Since beginning publication in 1964, The Socialist Register has been one of the most important sources of engaged, critical, and influential theoretical interventions on the socialist left. Released as an annual with a focus on publishing rigorous, sustained pieces that take up particular themes, it has always been committed to developing an independent, nonsectarian relationship with Marxism. This volume - the Register's first-ever reader - grapples with the question of whether political organisation is a necessary part of the struggle by the working-class to overthrow capitalism. In pieces published over the course of publication's entire history contributors, from Ralph Miliband to Jean-Paul Sartre, examine various aspects of this theme.

“The intellectual lodestone for the international Left since 1964”

—Mike Davis

“Compulsory reading for people who refuse to be resigned to the idea that there can be no alternative to our unacceptable society”

—Daniel Singer

“Socialism has always been about democracy, human rights and internationalism…that faith is what has characterized the work of the Socialist Register”

—Tony Benn

“I know the Register very well and have found it extremely stimulating, often invaluable.”

—Noam Chomsky

Leo Panitch is professor of political science at York University in Toronto and author of Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination.

Greg Albo is a professor in the Department of Political Science at York University, Toronto.