For most of the twentieth century, the hopes and frustrations of the global left were  stitched into the two red flags of communism and social democracy, political traditions marked indelibly by their European origins. Of these tattered traditions, Europe today, along with Latin America, stands as a last remaining redoubt.

Of course, the last decades of the twentieth century saw European socialism in its various guises lose much of the soil in which it had grown for generations, as the continent’s industrial towns decomposed and its leftist parties and trade unions were hollowed out. Still, despite everything, the socialist idea retains in Europe a cultural resonance and legitimacy, as well as an institutional base, that exceed anything comparable in the democratic world. If the twenty-first century were to bring any global resurgence of socialism, Europe would likely be among the first regions to feel the tremors.

This special section of Jacobin looks into the prospects and problems of the European left in the new age of austerity. Why now? What makes this perennial sad story worthy of another reexamination? I’d like to suggest that Europe today is witnessing developments that may soon bring an end to the last forty years’ trajectory of steady left decline; whether what comes next will be a revival or a final collapse will be determined by events that lie closer than we think.