There is a pressing need for regime change. Capitalist relations of production kill, maim, destroy lives and the planet. Its logic makes these unacceptable outcomes inevitable. Many recognize this reality. The difficulty is how to overthrow the regime under which we live.
A sophisticated understanding of how capitalism maintains its hold is a prerequisite. People must be shown that alternate ways to live are both desirable and possible in order to make them work for transformative change. We invite discussions on what a better social system would be like.
Once people believe that a very different and much better world can be created, they must devise ways to engage with others who are like-minded and whose oppressions and vulnerabilities can only be overcome by rejecting capitalism. Bridges must be built, political actions designed to move from capitalism to a different system.
Niko Block, Augmenting the Left:
“Capitalism’s self-reinforcing tendencies are strong enough to ensure that its own innate crises, specifically financial and environmental crises, will never spontaneously ignite systemic change…the transformative crisis must be a political one, charged with active discussion, organizing solidarity…there are thousands of people who are still drawn to the idea of revolutionary politics [but they need] a moment when the battle suddenly seems winnable… it is unwise to launch a movement before concrete demands have been…narrative and vision [are essential].”
All of this is extremely daunting, not the least because it must be done from within the material and ideological framework of capitalism.
But it must be done. It can be done.
Because it makes sense. A hugely diverse number of great thinkers, activists and institutions have thought deeply about these very issues and, in the aggregate, provide a platform for action because (i), they provide support for the rejection of capitalism on the basis that it is anti-social and inhumane and (ii), they acknowledge that, while, there is no one blueprint it is possible to think about, and to perfect, the nature of the solidarity-building campaigns that must be fought.
On the Ugly Character of Capitalism
Karl Marx on 19th century capitalism:
“There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery.”
The Episcopal Commission for Social Affairs for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis 1983:
“The current structural changes in the global economy… reveal a deepening moral crisis. Through these structural changes, “capital” is reasserted as the dominant organizing principle of economic life. This orientation directly contradicts the ethical principle that labour, not capital, must be given priority in the development of economy based on justice. There is, in other words, an ethical order in which human labour, the subject of production, takes precedence over capital and technology. This is the priority of labour principle. By placing greater importance on the accumulation of profits and machines than on the people who work in a given economy, the value, meaning, and dignity of human labour is violated. By creating conditions for permanent unemployment, an increasing large segment of the population is threatened with the loss of human dignity. In effect there is a tendency for people to be treated as an impersonal force, having little or no significance beyond their economic purpose in the system. As long as technology and capital are not required by society to serve human needs they are likely to become an enemy rather than an ally in the development of peoples.”
Michael Lebowitz, Build it Now: Socialism for the twenty-first century?, N.Y.: Monthly Review. p, 2006:
“What other economic system can you imagine that could generate the simultaneous existence of unused resources, unemployed people, and people with unmet needs for what could be produced? What other economic system would allow people to starve in one part of the world while elsewhere there is an abundance of food and where the complaint is “too much food is being produced.”
Michael Parenti:
“The goal of a good society is to structure relations and institutions so that cooperative and generous impulses are rewarded, while antisocial ones are discouraged. The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: ruthless, competitive conniving, opportunism. Acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment – or at least much handicap – to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.”
C.B. McPherson, Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval, 10–11:
A capitalist society…compels a continued net transfer of the power of some men to others, thus diminishing rather than maximizing the equal individual freedom to use and develop one’s natural capacities which is claimed [by the proponents of capitalism].”
Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”
“It was the incarnation of blind and insensate Greed. It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths; it was the Great Butcher – it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh.”
John Connolly, 1910:
“Capitalism teaches people the moral conceptions of cannibalism are the strong devouring the meek; its theory of the world of men and women is that of a glorified pig-trough where the biggest swine gets the most swill.”
Esther Vivas, in Climate & Capitalism 20 Aug. 2011:
“Those who defend a capitalism generating poverty, inequality and war should justify themselves.”
John Meynard Keynes, “National Self-Sufficiency” Yale Review, XXII (1932-33):
“Capitalism is not a success. It is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not virtuous – and it does not deliver the goods. In short, we dislike it, and we are beginning to despise it. But when we wonder what to put in its place we are extremely perplexed.”
From Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, NY/London: Monthly Review Press, 1955, p. 157:
Eston: “Well, wot do you reckon is the cause of poverty…?
…
Owen: The present system – competition – capitalism…
Crass: “Ow do you make it out”?
Owen: “I put it like that for the sake of shortness… suppose some people were living in a house ..and suppose they were always il, and suppose that the house was badly built, the walls so constructed that they drew and retained moisture, the roof broken and leaky, the drains defective, the doors and windows ill-fitting, and the rooms badly shaped and draughty. If you were asked to name, In a word, the cause of ill-health of the people who lived there you would say– the house. All the tinkering in the world would not make that house fit to live in; the only thing to do with it would be to pull it down and build another. Well, we’re living in a house called the Money System; and as a result most of us are suffering from a disease called poverty. There’s so much the matter with the present system that it’s no good tinkering at it. Everything about it is wrong and there’s nothing about it that’s right. There’s only one thing to be done with it and that is to smash it up and have a different system altogether. We must get out of it.”
Acknowledging the Difficulties
Mark Fisher, Capitalism Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, 2009:
“This is capitalism realism, the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it now is impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.”
Frederic Jameson:
“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism.”
Elliot on Marx, 6-7:
“The very nature of capitalism makes it extremely difficult for those who live within it to devise the right kind of politics to confront it and inflict defeats on it. All are adversely affected in different aspects of their lives at different times. They experience both the boons and hurts of capitalism in different ways.”
Michael Lebowitz, Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006, pp.27-28, 43.:
Symptoms are challenged…nature of capitalism is not confronted, i.e., per Marx, we engage ‘in a guerilla war against the effects of the existing system.” The reason capitalism is not confronted is that it appears natural….
“The great failing is that we have lost sight of an alternative. And because we have no grand vision of an alternative (indeed, we are told we should have no grand conceptions) then the response to the neo-liberal mantra of TINA…has been: let’s reserve health care, let’s not attack education, and let’s try for a little more equality and a little more preservation of the environment. Because of our failure to envision an alternative as a whole, we have many small pieces, many small NGOs; indeed, the only feasible alternative to barbarism proposed has been barbarism with a human face.”
Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society:
Provided the economic basis of the social order is not called into question, criticism of it, however sharp, can be very useful to it, since it makes for vigorous but safe controversy and debate, and for the advancement pf ‘solutions’ to ’problems’, which obscure and deflect attention from the greatest of all ‘problems’, namely that here is a social order governed by the search for private profit. It is in the formulation of a radicalism without teeth and in the articulation of a critique without dangerous consequences, as well as in terms of straightforward apologetics, that many intellectuals have played an exceedingly ‘functional’ role. And the fact that many of them have played that role with the utmost sincerity and without being conscious of its apologetic import has in no way detracted from its usefulness.”
Elements of a Better World
Peter Singer, How are we to Live?, Melbourne Text, 1993:
“To live ethically is to think about things beyond one’s own interest. When I think ethically I become just one being, with needs and desires of my own, certainly, but living among others who also have needs and desires. When we are acting ethically, we should be able to justify what we are doing, and this justification must be of a kind that could in principle, convince any reasonable being.”
Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies, New York: Simon & Shuster, 1931:
“From the standpoint of daily life… there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men.”
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labour of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
From Fratelli Tutti, Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father, Francis, On Fraternity and Social Justice:
Citing, Angelus, L’Osservatore Romano, 11-12 Nov, 2019:
“There is no life when we claim to be self-sufficient and live as islands: in these attitudes, death prevails.”
Pope Francis, citing St. John Chrysostrom and Gregory the Great:
If one lacks the necessary to live with dignity another must be detaining it. “Not to share our wealth with the poor is to rob them…the riches we possess are not our own, but theirs as well.”
The principle of the common use of created goods is the first principle of the whole ethical and social order.
Only when there is not one victim will we be able to enjoy the feat of fraternity.
