Within or Against? The Neoliberal State and the Struggle for Change

Dr Ed Rooksby (University of York, UK) | Dr Chris Nineham (writer and activist)

Neoliberalism claims hostility to the state, but despite marketisation of services across the world, state spending has remained high and authoritarianism has spread. Free market expansion into the public sphere has been accompanied by a hollowing out of democracy, an explosion of surveillance and securitisation and a rolling back of civil liberties. These developments demand we revisit and update a progressive analysis of the state. How does the retooling of the state impact on progressive strategy? Does it spell the end of welfarism or can the state be transformed to accommodate the interests of working people once again? Reinterpreting the rich tradition of left critiques of the state for the contemporary neoliberal era, the panel will set out to apply the insights of Marx, Gramsci, Poulantzas, Milliband and others to our fast-changing and polarising modern reality.

Organiser: Feyzi Ismail (fi2@soas.ac.uk)