BOOKS / Bill Fletcher Jr. : Gar Alperovitz and Visions of a New World

What Then Must We Do?:
Political economist Gar Alperovitz
and visions of a new world

The struggle for structural reforms is essential to changing the 'common sense' of the U.S. political arena. But it is not enough to wound the rabid beast; one must ultimately bring it down.

By Bill Fletcher Jr. / Jacobin / May 13, 2013

Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do?, will be Thorne Dreyer's guest on Rag Radio, Friday, May 17, 2013, from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin, and streamed live to the world. They will be joined by Rag Blog economics writer Roger Baker. The show will be rebroadcast by WFTE-FM in Mt. Cobb and Scranton, PA, Sunday morning, May 5, at 10 a.m. (EDT), and the podcast will be posted at the Internet Archive.

[What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution, by Gar Alperovitz (2013: Chelsea Green); Paperback; 224 pp; $17.95.]

I read Gar Alperovitz’s What Then Must We Do?: Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution with a level of skepticism. He set out to make an argument as to what can be done right now to demonstrate to a growing population weary of neoliberal capitalism that another world is not only necessary and possible, but that one can already see the first glimmers of that new world.

Alperovitz’s views are shaped by several assumptions. First, that actually existing capitalism is not working. Second, that socialism, as we have known it in the 20th century did not work. Third, that people need to actually see what an alternative world would look like in order to be encouraged to fight for one.

He then proceeds to identify actual examples of different struggles and projects that have been undertaken by progressives that show that a different way of organizing life and the economy is not only a great idea, but living realitiy.

Alperovitz spends little time critiquing 20th century socialism. For the most part he is interested in demonstrating that capitalist dogma, in particular neoliberal capitalist dogma, is both a myth as well as fundamentally unworkable. He suggests that there are projects that can be undertaken -- like worker cooperatives -- that will build power for the everyday person and actually move towards social transformation.

Advocating for these institutions, Alperovitz helps the reader to understand the differences that exist under the rubric of worker ownership, showing that there are forms of alleged ownership that really do not amount to control while at the same time there are processes that can be undertaken that alter workplace dynamics as well as the relationship of an enterprise to the broader community.

Alperovitz links his proposed process with what he sees as the next American Revolution. In that sense he believes that it is critically important that new transformative change in the United States must be rooted in lived reality in the country and also viewed by the public as “American.” For that reason, demonstrating to the “99%” that alternatives are underway and that they are not the creatures of foreign ideologies and foreign powers is absolutely essential.

What Alperovitz proposes are the equivalent of what has been traditionally known as “structural reforms” or in some cases “non-reformist reforms” along with a variation on what the Black Panther Party once called “survival programs.” This is reason enough that this book should not only be read but studied carefully.

The structural reforms and survival programs that Alperovitz is suggesting respond to the irrationality of neoliberal capitalism and the inability of the existing system to meet the needs of a growing percentage of the population. The reforms proposed are both clear and compelling and, in many cases, achievable.

In reading What Then Must We Do? I found it less a platform for revolutionary change than a platform for a frontal assault on neoliberal capitalism. To borrow the terminology of activist Carl Davidson, it is a program of a “popular front” against finance capital. It is the sort of platform and approach that can help to unite a broader progressive movement and make it more than the sum of its parts.

Alperovitz’s concern that the “99%” needs to see examples of the future is not grounded in 19th century utopian socialism. This book is not suggesting that various alternative experiments can be built, exist alone, and somehow convince the larger population -- by their example -- that this is the way to go. Rather he is suggesting that progressive and left forces undertake a multi-decade process of expanding democracy at all levels, within which the various experiments in alternatives are actualized.

Again, this is very much in line with certain more traditional leftist strategic directions regarding structural reforms and survival programs that can be fought for within the context of democratic capitalism.

But is this enough?


In the fall of 1988, I had the opportunity to tour Northern Ireland, meeting with the leaders of Sinn Féin. One of the areas to which I was introduced were worker cooperatives that had been established by Sinn Féin or its allies.

I arrogantly asked Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams what these cooperatives had to do with the liberation of Ireland from the British. Adams, very patiently, explained to me that, while these cooperatives would not liberate Ireland, at the same time the nationalist population was impoverished and needed a way to survive. With my tail between my legs I acknowledged the profundity of his point.

