Democracy and Revolution

Is socialism dead since the fall of the Soviet Union? What is the way forward for the Left? This book argues that Cuba and Venezuela provide inspiration for anti-globalisation and anti-capitalist movements across the world. Another world Is possible, but only through an effective political strategy to win power on a popular and democratic basis.

D. L. Raby argues that the way forward for progressives is not the dogmatic formulae of the Old Left, nor in the spontaneous autonomism of John Holloway or Tony Negri. Instead, it is to be found in new, broad and flexible popular movements with bold and determined leadership. Examining the relationship of key leaders to their people, including Hugo Chávez and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Raby shows that it is more necessary than ever to take power, peacefully where possible, but in all cases with the strength that comes from popular unity backed by force where necessary.

In this way it is possible to build democratic power, which may or may not be socialist depending on one’s definition, but which represent the real anti-capitalist alternative for the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

D.L. Raby is Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Liverpool, and also holds the rank of Professor Emeritus in the History Department of the University of Toronto. He is the author of Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today (Pluto, 2006). Raby has written many studies of Latin American and Iberian History and Politics, and is a long-standing activist in solidarity campaigns with Latin American struggles and social movements in the UK and Canada.