Andrew O’Hagan’s ‘The Tower’ is neither radical or neutral, but a symptom of a middle-class journalism that upholds and supports the given political order through its dishonest claims of objectivity

by josie sparrow / Oct. 25, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

Capitalism has pocketed much of the foundational infrastructure of the internet. Here's how we can start uprooting it.

by Hendrik Erz / Oct. 23, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

The Guardian's sly, transphobic editorial rightly caused outrage but should also help clarify strategies for future trans politics

by Jules Joanne Gleeson / Oct. 21, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

The democratisation of candidate selection opens up questions and possibilities that are much wider than factional advance

by Tom Gann / Sept. 22, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

An ambitious policy agenda for change is taking shape on the left in both Britain and the United States. But so far the structure of the state has not featured prominently in proposals for reform.

by Dan Hind / Sept. 18, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

Jeremy Corbyn's media reform speech was a good start, but flawed - it severely underestimated the scale of the media crisis.

by Leo Watkins / Sept. 12, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

What good is theory in the face of catastrophic climate change? In "The Progress of the Storm" Andreas Malm articulates a strong case for a red-green, anti-fascist, anti-colonialist politics

by Andrew Key / Aug. 11, 2018 / Theory and Strategy

Send pitches to [email protected]
Editors: Chris Green (@chrsgrn on Twitter) and Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann on Twitter).

New Socialist is, and will always be, not for profit.
Help us sustain and develop this project by subscribing on Patreon or Donorbox.

New Socialist is, and will always be, not for profit.
Help us sustain and develop this project by subscribing on Patreon.