Socialists and free speech revisited

JVL Introduction

In this review Samuel Farber engages sympathetically and critically with the arguments advanced in David Renton’s new book on the issue of Free Speech, in which the arguments against allowing free speech for fascists and more recent developments in relation to the regulation of hate speech are explored.

Here are some of the issues Farber touches on – and leads us to reflect on – in relation to Renton’s presentation:

• What precisely are the legal barriers on the exercise of free speech – and what as socialists should we wish them to be?
• How much regulation do we want and need in relation to fascism?
• How do these arguments translate in dealing with the growing problem of hate speech?
• What kind of regulation do we want – and by whom?
• To what extent should the state be the only or even the main regulatory agent?
• How should social media be regulated?
• Isn’t legal regulation inadequate if not dangerous for those on the left to wish for?
• What are the alternatives?

Farber argues here, as he has done before, that “free speech should be defended, not merely because it helps to organize and fight for a new society, but on its own right because it should also be a constitutive element of the new socialist society.”

We have reposted other articles by Farber before, most relevant in this context being A socialist approach to Free Speech, and we thank him for permission to repost this latest contribution to the debate.

This article was originally published by New Politics on Mon 27 Sep 2021. Read the original here.