Socialist Register 1987 Preface

Abstract

This issue of the Socialist Register was prepared in the shadow of Marcel Liebman's illness and death. We open this volume with an obituary of a deeply-mourned co-editor and friend. In recent years, each volume of the Register has been devoted to the examination of a particular theme which in our view deserved detailed attention and critical analysis by the left. The 1984 issue was concerned with 'The Uses of AntiCommunism' as a crucial aspect of twentieth century politics, and sought thereby to provide historical and analytic perspective in the context of the 'new Cold War'. The double issue for 198516 mainly dealt with the theme of 'Social Democracy and After': by way of a critical survey of the theory and practice of social democracy and through an examination of contemporary challenges facing the working classes in the West, we hoped to begin an exploration of what is possible in terms of socialist change in the remainder of this century. This year's volume-our twenty-third-follows its predecessors in also being devoted to one theme: the conservatism of the last decade. We' decided on this theme because we felt it was very important for the Left to undertake a systematic examination of the 'new conservatism' now that it has been in power for almost a decade in Britain and the United States. The articles which appear in this volume explore the ideological rise of the new conservatism in light of the actual practices of conservative governments in the 1980s. These articles examine the rhetoric in light of the reality. Our authors demonstrate the severe reaction the new conservatism has entailed, and this bears out some of the dire warnings issued on the Left at the beginning of the decade; but at the same time, the essays in this volume also reveal acute contradictions in contemporary conservatism. It is on these contradictions that those committed to the socialist project will be able to build.