Moving Beyond Capitalism

The book speaks to the widespread quest for concrete alternative ways forward ‘beyond capitalism’ in the face of the prevailing corporatocracy and a capitalist system in crisis. It examines a number of institutions and practices now being built in the nooks and crannies of present societies and that point beyond capitalism toward a more equal, participatory, and democratic society – institutions such as cooperatives, public banks, the commons, economic democracy. This seminal collection of critical studies draws on academic and activist voices from the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Argentina, and from a variety of theoretical-political perspectives – Marxism, anarchism, feminism, and Zapatismo.

Table of contents

Forward by Richard D. Wolff

Part I: Economic Democracy / The Social Economy

1. Beyond Capitalism to Sustainability: The Public Bank Solution, Ellen Brown

2. Building a Grassroots Democratic Economy: The Rising Tide of Local Self-Reliance, Workplace Democracy, and Social Justice, Len Krimerman

3. Worker’s Economy in Argentina: Self Management, Cooperatives and Recovered Enterprises in a Time of Global Crisis, Andre Ruggeri

4. Cooperative Cuba, Cliff DuRand

Part II: The Commons

5. Commoning Together, Cliff DuRand

6. Building the Commons as an Antidote to the Predatory Market Economy, Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

7. Autogestión: Prefiguring a New Cooperativism and the ‘Labor Commons’, Marcelo Vieta

8. Divisions in the Commons: Ecuador’s FLOK Society and the Zapatistas’ Escuelita, George Caffentzis

Part III: Alternatives to a System in Crisis

9. Economic Crises, Environmental Crises: Moving beyond Capitalism, David Schweickart

10. The Left and a Green New Deal, Jerry Harris

11. Alternatives to Development in Latin America, Rebecca Hollender

Part IV: Bringing Politics Back In

12. The Limits of Localism, Gregory Diamant

13. Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope, Cynthia Kaufman

14. Toward A Stronger, More Influential Political Left: An Appeal for Critical Self-Reflection, Michael McCabe

Part V: Socialism in the 21st Century

15. Building a 21st Century Socialism, Cliff DuRand

16. Out of the Abyss, the New World, Gustavo Esteva

17. The Communal State (Venezuela): Communal Councils and Workplace Democracy, Dario Azzellini

18. The Necessary Renovation of Socialist Hegemony in Cuba: Contradictions and Challenges, Olga Fernández Ríos

19. Cuba’s Cooperatives: Their Contribution to Cuba’s New Socialism, Camila Piñeiro Harnecker

20. The Dialectic of Constituent Power and Constituted Power, Cliff DuRand