Arguably, the financial meltdown of 2008 and its continuing aftermath mark some sort of turning point in global history. As the first capitalist crisis of the twenty-first century, 2008 and its aftermath have been compared to the great depressions of the 1870s and 1930s, and the generalised recession of the early to mid 1970s (Panitch and Gindin 2012). The latter served as an impetus for the transition from Fordist-Keynesian regulation to globalising neoliberalism. But what sort of turning point? Several years on, capitalism seems to be in the deepest, most sustained slump since the 1930s (McNally 2011), and although the crisis has been very uneven in its geographical spread and reach, it is most certainly systemic. This crisis, moreover, is more than just a slowdown or contraction in the rate of capital accumulation, with all that that entails. It is also profoundly ecological. This is most urgently felt in terms of climate change, but also in terms of interrelated issues, such as declining biodiversity through species extinction, rising food insecurity and resource depletion resulting from extractivism.

How do movement intellectuals associated with the production and mobilisation of counter-hegemonic knowledge view the crisis? What can we learn from their reflections? On the basis of in-depth interviews with 91 members of 16 transnational alternative policy groups (TAPGs), this chapter takes up these questions. But first it offers an overall perspective on the crisis, drawing on neo-Gramscian political economy. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of key insights from the research on left responses to the crisis.

A DUAL CRISIS

For more than a century and a half, left intellectuals have analysed capitalist crises within a political-economy framework rooted in Marx's critique of capital. Simple observation of economic history shows capitalism to be a crisis-prone form of society. Yet Marx went further, revealing capital's deep crisis dependence. Capital accumulation follows a familiar boom-bust rhythm. Capital must grow or die; capitalists must reinvest their profits or lose competitiveness – but when aggregated over all capitals, the pursuit of growth in the boom phase creates an expanding volume of capital-seeking profitable outlets, which eventually outstrips the available venues within the ‘real economy’, threatening to depress profit rates.