One of the strengths of What Then Must We Do? is that, much like Sinn Féin in the late 1980s, it is responding to an immediate challenge among the population. It is suggesting that there are things that can and must be done right now particularly within sectors of the population that have been largely written off by either the state or by private capital. The “dead cities” of this country come to mind, like Camden, which have become modern reservations for redundant populations.

A second strength is that the objectives that would fall more within the rubric of structural reforms actually do link with a larger democratizing movement that is necessary to take this country away from its drift toward neoliberal authoritarianism (or, for that matter, right-wing populism).

If thought of as part of a larger strategy, struggles around genuine healthcare reform, banking reform, or alternative economic development become battlegrounds not only in favor of the “99%,” but sites where the people are actually engaged in their own liberation.

But Alperovitz does not answer key questions. What, for example, is neoliberal capital doing while we are moving this democratization process? Alperovitz acknowledges that there remain dangers from the Right, including the use of violence. But this factor is critically important for all leftists and progressives.

The ruling power bloc has largely consolidated around a notion that huge chunks of this population -- at least 47%, according to Romney -- are nothing more than parasites and should be written off. They see no need, at least at the present time, to construct anything approaching an alliance with the working class generally, or organized labor in particular, along the lines of the New Deal coalition. Rather they seek to either crush the organized forces of the working class altogether or completely marginalize them.

While Alperovitz is correct to argue that this platform can be critical for a progressive movement, he may understate the challenges that face the Left. At each moment when we win, the forces of reaction not only seek to overturn the victory, but they also seek to overturn the means through which the victory was actually won.

None of this is to suggest that anything other than a movement for consistent democracy should be proposed. Rather, that the struggle that is undertaken in the name of structural reforms, survival, and democracy will inevitably reach a fundamental impasse with capital over the basic rules of society. At that point there should be nothing to lead anyone to believe that capital will handle this peacefully and humbly.

As a result What Then Must We Do? seems incomplete. I was persuaded by Alperovitz that a glimpse into the future is critical largely due to reality of the failure of 20th century socialism, or more accurately, what is better described as the crisis of socialism.

We are not, in other words, starting off with a clean slate. There are experiences with socialist and so-called socialist projects and those experiences are uneven in their outcome, and failed over the longer term to provide an alternative to capitalism.

Yet this does not mean that an evolutionary path into the future is realistic. That may sound contradictory since the direction proposed by Alperovitz is one that I praise. But one must remember the context: his book serves as a platform for a popular front against finance capital. It is not, however, a platform for a new society.

Where Alperovitz and I disagree seems to be on the question of how “elastic” democratic capitalism is and will be over the coming years. I think that democratic capitalism is far more flexible in adjusting to circumstances and crises than many of us on the political Left have believed over the decades.

At the same time, the combination of the economic and environmental squeeze leads me to believe that the ruling elite is on a mad dash to secure as much as it can while it can. If this means political disenfranchisement of millions through voter suppression and other efforts, or more direct forms of terror, there is nothing in the history of capitalism that leads me to believe that they will fail to exercise such an option.

Given this, Alperovitz’s platform is at best one component in a much more long-term socialist strategy. By this I mean not only the vigorous fight for structural reforms, but a level of popular organization and mobilization that ultimately pushes for a different constitutional framework, a fundamentally different arrangement in favor of empowering working people, an end to imperialism, and a new relationship between humans on planet Earth.

Such change necessitates a revolutionary transformation and an active process of eliminating the forms of oppression central to capitalism.

In using the term “revolutionary” I am emphasizing a break with actually existing capitalism rather than a slow transformation away from the current toxic system. Such a break, however, is not something that can be led by a small yet spirited sect, and neither is it something that is simply proclaimed. In that sense what Alperovitz suggests at the level of timeline is correct; we are speaking about a process over decades that is then followed by a process of actual transformation lasting decades into centuries.

For many this may all seem like a distinction without a difference, but the importance of clarifying this lies in both matters of expectations as well as strategy. The “Chilean option” succeeded in part because the forces around Allende underestimated what it would take to defeat the political Right. The struggle for structural reforms and survival presented by Alperovitz is essential in cornering the political Right and changing the “common sense” of the U.S. political arena. But it is not enough to wound the rabid beast; one must ultimately bring it down.

This article was first published at Jacobin / a magazine of culture and polemic." 

