Andrew Jackson — Is “Postcapitalism” On the Horizon?

Review of Paul Mason's Post Capitalism.

Paul Mason is a leading British economic journalist, currently a columnist for The Guardian. He is also a long time left political activist. His new book, Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. New York, 2015) is a challenging, sometimes obscure, sometimes brilliant, eminently worthwhile read, and an optimistic take that the left might, once again, be marching in tune with the forces of history.…

The Bullet
Is “Postcapitalism” On the Horizon?
Andrew Jackson

Gar Alperovitz and Ben Manski — What Comes After Capitalism?

Teach-ins were a thing back in the day (Sixties and Seventies). Glad to see them coming back.

An extraordinary process of change is about to explode this month on campuses and in communities across the United States. Thousands of Americans are coming together in dozens of locations to take on the question of what kind of system should replace capitalism. The process is called the Next System Teach-Ins.

Teach-ins to address the fundamental question of how to move beyond capitalism will be taking place on campuses as well as in community centers and correctional facilities -- most between Earth Day (April 22) and May Day (May 1), following kickoff events this month at the New School and the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City; and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The largest teach-in is planned for the University of California, Santa Barbara, between April 26 and 28. Major sessions from that campus will be live-streamed into classrooms, house parties and workplaces across the world.

What comes after capitalism is exactly what the left needs to be working on now.

The idea that capitalism as a system may be coming to an end, that something new must ultimately be created, is no longer restricted to groups on the political left. Survey after survey has found millions of Americans embracing ideas far different from business as usual. A January 2016 poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers, even in a state like Iowa, found that 43 percent described themselves as "socialist" -- a higher percentage than those who self-identified as "capitalist." Eighty-four percent of Democratic voters under the age of 30 voted for the self-described "democratic socialist" candidate Bernie Sanders, and one-third of all Sanders supporters have told pollsters they will vote for the Green Party's Jill Stein in the general election if Sanders is not the Democratic Party nominee.

Nor is the understanding that the current system is not the be-all and end-all of history restricted to progressives in general. Long before anti-capitalism found mass expression in the Sanders campaign, four years ago, in 2012, Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum -- the annual gathering of corporate and financial leaders in Davos, Switzerland -- declared: "Capitalism in its current form no longer fits the world around us."….

The problem the Left has with agreeing on anything. But this is the incubation stage. Divergent thinking before convergent.

The discovery process begins with questioning and employs both creative and critical thinking.

But what kind of system might one day transcend the traditional 20th-century models of corporate capitalism on the one hand, and state socialism on the other? And what can those who insist that the next system produce democracy, justice, equality, ecological sustainability and a culture of community do to build understanding of the kind of political and economic system and society that we want and need?

What can we do to move forward in a positive way? How do we engage the question, both practically and theoretically? How do we move beyond abstract rhetoric? These questions at the heart of the teach-ins matter to all of us, but they are particularly urgent to those born after the 1960s.…

We've seen state socialism and know it's not a workable alternative. We've experienced corporate capitalism; it has proven itself inequitable, unstable and ultimately unsustainable. Over the coming decades, and especially when the next crash comes, will we be ready to offer a clear, workable and compelling vision of how to reorganize society?

Truthout | OpEd
What Comes After Capitalism? Upcoming Teach-Ins Can Show a Way Forward

Gar Alperovitz, founding principal of the Democracy Collaborative and retired Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, College Park Department of Government and Politics, and Ben Manski, activist and founder of the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, and co-founder of Move to Amend, Wisconsin Wave, the 180/Movement for Democracy and Education, and United for Peace and Justice

Ian Welsh — Capitalism and Good Post-Capitalism

Ian reflects on the forced transition from feudalism to capitalism through enclosure and urbanization, and what the transition to post-capitalism needs to involve. At least, the peasants, serfs, and tenant farmers were self-sufficient under feudalism. Under capitalism they became wage serfs and debt slaves. Post capitalism is about fixing that.

Ian Welsh
Capitalism and Good Post-Capitalism

Ann Pettifor — Is capitalism “mutating” into an infotech utopia? [book review]

I was privileged to be invited by the St. Paul’s Institute to discuss (on the 3rd November, 2015) the thesis in Paul Mason’s recent book PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future with a keynote speech from the author.

Mason’s book is both a riveting and intellectually exhilarating read. It challenged me at a range of levels, and has added considerably to my list of must-read books. However, I have strong disagreements with Mason, and these are outlined in my review, published here as a PRIME e-publication.

I disagree primarily with his assumption that capitalism is subject to Kondratieff waves or “mutations”. The implication is that these waves are “natural” and unavoidable – beyond human agency. I strongly disagree. We have subordinated capitalism to the interests of society before – during the Golden Age of Economics from 1945 – 1971 – and can do so again.

Second, Mason is preoccupied by profits. I consider profits to be an out-of-date account of the rise in capitalist wealth, which is now accumulated as capital gains by the new, expanded and more ruthless rentier capitalism.

Third, Mason is optimistic about technology’s ability to eliminate pricing, to free up knowledge and to empower society to act collaboratively and with a “general intellect”. While I share some of that optimism, I see new technology as intensifying exploitation – by barring access to society’s collective public goods, and by transferring all risk on to today’s increasingly insecure working class – the precariat. Above all Mason’s optimism about technology’s role in our future means that he never fully grasps the nettle of ecological limits.

To download the review in full, click here

Debtonation
Is capitalism “mutating” into an infotech utopia?
Ann Pettifor

Compass — The emergent new economy

Good summary of the alternative economy movement. Lots going on beneath the radar of the media.

Wonderful and hopeful as all of this is, the problem with these hundreds of emerging schools of thought, practice, movements and initiatives is that few of them seem to be aware of each other, let alone collaborating and cross-fertilizing. No one seems to know how they do or don’t fit together, what kind of ecosystem they might create and how collectively they might have some answers to the reform of economics and politics.

Frustrated by this lack of clarity and in response to all this activity, a group of us have set up an initiative called the Real Economy Lab which hopes to map all this activity, to understand how it all fits together, what gaps in thinking and experimenting there may be, and to provide a space where these many initiatives can collaborate and coalesce into a global movement for change. 

We want to help dial up the voice of the 99% into the global debate about the future of economics and commerce. Perhaps the 1% are right to suspect that their time in control might need to cede to a wider collaboration with new insurgent movements of the 99%.

Compass

The emergent new economy
Joe

As Harvard’s Professor David Korten puts it “Imagine an economy in which life is valued more than money and power resides with ordinary people who care about one another, their community, and their natural environment. It is possible. It is happening. Millions of people are living it into being. Our common future hangs in the balance.”