Bill Mitchell — Reclaiming the State

by
Mike Norman
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On June 3, 1951, the Socialist International association was formed in London. It is still going. It is “a worldwide association of political parties, most of which seek to establish democratic socialism”. Its roots date back to the C19th (to the First International formed in 1864) when it was considered beneficial to unite national working class movements into a global force to overthrow Capitalism. Internal bickering among various factions led to various dissolutions and reformations over the last 150 odd years. In 2013, the membership split when the German SPD decided to set up an competing group, the Progressive Alliance, which saw a host of so-called social democratic parties (including the Australian Labor Party) join and desert the SI. Both bodies are dogged by internecine conflict and members who have fallen for the neo-liberal macroeconomic myths. More recently, DIEM25 has emerged to pursue a Pan-European vision of Left-wing politics. The more recent dynamics of these movements deny power of the nation state in a globalised economy and global financial flows. They are all failing because of this denial.

There was an interesting article in the Financial Times (July 4, 2017) – Sovereignty still makes sense, even in a globalised world – by Robert Tombs, who is a British academic specialising in French history, which bears on this topic.
The claim that the nation state is dead is also a major theme of my upcoming book (with Thomas Fazi) – Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World – which will be released by Pluto Press (UK) on September 20, 2017.

We will be launching the book in London on September 26, 2017 and then doing a 10-day lecture and promotional tour throughout Europe following that. All the details of where and when events will occur will be published soon but at the end of this blog is an indicative guide.