Radical Left Movements in Europe: (The Mobilization Series on Social Movements, Protest, and Culture)

When the Iron Curtain lifted in 1989, it was seen by some as proof of the final demise of the ideas and aspirations of the radical left. Not many years passed, however, before the critique of social inequalities and capitalism was once again a main protest theme of social movements. This book provides an account of radical left movements in today’s Europe and how they are trying to accomplish social and political change. The book’s international group of leading experts provide detailed analysis on social movement organizations, activist groups, and networks that are rooted in the left-wing ideologies of anarchism, Marxism, socialism, and communism in both newly democratized post-communist and longstanding liberal-democratic polities. Through a range of case studies, the authors explore how radical left movements are influenced by their situated political and social contexts, and how contemporary radical left activism differs from both new and old social movements on one hand, and the activities of radical left parliamentary parties on the other. Ultimately, this volume investigates what it means to be ‘radical left’ in current day liberal-democratic and capitalist societies after the fall of European state socialism. This is valuable reading for students and researchers interested in European politics, contemporary social movements and political sociology.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations vii List of contributors ix Acknowledgements xii 1 Radical left movements in Europe: An introduction 1 MAGNUS WENNERHAG 2 Radical left parties and movements: Allies, associates, or antagonists? 22 LUKE MARCH 3 Radical left parties and left movements in Northern Europe 43 DANIEL KEITH 4 Radical and moderate left activism in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia (1989–2010) 62 JIRˇ Í NAVRÁTIL 5 Contentious labour in Italy and Greece: Movements and trade unions in times of precarity and austerity 82 LORENZO ZAMPONI AND MARKOS VOGIATZOGLOU 6 Left without its party: Interest organizations of former GDR elites and the transformation of the PDS/Linke 101 AMIEKE BOUMA 7 "History bites us by the neck": Contemporary communism(s) in Finland and France 119 AINUR ELMGREN 8 Troubles with the (troubled) past: Anarchists in Poland after 1989 137 GRZEGORZ PIOTROWSKI 9 Rethinking transformative events to understand the making of new contentious performances: The "autonomous left" and the anti-fascist blockade in Lund 1991 156 ANDRÉS BRINK PINTO AND JOHAN PRIES 10 The radical left movement, revolutionary groups, and Syriza: Framing militant dissidence during the Greek crisis 173 SOTIRIOS KARAMPAMPAS 11 Diffusion of radical repertoires across Europe: The arrival of insurrectionary anarchism to Finland 193 MARI KUUKKANEN 12 The Ukrainian new left and student protests: A thorny way to hegemony 211 VOLODYMYR ISHCHENKO 13 Taking every opportunity against the state: Anarchists in contemporary Russia 230 CHRISTIAN FRÖHLICH 14 Radical anti-fascism in Scandinavia: Shifting frames in relation to the transformation of the far right 248 JAN JÄMTE 15 A resurgence of the radical left? Some notes 268 DONATELLA DELLA PORTA Index 280

About the Author :
Magnus Wennerhag is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. Christian Fröhlich is an Assistant Professor at the School of Sociology, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Grzegorz Piotrowski is a faculty member at the European Solidarity Centre, Gdańsk, Poland. He is also Researcher at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden.