What does it mean to be a revolutionary today?

Presentation by Slavoj Žižek at the Marxism conference in Bloomsbury on July 2, 2009.

For Žižek communism is an idea of radical emancipation that has existed continuously since antiquity. The nostalgia for the 20th century, state socialism, the social-democratic welfare state, but also councils and direct democracy should be critically analyzed. We should not shift our desires to other countries with apparent positive developments, as an excuse for not doing anything ourselves.

"First thesis: You should see the principle problem in capitalism itself. (...) That means, we should stick to the overcoming of capitalism as the ultimate goal, not to capitalism with a human face (...) most of the so-called left today plays the game of capitalism with a human face. (...) This is the non-negotiable minimum of being a revolutionary communist today."