Remembering Frank Cunningham

Friends and colleagues of Frank Cunningham share their tributes in celebration and remembrance of Frank\u27s scholarly and political contributions over a remarkable lifetime. The collection is dedicated to Frank and to his wife, Maryka Omatsu. Includes contributions from: Joseph Carens, Carol Gould, Michael Wade Donnelly, Melissa Williams, Ian Angus, Yoshikazu Nakatani, Esteve Morera, Edward Andrew, Seth Klein, Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Mario Reale, Peter H, Russell, Derek Allen, Kennedy Stewart, Michal Bodemann, Richard Stren, Igor Shoikhedbrod, Nicolas Blomley, Wayne Sumner, Ronald Beiner, Richard Sandbrook, Ingrid Leman Stefanovic, Philip Resnick, and Harry Glasbeek.  Tributes were collected by Elaine Coburn and production by Sean Cain of Better World Communications

Finntopia: Illusions and Incoherences

The article discusses the recent treatment of Finland by the US Left, criticises this from a Finnish point of view, and engages in a discussion on treating existing countries in utopian terms and the need to analyse countries as evolving through power struggle rather than "models"

Ideas in Context: a Conversation with Frank Cunningham

Moderated by Elaine Coburn, Harry Glasbeek, Meg Holden, Charles Mills and Frank Cunningham presented a symposium on Frank\u27s book Ideas in Context May 29, 2021 for the Society of Socialist Studies.  Now shared here in written form, the symposium includes what may have been the last contribution of Charles Mills, a friend of half of a century to Frank, known for his generosity of spirit and his trenchant theorizing of racial justice (Mills 1997)

Frank Cunningham’s Pragmatic Perspective

This article is a longer reflection on Frank Cunningham\u27s Ideas in Context in light of the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey

Socialist/Postsocialist Studies and the Global Left: A Critical Commentary

This commentary addresses the marginal presense of authors, subjects, and issues focused on former socialist countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union in "socialist studies" produced in Western English-language based academic journals, as well as the so-called "global political Left" these publications support. The commentary suggests that the gap is epistemological, emotional, and serving to protect conversations about "socialsim" from the deep critique and interogation of socialist theories, utopias, and practices generated in the emerging field of "postsocialist studies" originating in former socialist states and societies assocaited with a geopolitical "East.

The Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion: The Venezuela Case

In 1970 Giovanni Sartori articulated what he saw as the greatest challenge to political science in an increasingly globalized worldconceptual stretching. Sartori was referring to the traveling of western concepts eastward and proposed the use of a conceptual ladder to help inform the decisions political scientists make regarding the concepts they wish to travel. This paper seeks to push the boundaries of Sartori’s critique beyond academia to include policy; a subject where a dynamic and informative relationship between academia and policy should exist, but are instead faced with a one-dimensional arrangement. In that vein, this paper consists of three main parts. The first employs a brief historiography of the conceptual debate between, largely, Schumpeterian and Dahlian definitions of democracy where two main schools of thought will be sketched. The second evokes Venezuela\u27s recent political history to illustrate how the United States Government has, at different times, employed various definitions, and standards, of democracy to describe the Venezuelan regime. The third seeks to establish how American oscillation between standards erodes the value reference point of democracy and draw out the implications of this. In particular, the third part unpacks what this erosion should mean moving forward for academics engaged in the conceptual politics of democracy. In sum, the instrumentalizing of the ambiguity of the concept—democracy—by oscillating between Schumpeterian and Dahlian standards devalues the concept. And unless the academic debate regarding democratic theory begins to account for this devaluation, democracy may well be emptied of its substance.

Class in Finance Capital

ABSTRACT:  Class relations specific to finance capital arise among people in their struggles of life, defined within the broad bounds of the economies they help to form. Eras of economic and social transition from foraging to farming and fishing, through industry and now finance capital define classes, their relations, redefinition and renewal

Confronting Power, Money, and Most Economists: The Class Action of the Anti-Free Trade Movement

The Canadian anti-free trade movement was a genuine ‘movement’ that originated locally in many different places throughout the country and was soon consolidated in a loose coalition at the national level. It was extraordinary for several reasons.  First, it brought together a large number of groups that had never worked with each other before and their coalitions were strong and effective.   Second, it was a movement based on class issues and was understood that way by its leaders and most of those who participated in it.  Third, it democratized thinking and knowledge about economic policy, and this, in turn, meant that many groups and issues that were normally absent from a discussion of macro-economic policy, became central to the debate.   Fourth, the anti-free trade movement grew in relation to the specific issues of regions and groups but the critical arguments that developed over time focused on the problems of having market mechanisms dominate both the economic and social spheres. This scrutiny and discussion of the market system itself has not been replicated in debates on any subsequent major policy issue.&nbsp

Reflections on the Struggle Against the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (TFA), 30 Years Later

The implementation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) in January 1989 marked a decisive moment in the rise of neoliberalism as a political project in Canada. While the left, and socialist political economists in particular, played a central role in galvanizing opposition to the agreement and contributed in no small part to the demise of the Conservative government in 1993, the free trade agenda continued to move forward through the 1990s. This Special Issue revisits the history of struggles against free trade in Canada with two aims in mind: first to remember the coalitions through which opposition was organized, the mobilization of socialist critiques by activists and intellectuals, and the key events leading up to the adoption of the agreement. Second, drawing from this history to make sense of how things have changed over the past 30 years, as right-wing nationalists have increasingly taken the lead in opposing free trade, while neoliberals have sought to rebrand their project as ‘progressive’.  How can those on the left effectively confront the project of free trade today while at the same time challenging both far-right nationalism and neoliberal globalization

Free Trade: A Struggle in Constant Transformation

Reflections from the front lines of the free trade struggles