The 2015 failure by the Greek government to negotiate its way out of austerity gave new impulse to strategic debates on the Left. Much of the debate came to revolve around two poles. Wage the battle primarily at the European level, democratizing the Union, or have a left-wing government break free by exiting the eurozone or EU. Oftentimes, unfortunately, both approaches limit the Left’s strategic horizon to a better management of capitalism. More significantly, the underlying theories of change largely forego central questions of government and power. In the face of a European state under construction, a strong movement is needed, not to reform the Union, but to start over on different bases.

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