Winners' Roster

2001: "the best essay...that augments the theses put forth in Daniel's book Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours?" was "Anti-Capitalism and the Terrain of Social Justice," by SAM GINDIN, who holds the Packer Chair in Social Justice in the Department of Political Sciences at York University, Toronto, Ontario.

2002: STAUGHTON LYND, a longtime labor activist, won for "Students and Workers in the Transition to Socialism."

There was no winner in 2003.

2004: ANDREW BLACKMAN, a financial journalist based in New York City, won for "What Is the Soul of Socialism?" (the question posed by the foundation for that year's competition).

2005: The foundation's question: "In the struggle for socialism, what should be done to attain and sustain equality and justice? What should we mean by equality and justice?" was answered most convincingly by DANIEL FINN, a journalism student at Dublin City University, in "Sustaining Equality and Justice in the Struggle for Socialism."

There was no winner in 2006. (The foundation asked: "Given poverty, environmental degeneration, religious fanaticism, racism and imperialism, can civilization ruled by Capital survive? What are the alternatives?")

2007. The question: "What major breakthrough in socialist theory is necessary in order to move the practical struggle forward?" The winning essay: "The Eco-Socialist Challenge," by ARTHUR MITZMAN, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and author, most recently, of Prometheus Revisited: The Quest for Global Justice in the Twenty-First Century (University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).

2008: "What recent event or political process that you have participated in, witnessed or studied has given you inspiration and confidence that 'a better world is possible' and why do you think the fight for a better world will succeed?" The prize was shared by two winners, MARGARET MORGANROTH GULLETTE, Resident Scholar at the Women's Study Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, for "The Contagion of Euphoria"; and HUGO RADICE, Life Fellow in Politics and International Study at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, for "1968 and the Idea of Socialism."

2009: "The global economic crisis has revealed capitalism's inability to meet the needs of the vast majority of the world's population. Given the experience of the last century, how can a case for socialism be made?" The winner was SALVADOR AGUILAR SOLE, of Barcelona, Spain, for "Socialism in the 21st Century World: What to Learn from Failed Past Experiences."