Z Needs Your Help!
We need to concentrate our analyses and our actions on what makes it more likely that the progressive side of the bifurcation outweighs the reactionary side in the middle-term resolution of the struggle
Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein (September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his world-systems approach. He was a Senior Research Scholar at Yale University from 2000 until his death in 2019, and published bimonthly syndicated commentaries through Agence Global on world affairs from October 1998 to July 2019.
He was the 13th president of International Sociological Association (1994–1998).
Politically, he considered himself on the "independent left" and was active in a variety of organizations. He argued that we are in the transition from our existing capitalist world-economy to some new system, and that the great political struggle of our time is about which new kind of systemic order will replace our existing one. A new systemic order could be better or worse, depending on our collective ability to push the worldwide decision in one direction or another. He believed that a crucial element in this is a vast debate about the kind of better system we wish to build, and saw the Reimagining Society Project as one of the ways to further this collective debate.
The efforts of the radical left today affect the choice of the replacement system in the middle run
Trump’s supporters was extremely fired up by the possibility that he might win. They were enthusiasts. They campaigned vigorously
Trump’s agenda is absolutely secondary to his top priority which is to remain the president of the United States, a position that he equates with being the most powerful individual in the world
India seems fated to be one that reacts to initiatives, rather than one to which others react to Indian initiatives
In the ongoing structural crisis of the modern world-system, which began in the 1970s and will probably last another 20-40 years, the issue is not the reform of capitalism, but its successor system
In France, as in the United States and many other countries, real change may be coming, but it will require some more years of struggle for that
We should pursue social transformation realistically without blaming others for not supporting us by arguing that they are making errors of judgment
There is no compromise. There is no “reformed” version of capitalism that can be constructed
As the economic turmoil continues to spread, the idea that one can win as a leftist may again become legitimate