New Internationalist. The people, the ideas, the action in the fight for global justice.

I’m a socialist. There I said it. I’m a socialist.

But wait a minute. You’re not supposed to admit to being a socialist these days. Socialism is dead. It’s in the past, like dinosaurs and glam rock. The free market has won the day. The end of history. We’re all happy consumers now. Capitalism rules.

Early in 2006, while researching a magazine about Venezuela*, I was invited to dinner at a lovely house in a very pleasant neighbourhood of Caracas. My host was anxious that I should not be fooled by government propaganda. Passing journalists and intellectuals from the North were, she felt, rather vulnerable to it.