Socialist Register 1996 Preface

Abstract

The ideological and material sweep encompassed by the proud capitalist assertion, 'There Is No Alternative', has been the clearest marker in our time of the contemporary crisis of socialism. How to take full measure of the power of 'TINA' (which really means treating seriously what it tells us about global capitalist economic, political and cultural power in the late 20th century) while at the same time not succumbing to the 'end of history' claim implicit within it (which means not becoming complicit with the extension of the present conjuncture into the foreseeable future) is the central political challenge of our time. In posing the sober question 'Are There Alternatives?' as its theme, this 32nd issue of The Socialist Register seeks to take up this challenge. It does so not by canvassing the many new 'models' of (market, participatory or other) socialism which have been advanced in recent years (this will be the focus of a later volume), but by looking at alternatives that arise out of the present conjuncture.