Against the Third Way: An Anti-Capitalist CritiqueISBN: 978-0-7456-2675-8
Paperback
160 pages
June 2001, Polity
Other Available Formats: Hardcover
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In Against the Third Way Alex Callinicos develops a
fundamental critique of this philosophy. He argues that Third Way
governments have continued the neoliberal policies of their
conservative predecessors. They have promoted the interests of the
multinational corporations, privatized areas where Ronald Reagan or
Margaret Thatcher dared not go, and allowed social and economic
inequality to continue growing. Callinicos also attacks the
theoretical underpinnings of the Third Way. He challenges the idea
that the 'knowledge economy' is freeing us from the contradictions
of capitalism, denies that New Labour has coherent strategies for
achieving greater equality or reconciling the interests of
individual and community, and argues that what is called 'political
globalization' - the higher profile of international institutions
such as NATO, the IMF, and the WTO - masks the assertion of
American imperial power.
The best hope for the Left, Callinicos contends, lies in the emergence of an international movement against global capitalism with the protests at Seattle, Prague, and elsewhere. Those who want to see real change should be challenging the logic of the market rather than, like Blair and Clinton, extending its dominion.