The Socialist Ideas of the British Lefts Alternative Economic Strategy [Paperback]

This book provides the first book-length study of the political and economic ideas of the British lefts Alternative Economic Strategy in the 1970s and early 1980s. Discussing the AESs approaches to capitalism, the nation state and the working class, it argues that existing academic accounts have significantly overstated the radicalism of the strategy. Perhaps more notable, especially in the light of its stated revolutionary aims, was the extent of its moderation  its continuities with post-war Labour revisionism, its marked reluctance to look beyond the market economy, the degree of its preoccupation with Britains global-economic status, and its inability to break with Labourist  politics of class co-operation in the national interest. While the book argues that the AES was the last class politics socialist initiative in mainstream British politics, it also explores the ways in which its ideas perhaps prepared the way for New Labour in the 1990s, and its relationship with 'Corbynism' since 2015.

Chapter 1. Introduction: A new marketplace for ideas.- Chapter 2. Class and party: The historical context of the rise of the AES.- Chapter 3. Reform or revolution: The AES as socialist strategy.- Chapter 4. Planning the market: The AES and capitalism.- Chapter 5. A Britain oppressed: The AES and the nation.- Chapter 6. Class conflict and class collaboration: The AES and the working class.- Chapter 7. Conclusion: The AES, New Times and the death of British socialism.- Afterword  Corbyn: a socialist rebirth?.- Bibliography.- Index.

This book is a key intervention regarding the way socialist renewal has been discussed and the way we need to map associated debates with a careful eye to the many voices that contribute to it. (Miguel Mart?nez Lucio, Labour History Review, Vol. 86 (1), 2021)

Baris Tufekci completed his doctoral research on the LlÓK