[Bill Fletcher Jr. is a racial justice, labor and international writer and activist. He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; and an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com. His latest books are They’re Bankrupting Us!: And 20 Other Myths about Unions and Reimagining Labor Unions: Busting Myths, Building Movements. Find more articles by Bill Fletcher Jr. at The Rag Blog.]

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David McReynolds : Egypt, Beyond the Pyramids

Image from Mystic Journey.
Egypt, Beyond the Pyramids

Now we are seeing one of the rarest of things -- a moment when the people lose their fear of the State.

By David McReynolds / The Rag Blog / February 2, 2011

This is not really about Egypt but about revolution, something we have just seen in Tunisia and are certainly seeing in Egypt. Revolutions are baffling things because while we can “explain them” after the event, we can’t predict them before they arrive.

They have uncertain beginnings, and uncertain endings. I remember, in high school, reading Lincoln Steffens' autobiography (which is probably still in print). In it he discussed the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution. (Steffens is remembered for his quote, after his return from the Soviet Union in the early days of the revolution, when he said “I have seen the future and it works.”)

He was concerned with the issue of “Thermidor," a term that comes from the French Revolution, when on July 27, 1794 -- “9 Thermidor” under the revolutionary calendar -- the deputies, weary of mass executions (1,300 in June of that year), ordered the arrest of Robespierre and other members of the “Committee of Public Safety," and had them guillotined, marking the end of the Revolution and the consolidation of at least part of the old order.

The revolutions in the United States, Russia, and Cuba share one thing in common -- those against whom the revolt was carried out generally were driven out of the country. In the U.S. the loyalists (perfectly decent folks, for the most part) fled to Canada, the British West Indies, or back to the home country. In Russia the Civil War killed a great many of the White Russians, and those who did not die, fled into exile.

Cuba wisely permitted dissenters to leave -- the Mariel boatlift being an example of how the regime nonviolently eliminated a chunk of opponents. In France, despite the violence of the revolution, most of the opposition survived and in some ways France has suffered from this division to the present day.

We shall see, certainly, a longing in Egypt for order. Revolutions are great fun during their early days. (Despite the violence, there is an extraordinary exhilaration to them. Those who have seen Before Night Falls, which is generally seen as an anti‐Cuban film, as it tells the story of the poet, Reinaldo Arenas, will have to concede that it captures the early excitement of the revolution very well.)

Then food runs short, there is disorder (as we see in Egypt), travel is disrupted, the economy grinds to a halt, and there is a longing for a return to a sense of order. Even Lenin had to reverse course early in the Soviet Revolution, introducing his New Economic Policy (NEP) to save a foundering economy.

But for now we are seeing one of the rarest of things -- a moment when the people lose their fear of the State, when, as the Chinese say, “the mandate of heaven has fallen” and it is only a matter of time before the old regime must yield. We saw this for a few days in France in 1968, when it seemed as if a true revolution was about to sweep the country. Those my age who were active in the Vietnam anti‐war movement saw it for a brief moment after Kent State.

I remember being at a meeting of the anti‐war leadership at Cora Weiss’ house in Manhattan when the news broke that the U.S. had invaded Cambodia. We knew we had to make an immediate response, there was no time for a mass demonstration, and so we decided to go to Lafayette Park in front of the White House where, even though we could only rally a few hundred people, we would be sure to be arrested under the rules then in place, which limited the number of demonstrators.

We sent out the call to our networks. But between the time we met, which I think was on a Friday, and May 4th, which was Monday, the students at Kent State were shot dead by the National Guard.

This led to a general strike of students all across the nation. Campuses simply closed down spontaneously. So, on that Saturday we didn’t have a few hundred people -- we had close to 100,000 in Washington D.C., rallied in a week’s time.

We were nervous, not knowing if Nixon would give the order to shoot. He was nervous too -- Lafayette Park was ringed with buses, nose to nose so that no one could get in. But Nixon permitted the demonstrators to gather on the great lawn behind the White House for a “legal rally." The end of the war was still five years in the future, but in a sense that day marked the end of the legitimacy of the war in the eyes of the majority of Americans.

In Vietnam there were open revolts within the armed forces. It was an exciting time to live through... but of course it was not a revolution. Nixon was allowed to resign and Henry Kissinger is still able to appear on TV news channels as a foreign policy adviser, when he belongs in prison.

A far more important and genuine revolution was that in Iran, where a general strike in October of 1978 led, first, to efforts to control the people by firing live ammunition into crowds of youth surging the streets (those youth wore sheets of white, symbolic of death, meaning they were prepared for burial), until the police finally abandoned their posts, and in January the Shah had to flee for his life.

