Vivek Chibber: Reclaiming Class Politics for the 21st Century

In the closing keynote of Jacobin's 15th anniversary conference, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber argues that four decades of neoliberalism did more than dismantle unions and hollow out the workers' parties.

They broke the chain of political education that had passed from one generation of militants to the next, and left a vacuum filled by the universities and the NGOs. The result is the first left in modern history that has to argue for the primacy of class — and argument that we're winning but only barely.

Chibber also makes the case that Zohran Mamdani's campaign vindicates the old common sense, that electoral wins have to become a stepping stone to class organisation rather than a substitute for it, and that socialists need to stop apologising for their own theory.

Read the edited transcript: jacobin.com/2025/11/neoliberalism-working-class-mamdani-socialism

Recorded September 13, 2025 at "Socialism in Our Time," Jacobin's fifteenth anniversary conference in New York City.

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About us:

Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture in print and digital formats.

Vivek Chibber — professor of sociology, NYU; editor, Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy.

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