The time of crises, the crisis on the left and the need to broaden the horizons

Abstract

Based on Chasinian theory, we intend to argue that, for the left to stretch the horizons once again, it is necessary to recognize the defeats of the communist movement and, ultimately, the profound crisis within the left. Based on the analysis of the utopias of the 1920s and on the comparison between the perspectives of the critique of political economy in the classics of Marxism and the current state of the foundations of the main research of the present, we will establish that, more than ever, it is not possible today to extract poetry from the past, but from the future. The result is that the time of crises is one in which self-criticism and the identification of the limitations of contemporary theorizing are urgent. If the objective is to effectively criticize the current form of the capitalist system of production, it is still necessary to get a rid of many illusions, to recognize many defeats so that, then, communism – and not the cynicism of the extreme-right – can once again animate the masses.