The violence of the Iranian Revolution was almost entirely on one side -- the Shah’s military. Ironically, despite massive U.S. military aid, the Shah had few of the standard crowd control weapons, such as tear gas. So secure did the regime feel, that the last place it expected a revolt was in the streets of Teheran.

The Russian Revolution is called the October Revolution, because the Bolsheviks took power on October 25 of 1917, but it actually began in April of that year. We may expect the Egyptian Revolution -- if, as I expect, it succeeds -- to follow a similar uncertain path.

To sum up thus far: no one knew in advance that Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt would be swept by revolutionary fervor this winter. And no one can be sure, at this writing, what is going to happen in North Africa and Egypt. We can, however, note several things. One is that the U.S., while it doesn’t know which way to turn at the moment, had been pressuring for change -- some of the U.S. aid funds had been going to pro‐democracy contacts in Egypt.

This doesn’t mean the U.S. favors democracy in Egypt; it doesn’t. It means that at least some in the State Department and the CIA knew that Mubarak’s situation was not stable. U.S. policy, not only in the Middle East but around the world, has been to favor “stable” regimes, which has meant military dictatorships. Egypt has been notorious for its authoritarian ways, its lavish use of torture (as was the Iran of the late Shah). But the U.S. has been happy to pour billions of dollars into Egypt to buy a secure alliance.

Israel has also had a strong interest in discouraging democracy in Egypt -- since Mubarak has kept the Muslim Brotherhood under control, and acted to establish peace with Israel.

Democracy has never been a favored choice of the U.S. leaders. During the Cold War we were happy to support Franco, the Fascist dictator in Spain. We engineered the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Iran in order to install the Shah. We, and Israel, had urged democratic elections in the Gaza strip, on the assumption the Palestinian Authority would win; unhappily, Hamas won and Gaza has been on the shit list of both the U.S. and Israeli governments ever since.

I remember the painful lesson I got in how “liberals” view free elections during the struggle of the Vietnamese. Robert Pickus, who had had financial backing from the War Resisters League to set up a group in Berkeley in 1958 called “Acts for Peace," before Vietnam was on the agenda, opposed those of us who called for unconditional withdrawal from Vietnam, on the grounds this wasn’t fair to the Vietnamese, because it would leave them “at the mercy of the Communists."

We pointed out that it was the U.S. that had blocked the free elections Vietnam had been promised in 1956. Pickus argued that we had to insist on a peace settlement which would guarantee not one, but two free elections. He knew that Ho Chi Minh would win the first; he hoped that with time and U.S. funding of the opposition, the Communists might lose the second.

The Establishment is never in favor of free elections if it thinks it might lose. If one looks back at the U.S. policy (and that of Israel) in the Middle East for the past 50 years it has been a series of gambles that did not pay off. In Israel’s case, the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 lead directly to the creation of Hezbollah, which is currently taking control of the government of Lebanon, thus extending Syrian influence further into Lebanon.

The U.S.managed to block Iranian control of Iran, but in the end lost out to the radical Muslims, who now play a key role in Iraq (the invasion of which was among the most remarkable blunders the U.S. has ever made).

We do not know what will happen tomorrow or next month. But we do know that the map of the Middle East is going to be very different by the end of the year. The U.S. is almost certain to lose its long‐term alliance with Egypt. It is very uncertain what will happen in Tunisia or Yemen, but in all cases U.S. influence will be greatly weakened. In Iraq the latest political developments insure that Iran will have more influence there than the U.S. In Lebanon, Syrian influence has been strengthened.

Whether any of this will induce Israel to make peace is hard to say. But a look at the range of events in the past six months strongly suggests that, once more, the brightest and best can win many short‐term victories but achieve major long‐term losses.

The most serious question is what we do here -- since neither you nor I have any influence on the events in Egypt. And what we need to do is to give our strong public support to the democratic forces in Egypt, even though we cannot know how long they will be democratic. One thing, however, is quite certain: we cannot determine the policies of those nations. We can only wish them luck, and reach out to them now.

[David McReynolds is a former chair of War Resisters International, and was the Socialist Party candidate for President in 1980 and 2000. He is retired and lives with two cats on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He can be reached at dmcreynolds@nyc.rr.com.]

