Deradicalizing Intellectuals and the Next Left:
Reclaiming the “impatient lives” of Black Marxists and Jewish internationalists

Socialism 2014

June 26, 2014
With Alan Wald

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there has been a mounting succession of condemnations of the anti-imperialist Left, and especially of sharp critics of the Israeli state, authored by one-time radical intellectuals previously inspired by the 1968 “New Left.” Their manifestos, essays, books, and even petitions provocatively call for “A Decent Left” and oppose BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) as a violation of “academic freedom,” or even as “anti-Semitic.” How does this current “deradicalization” of intellectuals compare with those of the past? How might the political legacies of what Daniel Bensaïd calls the “impatient lives” of Black Marxists and Jewish internationalists provide a much-needed jolt from the Left to forge a radically original 21st century socialist culture?

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