Conclusion

Abstract

In 1994 the Marxist utopian Andre Gorz proclaimed: “As a system, socialism is dead. As a movement and an organized political force, it is on its last legs. All the goals it once proclaimed are out of date. The social forces which bore it along are disappearing. It has lost its prophetic dimension” (vii). In these brief words Andre Gorz eloquently captured the death of socialism. But his words also belie a more fundamental demise. With the Soviet Union’s collapse visions of alternatives to capitalism seemed to also die. All alternatives were rolled up in the failures of twentieth-century socialism, and as a result discussions of socialism were silenced by the belief that socialist alternatives were a utopian impossibility. In some places, however, out of the rubble a renewed appreciation for democratic socialist alternatives was found. Surprisingly, this renewal has not come from the Global North. Instead, some parties in the Global South have found in these difficult times an opportunity for the rejuvenation of radically democratic socialist visions grounded in local conditions and practices. It is in this context that the novel experiments in South Africa and Kerala take on particular relevance.