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The individual is a fiction: Why the left must return to party politics.


The left has given in too much to the assumption that politics begins with an individual, but that's a liberal assumption. Leftists, historically, begin with the assumption that politics begins in groups, and for the left in the 19th and 20th centuries, that group is class. Class is what determines where our political interests are coming from.

Political theorist Jodi Dean explains why today's left, mired in self-denial and end-stage identity politics, can use post-Occupy discontent around economic inequality to construct a revolutionary party, one that mobilizes individuals to form a collective with the goal of building a new (Communist!) society over the ruins of capitalism.

Jodi is author of Crowds and Party from Verso Books.

Interview Transcript via Antidote Zine

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Jodi Dean

Jodi Dean is a professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.


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