On the book of Erzsébet Szalai: Koordinátákon kívül. Fiatal felnőttek a mai Magyarországon [Out of Coordinates. Young Adults in Present-day Hungary], Budapest, Új Mandátum Kiadó, 2011

The first block of this issue of Eszmélet is addressing the nature of global capitalism, which shows more and more convincingly symptoms of the capital system, which cannot be cured without structural changes. The second important topic is the analysis of the neoconservative, neo-Horthyist state system developed by Orbán after the 2010 "system change". This shows the practical consequences of the global crisis on the semi-periphery of Europe. Third, a closer look is taken into the significant anti-regime, and radical anti-capitalist social movements of the year 2011, especially the shocking US movement of Occupy Wall Street!, whose significance mainly lies in the fact that public discussion finally started to address the system itself, the global crisis of capitalism. At the end, a comprehensive study is analysing the possibility of a democratic planning-based socialist society – beyond the market.

2011 was a good year – in a political sense – for the world left. They managed to change world discourse, moving it away from the ideological mantras of neo-liberalism. For the first time in a long time, ordinary people were discussing the very nature of the system in which they lived; they were no longer taking it for granted.

The study is addressing the ever deepening structural crisis of world capitalism that needs profound structural change if a sustainable solution is searched. This structural crisis has not begun in 2007, when the subprime mortgage crisis in the US burst but four decades earlier (what was already announced by the author in his analyses at the end of the 1960s). Clear distinction should be made between the different types of the crises of the capital system, whether it belongs to the class of temporary-business cycle crises of a given social sphere or it is of a more fundamental one. The main difference is that a temporary crisis passes by and can be solved within the given structure but a fundamental crisis undermines it. "Naturally, historical dialectic in the abstract cannot offer any guarantee for a positive outcome. To expect that would mean renouncing our role in developing social consciousness, which is integral to the historical dialectic. Radicalizing social consciousness in an emancipatory spirit is what we need for the future, and we need it more than ever before."