ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter explores the notion of a global left. It offers an analysis of contemporary global politics from the perspective of the struggle and counter-struggle between different global lefts and global rights, leading up to the present conjuncture where a new ‘sovereigntist global right’ is ascendant. It then considers how a new global left might articulate a plausible and inspiring left counter-programme. It argues that while the twentieth-century national left focussed on a fairly linear struggle between labour and capital within the confines of the nation state, the era of purely national lefts is over. Instead, it suggests that the twenty-first-century left will have to be a global left, meaning that it will have to have a multi-scalar problem analysis and political programme with connected ideas and interventions at a multiplicity of levels from the local to the global, and a multi-dimensional approach that deals with the critical four elements of contemporary left thought and practice – class, imperialism, ecology and democracy – in a unified way. The chapter then proposes an analytical framework to help conceptualise and operationalise a range of possible twenty-first-century global lefts. Finally, it summarises the chapters ahead.