Fraternity is the key. It is not merely respect for individual liberty. Without fraternity, liberty is a condition for living, a right to choose, not a way to love. Individualism does not make us more equal, more free or more fraternal. The sum of individual interests is not equal to a better world overall. Radical individualism is a difficult to eradicate virus – it makes us believe that we have free rein to pursue our ambitions.
William Morris:
“Art for the people.”
Jeremy Corbyn, 2017:
“In every child there is a poem, in every child there is a painting, in every child there’s music…I want all children to be inspired, to have the right to play music, to write poetry, to learn in the way they want.”
Walter Abell, “Labor Arts Guild: What it is, What it does, What it plans” Vancouver, 1945:
“The time will come when Labor and Art will be united in fully organized agencies for the promotion of their joint aims and democratic social ideals, in a manner that will impress the public and win its understanding. I doubt whether any force in the world exert more transformative influence, or contribute more to human progress, than Art and Labor working hand in hand.”
Eugene Debs, while in jail:
“I am for socialism because I am for humanity.”
Gerard Cohen
“Capitalism is a society in which capitalists own the means of production and workers own their labour power; socialism is a society in which workers collectively own the means of production while still individually owning their own labour power.”
Paul Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy, NY; Monthly Rev. P. 1942:
“… under capitalism ownership of the means of production is vested with one set of individuals while work is performed by another.”
Samir Amin
“If a new socialist alternative is not developed, and if progressive social and ideological forces do not struggle for the alternative, the contradiction will not generate a “new order” (as the neoliberals in power everywhere like to call it), but merely catastrophic chaos.”
Michael Lebowitz, for CIM (centro International Miranda) Caracas, 2 June, 2002:
“When I speak of socialism for the 21st century, I have in mind a combination of social ownership of the means of production, social production organized by workers and communities, and a society based upon solidarity which is oriented toward producing for communal needs and communal purposes.”
Michael Lebowitz, Build it now: Socialism for the twenty-first century, N.Y.: Monthly rev. P. 2006, 66-67:
“ “… in the world we want to build. Democratic decision-making within the workplace (instead of capitalist direction and supervision), democratic direction by the community of the goals of activity(in place of direction by capitalism), production for the purpose of satisfying needs(rather than for the purpose of exchange), common ownership of the means of production (rather than private to group ownership), a democratic, participatory, and protagonistic form of governance(rather than a state over and above society), solidarity based upon recognition of our common humanity(rather than self-orientation), and the focus upon development of human potential (rather than upon the production of things) – all those are limbs of a new organic system. The truly human society.”
From Here to There
Albert Einstein:
“the mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its solution which may merely be a matter of mathematical and experimental skill. To raise questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
Michael Lebowitz, The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development, N.Y.: Mthy R. P. 2010
“If you don’t know where you want to go, no road will take you there. However, knowing where you want to go is only the first part; it’s not at all the same as knowing how to get there.” And Michael Lebowitz, Build It now (below), p.43:
There is an old saying that if you don’t know where you want to go, then any road will take you.”
Istvan Me’sza’ros, Socialism or Barbarism: From the ‘American Century’ to the the Crossroads, N.Y.: Mthly. R. P. 2001.
Without identifying the overall destination of the journey, together with the strategic direction and the necessary compass adopted for reaching it, there can be no hope for success.”
Kim Stanley Robinson:
“It is hard to imagine the end of capitalism. But I would just flip that and say it’s hard to imagine how we get to a better system. Imagining the better system isn’t that hard.”
Daniel Singer, Whose Millenium? Theirs or Ours?, N.Y.: Monthly. R. P. 1999.
“ If any attempt to change society, and not just to mend it, is branded angrily and contemptuously as utopian, then, turning the insult into a badge of honor, we must proudly proclaim that we are all utopian.”
Raymond Williams,
“Culture is ordinary.”
William Morris:
“Intelligence enough to conceive, courage enough to will, power enough to compel. If our ideas of a new society are anything more than a dream, these three qualities must animate the majority of the working-people; and, then, I say, the thing will be done.”
Gerald Cohen:
“The point of theory is not to generate a design, a blueprint but, rather, just set a framework for political struggles.”
