The cult of personality that the Soviet authorities built around Lenin after his death was fully justified. The revolution of November 1917 really was Lenin’s revolution, and the communist system really was Lenin’s creation. Great impersonal forces matter. But so too does individual agency. The life of Vladimir Lenin proves the point. For good or evil, he changed the path of history.

Cuba had been exciting, romantic, adventurous. The Chile of Allende appeared dull, tranquil, orderly. And for these very reasons, Chilean socialism was more dangerous. More dangerous in part because, if Chile could find a path to socialism without widespread violence ending in dictatorship, its example would effect a tremendous appeal throughout the world.

Boris Kagarlitsky, an internationally renowned scholar and political activist, was arrested on July 25 by the Russian FSB. Despite his lifelong anti-terrorism stance, he is accused of “justifying terrorism” based on a blog post about the Russia-Ukraine war. He is being held until September 24 and may face a seven-year prison term upon trial.

A government that is committed to the principles of collectivism, egalitarianism and redistribution, and that has the courage to act on these principles, would drive down the incidence of poverty. Enormously difficult though this would be, as is acknowledged in my conclusion, it should and could be done. Whether social democracy can do this or not is an important question.

Singer Sinéad O’Connor was not of this world. She was an ethereal talent and fearless activist who existed beyond the margins of respectability and societal expectation. When she died last week at 56, she left behind an artistic and political legacy of struggle and courage against oppression and for the voices of the impoverished, abused, and forgotten people of the world.

The “in and against the state” view that is promoted by the Socialist Register has considerable support on the socialist left. Given the extraordinary period in the evolution of global capitalism which we are living through, this perspective needs to be carefully considered. The latest volume of the Socialist Register is an excellent basis for moving that process forward.

The New Democratic Party, in both its federal and provincial iterations, has struggled in no small part because of a misguided notion that it should move to the centre to improve its electoral prospects. This has so far proven disastrous for the party. The bulk of the NDP’s success in the last two decades came under the avowedly progressive leadership of Jack Layton.

When capital is in crisis, there are always two options—to give in or to move in. If masses are armed with a clear conception of the socialist alternative, they can turn a crisis in capitalism into the crisis of capitalism. Of course, it is possible that the current struggles against the capitalist offensive ultimately may lead to defeat. It is possible but we must take that chance.

It is impossible to say how far the crackpot realists in the West are prepared to go in defending their system. Hopefully they will bow to the force of circumstances which are not in their favour. But short of all out war we are looking at the emergence of new world system in which China has provided a key model of independent development for other states.

Now in its fourth edition, From Consent to Coercion: The Continuing Assault on Labour remains an invaluable tool for understanding how the state and capital manage the subordination of labour. The new edition contains timely material that wrestles with the pressing issues of precarity and polarization and the dire need to rebuild and renew socialist politics. The following is excerpted from the book.