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VERSE / Eric Gordon : The One-Leaflet Theory of Revolution

Graphic from Ben Cumming / Flickr.

The One-Leaflet Theory of Revolution

O God, O Muse, O Creative Spirit,
O shades of Revolution from generations gone,
I chasten my heart and bend my knee to implore you,
Send down,
to one so tired of working and waiting,
to one who winces with twinges of guilt
over a sinful night of dinner and music,
Send to this exhausted brain
that text of heavenly perfection,
that unearthly combination of letters and words,
that transcendent, pellucid, sonorous
expression of the people’s will
at this excruciating moment
that sublime manifesto of deliverance,
that noble pronouncement,
in a language all sentient beings may mystically apprehend,
Send down that one resplendent leaflet
leaping with imagination and potent with inventive genius

That will dilate the veins of indignation,
pump the blood faster through the heart,
lift cataracts from eyes,
and restore the halt and lame
to a full sprint toward the sun
to mold our class solidarity
into a fiery arm of victory
as glorious orchestras fill the air
with harmony no soul has ever heard
and the rhythm of masses marching as one.

And Muse or Spirit or God, please
do not forget to forward your flyer
in exactly that font and graphic design
your divine calculation determines
will awe and astound and amaze the population
into utter, confident conviction
that this, this one page of word and image,
be the prophetic answer to all our age-old prayers,
the long-sought comfort for all oppressed people,
the soothing balm to every hurt and wound,
the bugler’s final taps for numberless capital crimes.

And let it usher in a shining epoch of blissful peace
and art to please, delight, inspire,
that grants the joy of giving all we are able,
that blesses us with all we need.

O God or whoever, will this you bestow?

I’m listening.
Ready.
I’m sitting at my monitor prepared to transcribe.

Patient.
Patient!

Actually, I think I’m getting a little restless now.
I’m not hearing you.

‘Scuse me. Gotta get the phone.
Can I go out precinct walking today?!
Well, I was expecting a very important call.
It could come at any time.

But I can’t wait forever.
Yeah, I can go.
When and where do you need me?

Eric Gordon
October 17, 2010


Thanks to Mariann G. Wizard / The Rag Blog / Posted October 25, 2010

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BOOKS / The Great Turning : From Empire to Earth Community

The Great Turning:
Moving in a radical new direction

By Alex Knight / The Rag Blog / November 25, 2009

We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

-- The Earth Charter.

David Korten, long-time global justice activist, co-founder of Yes! Magazine, and author of such books as When Corporations Rule the World, lays out the fundamental crossroads facing the world in his 2006 book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community [Berrett-Koehler, 2007; paperback, 402 pp.].

In response to global climate change, war, oil scarcity, persistent racism and sexism and many other mounting crises, Korten argues we must recognize these as symptoms of a larger system of Empire, so that we might move in a radically different direction of equality, ecological sustainability, and cooperation, which he terms "Earth Community."

This is a powerful and important book, which excels in overviewing the big picture of threats facing our ecosphere and our communities at the hands of global capitalism(1), and translating this into the simplest and most accessible language so we might all do something about it. It’s pretty much anti-capitalism for the masses. And it has the power to inspire many of us to transform our lives and work towards the transformation of society.

Capitalism and Empire

Of course, Korten has made the strategic decision to avoid pointing the finger at “capitalism” as such in order to speak to an American public which largely still confuses the term as equivalent to “freedom” or “democracy.” In fact the “C” word is rarely mentioned in the book, almost never without some sort of modifier as in “corporate capitalism” or “predatory capitalism," as if those weren’t already features of the system as a whole.

Instead, Korten names “Empire” as the culprit responsible for our global economic and ecological predicament, which is defined as a value-system that promotes the views that “humans are flawed and dangerous," “order by dominator hierarchy," “compete or die," “masculine dominant," etc.

Korten explains that Empire, “has been a defining feature of the most powerful and influential human societies for some five thousand years, [and] appropriates much of the productive surplus of society to maintain a system of dominator power and elite competition. Racism, sexism, and classism are endemic features."

In this way the anarchist concept of the State is repackaged as a transcendent human tendency, which has more to do with conscious decision-making and maturity level than it does with political power. While this compromise does limit the book’s effectiveness in offering solutions later on, it does speak in a language more familiar to the vast non-politicized majority of Americans, and may have the potential to unify a larger movement for change.

