Whose Millennium? - Theirs or Ours?

Singer, Daniel; Daniel Singer

ISBN 10: 0853459460 / ISBN 13: 9780853459460

Published by Monthly Review Press, New York, 1999

About this Item

295 pp. Clean, fresh, sharp copy with very light shelfwear. Publication of this book was assisted by a contribution from The Judy Ruben Outreach Fund. To many people, the end of the Soviet Union marked the death of socialism a nd the victory of capitalism. Not to Singer, European correspondent for the Nation. Instead, he presents a revised version of socialism as an alternat ive to present conditions. Part 1 recounts the disasters of communism in th e Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, along with the problems these areas enco untered on the road to liberal capitalism. Next, Singer uses the 1996 Russi an presidential elections and the sad shift of Poland's Solidarity movement from liberation to reaction as examples of corrupt idealism. However, Sing er sees light in the darkness. The 1995 worker strikes in France stand as a spark of resistance to unchecked capitalism. This leads to Part 3, which p resents an embryonic vision of a worldwide Socialist and democratic society as a "realistic utopia." Eduardo Galeano "Are we doomed to accept history, instead of creating it? Clone days, routines of pain, injustice as Destiny? This book helps us to believe that tomorrow is not another name for today." Virtually flawless book.

Seller Inventory # 2ivCf0027

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Whose Millennium? - Theirs or Ours?
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0853459460
• ISBN 13: 9780853459460
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Illustrator: Hall Smyth (Cover Design)
• Edition: Copyright © 1999
• Condition: Like New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Politics, American Politics, US Pol. Studies
  • Political Studies, Contemp & World & Intl Politics
  • Political Science, Political Theory & Studies

About this title

Synopsis

"Magisterial in its historical sweep, fiercely democratic in its vision, Whose Millennium? is the thinking person's 'bridge to the 21st century.' There is an alternative to rampant inequality and the corruptions of power, and-ever so modestly and persuasively-Daniel Singer points the way."
--Barbara Ehrenreich
This visionary book challenges the chorus of resignation-the notion that there is no alternative, that profit is the best relationship between people, and that the market guarantees democracy. Daniel Singer insists that a more free and egalitarian society can be won, and he predicts that the new millennium will be an age of confrontation, not consensus, with Western Europe as a probable first battlefield.
In social criticism of rare scope and insight, Singer probes the outcome of the Russian Revolution and Russia's post-1989 turmoil, the transformation of the Polish trade union movement Solidarity into a reactionary and clerical force, the failure of social democracy in Western Europe, the emergence of an unbalanced world after the collapse of one superpower, and the massive 1995 strikes and demonstrations in France-which, Singer argues, were the first revolt against the prevailing idea that there is no alternative to market stringency.
As an alternative, Singer calls for "realistic utopia": a politics engaged with present-day possibilities but daring to pursue a world beyond capitalism, one that would put into consistent practice the ideals of democracy and equality.

About the Author

Daniel Singer is the European correspondent for The Nation.