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How ‘anti-politics’ threatens left advance

Anti-Politics: On the demonisation of Ideology,
Authority and the State
by Eliane Glaser
(Repeater Books, £8.99)

IN THIS short but no-holds-barred attack on the retreat from politics with a capital P, Eliane Glaser questions why there has been a withdrawal from political parties in recent years, from effecting change at the level of the nation state and from thinking big in terms of ideology and widely despised grander narratives.

In its place, she suggests, there is a fairly amorphous and structureless perspective where priority is given to localism, so-called autonomy and ill-defined concerns about identity and participation.

Convincingly argued and eminently quotable, Glaser’s overriding aim is centred around building 21st century socialism rather than middle-of-the-road notions about citizenship.

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