Whatever you want to call the system, the danger it presents to the planet is now clear. Korten spells out the grim statistics: “Fossil fuel use is five times what it was [in 1950], and global use of freshwater has tripled... the [Arctic] polar ice cap has thinned by 46 percent over twenty years… [while we've seen] a steady increase over the past five decades in severe weather events such as major hurricanes, floods, and droughts. Globally there were only 13 severe events in the 1950s. By comparison, seventy-two such events occurred during the first nine years of the 1990s." If this destruction continues, it’s uncertain if the Earth will survive.

This ecological damage is considered alongside the social damage of billions living without clean water or adequate food, as well as the immense costs of war and genocide. But Korten understands that the danger is relative to where you stand in the social hierarchy -- the system creates extreme poverty for many, and an extreme wealth for a few others. He explains how the system is based on a deep inequality that is growing ever worse, “In the 1990s, per capita income fell in fifty-four of the world’s poorest countries… At the other end of the scale, the number of billionaires worldwide swelled from 274 in 1991 to 691 in 2005."

The critical point that these few wealthy elites wield excessive power and influence within the system to stop or slow necessary reform could be made more clearly, but at least the book exposes the existence of this upper class whose members are usually quite effective at hiding from public scrutiny and outrage over the suffering they are causing.(2)

Earth community: Growing a revolution

Standing at odds with the bastions of Empire is what David Korten calls “earth community,” a “higher-order” value system promoting the views of “cooperate and live,” “love life," “defend the rights of all," “gender balanced," etc. These values are elaborated to describe a counterforce to the dominant paradigm of society that seeks to replace it. “earth community, which emphasizes the demonstrated human capacity for caring, compassion, cooperation, partnership, and community in the service of life, assumes a capacity for responsible self-direction and self-organization and thereby the possibility of creating radically democratic organizations and societies."

It’s immediately obvious that these values stand in direct opposition to the self-interested, competitive, and top-down capitalist order that now stands over the entire planet.

In an era when “TINA -- There Is No Alternative” (to capitalism)(3) remains the dominant political-economic viewpoint, at least in the U.S., it’s this clear contrast between the two fundamental directions of Empire and Earth Community which is the book’s main strength. The crisis-laden society we live in today is rightfully understood as not a result of destiny, but merely one possibility that we have the power to overturn through our individual and collective actions.

Actually, Great Turning does one better and puts forward the controversial, though I think certainly correct, argument that the “corporate global economy” (capitalism) is facing unprecedented disruptions which will likely spell the end of its worldwide dominance, “forc[ing] a restructuring in favor of local production and self-reliance." The conditions bringing about this potentially monumental paradigm shift are pinpointed as peak oil,(4) global warming, the decline of the U.S. Dollar, and the ineffectiveness of standard military strategy.

As the editor of endofcapitalism.com, it makes me glad to see others writing about the limits to capitalist expansion, both ecological and social. However I would have hoped that as a veteran of the global justice movement Korten would have added to this outline of obstacles to global capitalism at least a broad description of how organized communities are consciously resisting and making progressive change possible.

From labor to environmentalists to students to feminists to people of color to queer and trans communities and far beyond, everyday people everywhere are involved in an active struggle to restore their dignity and create a better world. And despite a steady stream of propaganda to the contrary, in many ways these movements are winning.(5) We must give thanks and honor their successes, and their failures, so that we may grow a wiser movement for change.

The Great Turning also lays out a vision for what a future society organized around the values of Earth Community would look like, from culture to economy to spiritual values and more. Economically, the proposals are put forward under the heading “Local Living Economies," and include such common-sense but radical ideas as “Economic Democracy," “Human Scale," “Information and Technology Sharing," and “Fair and Balanced Trade.” It must be noted that Korten advocates the use of markets as “an essential and beneficial human institution," but only if they are thoroughly regulated to “assure an equitable distribution of ownership and income."

Another key insight is the distinction made between the “fictional wealth” of bank accounts, stocks, bonds, derivatives and so forth which are the obsession of our current economy, and what Korten calls “real” wealth: “Real wealth consists of those things that have actual utilitarian or artistic value: food, land, energy, knowledge, technology, forests, beauty, and much else. The natural systems of the planet are the foundation of all real wealth, for we depend on them for our very lives."

