For the young British author, Thatcher was a "Modern Prince" of the neoliberal Right, who detected the weak points of the unions and the Left in Britain and thus utilised the crisis of the late 1970s for cancelling the social-democratic consensus established after WW2. She had smashed the unions, and undermined the basis of the social welfare state by her privatisations and promotion of financialization and has established a new neoliberal status quo. The Left needs a clear analysis, devotedness similar to Thatcher and a well developed strategy to have a chance to overthrow the "new consensus" of the Iron Lady.

The critical analysis of the Lula epoch is a complex task. The former workers' movement leader, who became a charismatic president, announced intense reforms and part of them were actually realised. Nevertheless, he could not break away from the past, or the history of Brazil, in many respects. The fact that Brazil now is probably the most influential country of the periphery does not mean at all that its internal conflicts were eased.

This issue of Eszmélet presents the lessons from the defeat of the socialist left and the workers' movement in new contexts. This defeat has not eased the internal crisis of capitalism and the capital system but weakened the strength of forces opposing the system for a humanist alternative. In the light of recent research results, the link between the European and global scale cannot be more ignored. While bourgeois ideology is speaking about the death of Marx for decades, after a retreat he is returning in Eastern Europe as well in many different ways. The death of Eric Hobsbawm deprived Marxist history writing from its last man of encyclopedic knowledge but his work remains us inspiring.

Table of contents

1. Eric J. Hobsbawm : History: a New Age of Reason
2. Göran Therborn : Class in the 21st Century
3. Samir Amin : Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism. Audacity, More Audacity in Formulating an Alternative to the Existing System
4. Samir Amin : Implosion of the European System
5. Michel Aglietta : The European Vortex
6. Marchel van der Linden : Strikes will not wane but will gain importance, An interview by Raquel Varela
7. Marchel van der Linden : Labour History Beyond Borders
8. Tütő László : Revolutionary Conservatism. Marx vs. Marx
9. Vázsonyi Dániel : What is Capitalism? A Civilization, a Production Mode, a Good Idea or Something Else?
10. Tütő László : Resignation, ‘Better not to Know’, Being Busy Bees. Variations on Withdrawal No. 3 ‘The Freedom of Resignation’
11. Garai László : The Identity and Identities of Attila József
12. Szarka Klára : Photos of Zoltán Molnár Taken in Transylvania and Moldova
13. Volunteers for Barbarism. Memories of Anatoly Tunin, Who was Five, When Cast in the Damned War.