Crucible of Resistance: Greece, the Eurozone and the World Economic Crisis - Softcover

Laskos, Christos; Tsakalotos, Euclid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 074533380X ISBN 13: 9780745333809

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2013

Synopsis

Crucible of Resistance seeks to challenge the mainstream account of the 'Greek Crisis' and situate it within a broader regional context and ultimately a critique of the world economic system. Christos Laskos and Euclid Tsakalotos argue that Greece’s exceptionalism is largely a myth. They show how the causes of the 2008 global financial crisis lie in key features of the neoliberal economic order, including income and wealth inequalities and the hollowing out of democratic and deliberative institutions. A progressive exit from the crisis, for Greece and the eurozone as a whole, entails meeting head on the limitations of the neoliberal order. Crucible of Resistance argues that an effective response entails confronting not just the neoliberal order, but also the earlier social-democratic Keynesian regime. This book widens out the debate about the crisis in Greece and the eurozone linking it to socialist and class strategies at the international level.

About this title

Review:

This book could not be more timely. The portrayal of Greece as a ‘special case’ is a symptom of Europe’s continued denial that there is something rotten in its own foundations. This book is a clarion warning that the strangling of Greece is symptomatic of the fragmentation of a Europe based on a particular neoliberal settlement, which is now in its death throes. When Europe recognises that Greece is no special case, it will have a chance of preventing its own descent to a postmodern 1930s. (Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics, University of Athens and Visiting Professor, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas; author of The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy)

This book gives us a clear account of how Greece and the eurozone got into such a mess. It makes clear that the crisis is not only economic, but also one of growing regional and social inequalities and the retreat of democracy. More important still, the authors bring to the fore what the emerging radical left in Greece and elsewhere can do to get us out of the crisis. (Alexis Tsipras, head of Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) and Leader of the Opposition in the Greek parliament)

The future of democracy in Greece is a matter for all of us in Europe. Laskos and Tsakalotos take us behind the headlines about 'bailouts' and 'crisis' and share with us both the challenges and the alternatives which Greeks are creating as they resist: from networks of solidarity to a new kind of political party with a strongly European perspective. Essential reading in the decisive months ahead. (Hilary Wainwright, Co-editor of Red Pepper, author of Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy)

Superb... With a methodological approach that moves us away from a purely national explanation of the crisis and its response, and with a continually rich body of empirical detail throughout, this volume is simply a must-read for those who want to truly understand how we got here, and what is to be done in pursuing a more progressive response than currently dominates the political landscape. (Jamie Jordan, Political Studies Review)

About the Author:

Christos Laskos is an economist, teacher and co-author, with Euclid Tsakalotos, of 22 Things that they tell you about the Greek crisis that aren’t so (2013). He is a member of the political secretariat of SYRIZA, the Greek radical left party.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 074533380X
• ISBN 13: 9780745333809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192