By flipping the idea of wealth on its head, Korten shows that social and ecological benefit should be primary considerations in all economic decision-making. For the author, and for myself, the goal is to create a system that seeks to maximize these real forms of wealth, not the profits of a few large corporations and wealthy investors. Investing in this form of wealth would allow for dramatically different economic outcomes, for example after surveying the poverty and immense pollution created through mountain-top coal removal, we might decide that it makes more sense to use sites such as Coal River Mountain, West Virginia, to produce wind energy instead.(6)

Korten outlines the society we are working towards in such vivid language that it’s worth quoting from him at length:

We will know a society has succeeded when it matches the following description:

• There is a vibrant community life grounded in mutual trust, shared values, and a sense of connection. Risks of physical harm perpetrated by humans against humans through war, terrorism, crime, sexual abuse, and random violence are minimal. Civil liberties are secure event for the most vulnerable.
• All people have a meaningful and dignified vocation that contributes to the well-being of the larger community and fulfills their own basic needs for healthful food, clean water, clothing, shelter, transport, education, entertainment, and health care. Paid employment allows ample time for family, friends, participation in community and political life, healthful physical activity, learning, and spiritual growth.
• Intellectual life and scientific inquiry are vibrant, open, and dedicated to the development and sharing of knowledge and life-serving technologies that address society’s priority needs.
• Families are strong and stable. Children are well nourished, receive a quality education, and live in secure and loving homes. Rates of suicide, divorce, abortion, and teenage pregnancy are low.
• Political participation and civic engagement are high, and people feel their political civic participation makes a positive difference. Persons in formal leadership positions are respected for their wisdom, integrity, and commitment to the public good.
• Forests, fisheries, waterways, the land, and the air are clean, healthy, and vibrant with the diversity of life. Mother’s milk is wholesome and toxin free, and endangered species populations are in recovery.
• Physical infrastructure -- including public transit, road, bridge, rail, water and sewerage systems, and electric power generation and transmission facilities -- is well maintained, accessible to all, and adequate to demand.

This kind of vision for the society we want is all too rarely discussed, but it should inform all our decisions -- otherwise we can too easily be confined to false choices and distractions from the way forward. In its best moments, this book acts as a beacon, illuminating the path we need to walk.

Limitations

In a book as ambitious as The Great Turning, there are bound to be parts that don’t succeed. Perhaps the most problematic ideas in the book come from the section on “Culture and consciousness.” Here David Korten lays out a system of five “orders” of consciousness, from the lowest, “Magical Consciousness," up to the “Fifth Order: Spiritual Consciousness." This hierarchy of consciousness is used to explain that those who favor Empire tend to think in terms of either fantasies or in simple power terms, while those favoring Earth Community are much more complex thinkers, incorporating concern for others and concern for the future into their decisions.

It’s an analysis that appears relatively benign at first, but in the end is sadly limited by the problematic liberal belief that we must win a “culture war” against the other half of society which is perceived as hopelessly ignorant. This line of thought fits in nicely with Red-State/Blue-State politics and the essentially classist stereotype that Southerners and rural Americans are backwards and uneducated. As long as progressives allow politicians and the media to convince us of the enormity of this “cultural divide," forward motion on the path to a just and sustainable world will be held hostage by partisan bickering.

Another direction, based on overcoming differences and emphasizing unity of interests is far more strategic. This can be made much easier by dropping the obsession with “culture and consciousness” and talking specifically about class, wealth, and power. Not that necessary and potentially divisive issues like race, gender, or sexuality should be left unraised! But when we begin to study the ways that most everyone, including the vast majority of Americans, are being victimized by capitalism, it becomes much easier to locate the true enemy.

For one example, recall that upwards of 95% of calls, emails and faxes to Congress in advance of the vote on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout last September were strongly negative. Here we can find an immediate rallying point against entrenched financial elites (who were able to buy the politicians into passing the bailout package over public opposition).

The “five orders of consciousness” analysis is further weakened by its apparent ageism. It’s bad enough to suggest that supporting the values of Earth Community is a function of “maturity," which implies that education and age are prerequisites for human decency. But the book goes one step further and actually assigns age numbers to each of the five levels of the consciousness ladder. Level 4, “Cultural Consciousness," which is associated with having “the capacity to question the dysfunctional cultural premises of Empire,” is specifically declared the domain of adults.

