I'm rather belatedly reading my way through Richard Seymour's latest book, Against Austerity. I may engage with it in depth on this blog at some point; then again, I may not. Either way, you should read it. The book presents us with a thorough diagnosis of the confection of ideology, economic strategy, and social policy that goes under the name 'austerity'. Particular strengths include a recognition that austerity is a class strategy (and therefore that liberal complaints that austerity doesn't work, that is, doesn't restore growth and reduce deficits, miss the point), a critique of nostalgic defences of the welfare state (Spirit of '45 and all that...), and a blunt recognition that austerity commands a level of popular support, or at least acquiescence, that flies in the face of a misplaced pollyannaism common on the Left. This last point is made in the context of an excellent discussion of ideology.
The overall tone of the book is one of pessimism without hopelessness. Again, this is a needed antidote for much of the Left. It deserves reading; and it deserves reading particularly on the Labour Left - which is particularly prone to some of the mistakes catalogued by Seymour: naive critiques of austerity as bad economics and welfare nostalgia. We are not always very good at engaging with stuff from outside our own stable. At the very least, this book should be an exception. It is far more politically sophisticated than the standard issue stuff on austerity post-2008, and is a welcome contribution from one of the best minds on the contemporary British Left.
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