New Left Review

With great fanfare, the Trump Administration came to Milei's aid, laying on a White House visit, a $2o billion currency swap—at a fixed exchange rate, not the market price-and talk of another $2o billion in private and sovereign-fund lending. But Trump was alert to the risk of being associated with a loser and Milei's presidential term had another two years to run. 'If he does win, we're going to be very helpful', Trump told the press, with Milei sweating by his side. 'And if he doesn't, we're not going to waste our time.? Argentina's liberal-conservative media had been ambivalent about Trump, not relishing his threat of imposing a rare-earths deal on the country in exchange for his help. But at this point, he was seen as the country's only saviour.

With the Trump administration doing its best to get its desired outcome in the Honduras elections, we are seeing a new US Latin America policy taking shape. Martín Mosquera in the latest NLR has sketched what that looks like elsewhere on the continent.

newleftreview.org/.../martin-m....

In NLR 155, Nicholas Mulder on Orain’s Le monde confisqué:

‘Is the world considered infinite and its systemic interactions accordingly positive-sum; or is it inherently limited in its growth potential and destined to be ruled by zero-sum competition?’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...

Owen Hatherley, Painted Bodies — Sidecar On Aleksandr Deineka.

Owen Hatherley on Aleksandr Deineka:

'He was exactly the sort of realist a modernist would love – surprising and imaginative, uninterested in the classical canon, politeness or precedent and open to experiment.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Lily Lynch, Confections — Sidecar On Sanna Marin’s memoir.

Lily Lynch (@lilylynch.bsky.social) on Sanna Marin’s memoir:

‘Throughout Hope in Action, Marin invokes ‘the collective’ – sometimes to illustrate the qualities of the Finnish soul, at others to give her lust for power an egalitarian sheen.’

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Lukas Slothuus, Oil Futures — Sidecar Norway’s elections.

Lukas Slothuus (@lslothuus.bsky.social) on Norway's elections:

‘With the new government dependent on left votes in parliament, there is opportunity to continue to prise open the debate on the future of oil. This will not be easy.’

'AI is a true forcing move for literary criticism because it forces us to define precisely what kind of humane intelligence we can offer'

Nan Z. Da on LLMs and literary criticism, in NLR 155.

newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...

Grey Anderson, Iron-Ass — Sidecar Dick Cheney (1941-2025).

'He dissimulated even when the truth would have served him. Disclosure invited scrutiny; scrutiny invited limits; limits imperilled the office.'

Grey Anderson on Dick Cheney (1941–2025):

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

'To what extent, beneath the now-fetishized aesthetic, was socialist modernism meaningfully the product of a radically different social system to liberal capitalism?'

Owen Hatherley on 'Socmodernist' architecture, in NLR 155.

newleftreview.org/.../owen-hat....

'In the absence of growth, no party can offer a credible programme capable of sustaining an electoral majority. The outcome has been a new configuration of political struggle'.

In NLR 155, Dylan Riley and Robert Brenner reply to critics.

newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...

an abstract painting of assorted grid lines which divide the canvas into blocks of colours, mostly blues, greys, oranges and whites

In NLR 155, Martín Mosquera dissects the rise of Milei:

‘The successive failure of the two major political coalitions fuelled a crisis of representation. The situation suggests a variant of Gramsci’s catastrophic stalemate.’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...

Jeremy Gilbert & Alex Williams, Alternative Horizons — Sidecar A reply to Dylan Riley.

Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams on the new Marxism:

‘This is precisely why it is important not to conceptualise material interests as transhistorical categories existing outside of specific social conjunctures.’

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

NLR 155 is now online.

Featuring Dylan Riley and Robert Brenner on the long downturn and its politics, plus Nicholas Mulder, Owen Hatherley and more.

newleftreview.org

Dylan Riley, Material Interests — Sidecar On the new Marxism.

‘A key question, however, is rarely asked: what does ‘‘material interest’’ mean?’

For Sidecar, Dylan Riley on the new Marxism:

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

30% off digital subscriptions A year of NLR, including access to the entire archive since 1960. Thousands of articles including classics by authors from Theodor Adorno to Ellen Meiksins Wood.

30% off digital subscriptions for the next 2 days. Includes access to the entire archive: thousands of articles, including classics by authors from Theodor Adorno to Ellen Meiksins Wood.

newleftreview.org/s/154_digita...

