Reviewed: Freedom Not Yet: Liberation and the Next World Order

Abstract

Surin, Kenneth.(Durham: Duke University Press, 2009, 415 pp.).
Reviewed by—Jeff Shantz,Kwantlen Polytechnic University, March 2012

[Introduction]

Despite spectacular failures (most recently the financial crisis of 2008 to present) neoliberalism continues to dominate the policy visions and commitments of global decision-making elites. Opposition to neoliberal politics and the possibilities of social transformation and the development of real alternative social relations are at the heart of heterodox Marxist Kenneth Surin’s concerns in Freedom Not Yet. Surin (who has previously made some useful contributions to autonomist Marxist theory) suggests that within projects of Western neoliberalism most people are in need of liberation from their socioeconomic circumstances. Neoliberalism creates an increasingly polarized and impoverished society. Surin is particularly interested in the oppression of poorer countries and the poor globally. He asks: “Who are the political subjects capable of building and maintaining a liberated world? What are the possibilities of their development as forces for social change?â€