SOS Alternatives to Capitalism
"A major contribution to changing the parameters of political debate. It helps move beyond the pseudo-alternatives of the political mainstream and begin to work for the kind of change we can believe in." —John P Clark, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers' greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist.

Richard Swift examines the past shortcomings and present health of not one but many other paths to changing the world, including socialism, social democracy, anarchism, ecology, and degrowth.

In this fully updated new edition he argues that our current centralized but beleaguered 'thin democracy' is vulnerable to corruption by big money and by crude populism and patriotism. A sane alternative is based on a democratically controlled commonwealth, and a 'thick democracy' populated with many nodes of popular power rooted in both the economy and civil society.

Combining the practical with the visionary, he shows that finding alternatives to capitalism is no longer an academic issue for the left—it is an urgent planetary necessity.

Richard Swift is a journalist and activist who works in print and radio. He was for more than two decades an editor of the New Internationalist magazine. He has written a number of books on themes as diverse as mosquitoes and street gangs. His current interests include forms of radical democracy and ecological degrowth alternatives.

1118878372
SOS Alternatives to Capitalism
"A major contribution to changing the parameters of political debate. It helps move beyond the pseudo-alternatives of the political mainstream and begin to work for the kind of change we can believe in." —John P Clark, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers' greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist.

Richard Swift examines the past shortcomings and present health of not one but many other paths to changing the world, including socialism, social democracy, anarchism, ecology, and degrowth.

In this fully updated new edition he argues that our current centralized but beleaguered 'thin democracy' is vulnerable to corruption by big money and by crude populism and patriotism. A sane alternative is based on a democratically controlled commonwealth, and a 'thick democracy' populated with many nodes of popular power rooted in both the economy and civil society.

Combining the practical with the visionary, he shows that finding alternatives to capitalism is no longer an academic issue for the left—it is an urgent planetary necessity.

Richard Swift is a journalist and activist who works in print and radio. He was for more than two decades an editor of the New Internationalist magazine. He has written a number of books on themes as diverse as mosquitoes and street gangs. His current interests include forms of radical democracy and ecological degrowth alternatives.

16.95 In Stock
SOS Alternatives to Capitalism

SOS Alternatives to Capitalism

by Richard Swift
SOS Alternatives to Capitalism

SOS Alternatives to Capitalism

by Richard Swift

Paperback(Second Edition)

$16.95 
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Overview

"A major contribution to changing the parameters of political debate. It helps move beyond the pseudo-alternatives of the political mainstream and begin to work for the kind of change we can believe in." —John P Clark, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers' greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist.

Richard Swift examines the past shortcomings and present health of not one but many other paths to changing the world, including socialism, social democracy, anarchism, ecology, and degrowth.

In this fully updated new edition he argues that our current centralized but beleaguered 'thin democracy' is vulnerable to corruption by big money and by crude populism and patriotism. A sane alternative is based on a democratically controlled commonwealth, and a 'thick democracy' populated with many nodes of popular power rooted in both the economy and civil society.

Combining the practical with the visionary, he shows that finding alternatives to capitalism is no longer an academic issue for the left—it is an urgent planetary necessity.

Richard Swift is a journalist and activist who works in print and radio. He was for more than two decades an editor of the New Internationalist magazine. He has written a number of books on themes as diverse as mosquitoes and street gangs. His current interests include forms of radical democracy and ecological degrowth alternatives.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780263748
Publisher: New Internationalist
Publication date: 04/11/2017
Edition description: Second Edition
Pages: 190
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Richard Swift is a journalist/activist who works in print and radio. He was for more than two decades an editor of the New Internationalist magazine. He has written a number of books on themes as diverse as mosquitoes and street gangs. His current interests include forms of radical democracy and ecological degrowth alternatives. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Table of Contents

Author's Preface to the Second Edition 7

Foreword Cy Gonick 13

Introduction: A sad and beautiful world in peril 19

1 Sources of hope: life before capitalism 23

Happiness is not a modern invention

Losing our diversity

Communitarian alternatives

2 Capitalism: a system of reckless resilience 32

Historical roots

Primitive accumulation

Neoliberalism

Capital versus society

Politically agnostic capitalism

3 State socialism 48

Democratic roots in the 19th century

Communism and social democracy

A tale of two social democracies

Capital's modernizers

The problem of the state

4 The anarchist impulse 63

The organized anarchist movement

Ebb and flow

A broader libertarian impulse

The end of classical anarchism?

5 The eco-divide 77

The rise of environmental consciousness

Greening of the Left

War on environmentalists

Beyond growth politics

Vivir bien

6 The Utopia debate 90

Dreaming of a better world

The anti-utopias

The utopianism of the powerful

A lived Utopia

7 Rebuilding the alternatives Southern-style 101

21st-century socialism

A continent moves to the left

Social democracy with backbone

Rocky road

Defending and expanding the commons

Protecting water and forest

The commons as a fount of hope

Democratic promise

8 The democratic emergency 128

Rolling back the Sixties

A hollowed-out emergency

Squeezing political space

Complacency and crisis

9 The autonomous rupture 141

The Italian influence

Autonomists on the future

Co-operative alternatives

Politics and anti-politics

What do we do about the state?

10 What should we stand for? 161

A thick democracy

A program for change

Degrowth

Bringing finance under control

Challenging the wage-labor system

Exiting the maze

Index 185

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