Front cover of a book titled Inventions of a Present by Fredric Jameson

Carolyn Lesjak reviews Fredric Jameson in NLR 154:

‘In contrast to “the private lives of currently fashionable autofiction”, the works discussed here “try to write the collective, or at least register the crisis of the individual attempting to do so.”’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

A piece of abstract artwork showing interlocking rectangles of different sizes in black, grey and white.

In NLR 154, Aaron Benanav develops his framework for a post-capitalist social order:

‘From a technical standpoint, there may be no single optimal answer. But from an economic and political perspective, a choice must still be made.’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

Low-angle green-tinged image of a harbour in 1929. In the background there are industrial chimneys. In the centre there is a small steamship, with clouds of steam trailing behind it. In the foreground, the sun's reflection on the wet, rocky shore.

Julia Hertäg reflects in NLR 154 on three generations of Arbeiterfilme, from the radical expressionism of the Weimar era and 1960s militancy to the damning portrayals of post-reunification Germany presented by contemporary filmmakers.

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

Owen Hatherley, Making Strange — Sidecar On Rab-Rab Press.

Owen Hatherley on the leftist avant-garde publisher Rab-Rab Press:

'The books take an oblique approach to revolutionary history and the various attempts at creating a socialist culture, resurrecting it in select fragments.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

An abstract oil painting showing vertical blue streaks fading as they descend into a pale yellow background

Kevin Gray on the rise of the far right in South Korea, in NLR 154:

‘The political system remained prey to polarization, anti-incumbency and popular dissatisfaction, with the electorate both ‘deeply’ and ‘evenly’ divided, as in the US.’

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

'No one is entitled to rest content on their progressive laurels by simply referring to the "rule of law" without attention to the kinds of law and legal institution such invocations end up buttressing.'

Martti Koskenniemi on international law in NLR 154

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154...

NLR 154 is online now.

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154

Subscribe!

NLR 154, July–August 2025 NLR 154, July–August 2025. Includes articles by Julian Stallabrass, Martti Koskenniemi, Susan Watkins, Julia Hertäg, Carolyn Lesjak, Aaron Benanav, Kevin Gray and Jonathan Ree

NLR 154 now online

Featuring Susan Watkins on Israel, Aaron Benanav on a world beyond capitalism, Martti Koskenniemi on international law, Kevin Gray on the Korean right, Julia Hertäg on cinema of the German working class, and much more...

Subscribe now

newleftreview.org/issues/ii154

Owen Hatherley on the leftist avant-garde publisher Rab-Rab Press:

'The books take an oblique approach to revolutionary history and the various attempts at creating a socialist culture, resurrecting it in select fragments.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Erika Balsom, No More — Sidecar Kamal Aljafari’s ‘With Hasan in Gaza’.

For Sidecar, Erika Balsom on Kamal Aljafari’s new film 'With Hasan in Gaza':

'Against all these crimes of extermination, every second of this documentary is an archive of presence, demanding recognition and remembrance.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Leo Robson, Law and Order — Sidecar Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’.

Leo Robson on Ari Aster's 'Eddington':

'It’s as if the sensationalism of the subject matter alerted Aster to the virtues of patience and modulation...'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Andrew Murray, Force of Opposition — Sidecar On Britain’s new left party—2.

For Sidecar, Andrew Murray discusses the politics of Britain's new left party:

'We should diffuse the idea that there is a coherent class project that could rescue society from its present depredations. That will have cascading political effects.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Jeremy F. Walton, Life-Sized — Sidecar On Melania Trump.

"Her performed indifference to the enigma she presents is her defining feature as a public persona. Spectacle, for Melania Trump, is a dish best served cold."

For Sidecar, Jeremy Walton on Melania Trump:

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

James Schneider, Building the Party — Sidecar An interview with James Schneider.

For Sidecar, an interview with James Schneider on Britain's new left party:

'We need a fundamental shift in our strategic vision in order to create a consensus on the left that recognises the importance of popular power.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Lily Lynch, Convergence? — Sidecar Trump and Ukraine.

Lily Lynch on Trump and Ukraine:

'Has Trump revealed his willingness to defer to the conventional neocon-Atlanticist outlook, or is this merely an ephemeral convergence?'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Adewale Maja-Pearce, The General — Sidecar Muhammadu Buhari (1942-2025).

Adewale Maja-Pearce on Muhammadu Buhari:

'A dour man who was known for never smiling in public, Buhari quickly showed his hand upon coming to power.'

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...