Due to conflicting trends in Hungary, following them and especially forecasting them is extremely difficult. Free cultural development that matches to the global era (still) exists, while the anti-liberal, quasi-nationalist past-admiring cultural policy of authorities gains ground.

In works studying the history of the system-change and its consequences there is an explicit or implicit war between different interpretational schools – "discourses" or "narratives" – on the use of different concepts and on defining the causes and outcomes. Politics and the mainstream professional literature, including diligent contributions of former Marxists, systematically crowded out the class based approach and Marxian social form analysis. This study shows that the essence of the system-change – under the flag of "democracy and freedom" – everywhere was to change ownership, to create a new capitalist class and to establish and extend the power of the supranational class.

Modernisation, in theory, is possible if after the takeoff period both society and economy will be able to sustain their internalised growth and to adopt changes answering internal and external challenges. The fact that Hungary could not embark on this path, even after 150 years of attempts, can be explained by world system analysis. Development and backwardness are two sides of the same coin: Hungary was – and remains – on the semi-periphery of the capitalist world economy. It is our luck that falling further down is not so easy either.

Eszmélet turns 20. We celebrated its 20^th anniversary by making a special issue in Russian published in Moscow. We remained faithful to the original idea of socialism: the community mode of production and social structure. The restored rule of capitalist relationships could not give a humanistic answer to the fall of "old socialism" rooted in Stalinism and conquered by the state. Our journal gave multifaceted analysis on the inhumanity of the "capitalism with a human face".  We have shown that international capital has not put East Europe on the track of catching up with the West but exactly the opposite: leading to the misery of semi-periphery by "capitalism 2.0". By now, it has been proven that "good capitalism" is only a utopia, and practically rather a black utopia.

Although, despite our goal, we could not induce an alternative broad anti-capitalism movement with mass support since it lacks the forces of social support but we see what we should avoid at least. The "resurrection" of the left under socialist parties in East Europe became a puppet of global capital as it did globally downgrading itself into just a different form of neoliberalism. This road came to its end. On the other hand, the way of thinking and acting that degrades the anti-capitalist left to a sect or political subculture – and voluntarily leaves the political scene thus making a service to the rulers – cannot be continued either. Such political movements that do not have viable alternatives at their hand in their actual environment are deemed to fail.

Saying that, this issue is focusing on the (further) analysis of the features of the present crisis of capitalism. István Mészáros, the author of Beyond Capital is analysing the nature of the crisis foreseen by him for many years. Others reveal that in its way out of the crisis the neoliberal state found the poor and helpless as its main enemies and is criminalising the social problem.  Interviews with recently passed away Giovanni Arrighi and Peter Gowan certainly make the readers think on social alternatives and finding the ways for community production and the practical movement.