And in his “Back to Socialist Principles” 18 March, 1994, U of T, WS 1993-95 (10):
“The point of theory is not to generate a comprehensive social design which the politician then seeks to implement…implementing a design requires whole cloth, and nothing in contemporary is made of whole cloth. Politics is an endless struggle, and theory serves as a weapon in that struggle, because it provides a characterization of its direction, and of its controlling purpose.”
William Tabb, “The World Trade Organization? Stop World Takeovers” (2000), 51 Monthly Rev. 8:
“Change does not come about from the mere fact of oppression, but from a belief that a better alternative is not only desirable but possible, not necessarily tomorrow, but when the momentum can be turned around.”
Jeremy Corbyn in Jacobin:
Socialism isn’t about saying to everybody, ‘go off and read this or that history book or theory’. But it’s about saying,’ in your everyday life, you’re a socialist’. You look after your neighbour, you share things, support the National Health service, and make socialism a part of your life.”
Sam Gindin, Political Openings, see below:
“Out of this comes the most difficult undertaking: the project – cultural as well as organizational and political – of creating a new politics that…is not only class-focussed but is also class rooted. That is, the invention of a left agenda that is not just engaged in periodic working-class struggles but is also genuinely embedded in workers’ daily lives and committed to nurturing the best of the working class’s historic potentials.”
Abraham Lincoln, in J. G. Nichols & J. Hat, Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works, vol. I, N.Y.:Century Co., 1894, 92:
“No good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us without having first cost labor. And inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has happened in all ages of the world that some have labored and others have without labor enjoyed large proportions of the fruits. This is wrong and should not continue. “
Michael Lebowitz, The Socialist Alternative:
Workers are fertile ground for radical transformation. The capitalist workplace requires collective production, while demanding hierarchy appropriation. This builds in notions of common ownership and egalitarianism as resistance to domination an exploitation is generated. Latent desire for social ownership and social production are to be brought out. As well, however, a purpose to own and to control production must be developed, the productive activities should have needs as their planned outcome. The fight is about doing away with the bargain: there is to be no quid pro quo in return for giving up fruit of their labour. The desire to do this is a solidarian principle:” The solidarian society is precisely a ‘gift economy’ – one in which those who give are rewarded not by the anticipation of what they may receive at some point in return but rather because not to give violates one’s own sense of virtue and honour.”
Esther Vivas, “Anti-capitalism and environmentalism as a political alternative” citing Daniel Bansaid: “ Let us not deceive ourselves, nobody knows how to change the world.” Vivas notes that malaise is widespread but there is great resignation about the state of affairs. One of the things to overcome is to leave politics to politicians; politics is not to be a profession. Vivas points out that merely feeling bad and identifying what ails one is not enough. It may make people anti-capitalists but this is a negative force. But that is not all it does. It points to the things that need remedy and underlying that the potential to articulate an alternative vision as the particular struggles take place. Eg., nationalize banks to give democratic control over money supplies, a housing policy that gives universal access to shelter (public stock), stop all privatization, prevent commodification of nature water, air, trees…
Sam Gindin, “Political openings: Class struggle during and after the pandemic,” The Bullet, 6 Sept, 2020:
It is not that capitalism is facing existential crisis but one of social legitimacy. Pandemic has made it clearer than it was for many people that it fails to address popular hopes and awareness of commodification of everything. There is a crisis of social legitimacy (which affects legitimacy of democratic institutions). Argues that reforms must be struggles that bring into focus need for system change. Wealth tax, not just to get money but to enhance idea of lessening inequality: Economic conversion to fix environmental problems, create jobs, emphasise needs over commodification and union strength to help foundation of social agency.
Frederick Douglass:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many water. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will… If we ever get free from all the repressions and wrongs heaped upon us , we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.”
On violence as means toward transformation – from Fiona Rossien Toronto Star, writing about tactics of animal protectors:
“They say we’re breaking the law by storming? How do you think women got the right to vote? How do you think slavery was abolished? People stood up and broke the laws! Because they’re stupid laws.” (with property/policing?)