“A Cultural Consciousness is rarely achieved before age thirty,” he states on page 46, in direct contradiction to Abbie Hoffman’s warning not to trust anyone older than the big three-oh. Speaking as someone under thirty, I have to question the notion that older folks are more inclined to support justice than my generation. Ageist statements like this have the effect of invisiblizing youth and student activism, which has always been at the forefront of progressive change. At this very moment, hundreds of students in California are organizing rallies and occupations of their school buildings in order to save public education from unprecedented tuition increases.(7) I’d like to see the over-thirty crowd take such inspiring action for change!

A final limitation of the book is the lack of strategy it puts forward for achieving the “Great Turning” itself. As described by Korten, this enormous transformation will occur mostly by people elevating their consciousnesses and living differently -- “a turning from relations of domination to relations of partnership based on organizing principles discerned from the study of healthy living systems."

But what steps must be taken to transform these relations is not adequately explained. Instead there are vague passages such as the following: “As communities of congruence grow and connect, they advance the process of liberation from the cultural trance of Empire and offer visible manifestations of the possibilities of Earth Community. Individually and collectively they become attractors of the life energy that Empire has co-opted -- thus weakening Empire and strengthening Earth Community in an emergent process of displacement and eventual succession." It sounds good, but how is that supposed to actually happen?

If history is any guide, Empire doesn’t just fade away when something better comes along. Overcoming the system will require confronting the real forces of power that dominate our lives, and taking power back for our communities. The Civil Rights Movement remains the most inspiring and instructive example of democratic change in America. Black folks in the South had been struggling for freedom since before slavery ended and continued to resist Jim Crow laws through the 1960s, when legal segregation was finally defeated (though de facto segregation and racism continue today).

It wasn’t enough to set up separate Black-owned schools or restaurants as refuge from the white supremacist realities of America, although this helped and is a positive step. Taking down legal segregation required direct confrontations with power -- sit-ins at “whites only” restaurants, the legal action which brought about Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, voter registration drives, and many, many other manifestations of mass-based popular struggle.

To take down global capitalism and U.S. imperialism, the actual institutions behind what Korten calls Empire, any viable strategy will require a worldwide and multi-faceted, long-term movement for democratic change. This movement already exists, thankfully, so let’s celebrate it and talk about how to strengthen it to achieve our common goals!

Conclusion: Giving thanks for life and struggle

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community is a much-needed book which accomplishes a surprising amount despite its limitations. We can all be thankful that David Korten has compiled such wisdom from many different sources of inspiration in order to present a holistic vision of the world we need to lose and the world we want to gain. By translating anti-capitalist and anarchist concepts into everyday language, Korten widens the appeal of the fundamental transformation of society that is needed.

Moreover, he points towards a common-sense, radical politics by highlighting the strong majority of Americans supporting progressive change. For example, he quotes from various polls to show that, “Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. adults (87 percent) believe we need to treat the planet as a living system and that we should have more respect and reverence for nature... Seventy-six percent of Americans reject the idea that the United States should play the role of world police officer, and 80 percent feel it is playing that role more than it should be... Eighty-eight percent distrust corporate executives, and 90 percent want new corporate regulations and tougher enforcement of existing laws.”

And, “More than two in three would like to see a return to a simpler way of life with less emphasis on consumption and wealth (68 percent)." This is the common ground held by Americans that should be seen as the base for moving in the direction of "earth community." If the United States can transform itself, than surely other nations will follow.

This Thanksgiving, let us be thankful for our friends, families and communities, as well as our spiritualities for enriching our lives. And let us be grateful for the planet which sustains all that we do and all that we work towards. But let us also give thanks for those who speak and act boldly for justice and sustainability.

From the generations that came before us and won so many victories, like ending segregation so that we might strive for unity, to the new generation currently struggling to save education in California and clean energy in Appalachia, millions have been struggling so that we might continue working towards a future worth living in. By giving thanks, we honor that challenge.

Notes:

1. I’ve tried to summarize the main features of capitalism in my essay "What is Capitalism?”
2. The “ruling class” is exposed in simple but compelling terms by Paul Kivel in his 2004 book You Call This a Democracy? Who Benefits, Who Pays and Who Really Decides.
3. Right-wing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher coined the TINA phrase.
4. For a good introduction to the concept of “peak oil” see Energy Bulletin’s "Peak Oil Primer.”
5. Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber has written about the surprising success of grassroots movements for change in his essay “The Shock of Victory.”
6. See Coal River Wind for background on this choice, and Mountain Justice for ongoing news from the struggle to stop mountaintop removal.
7. After the UC Board of Regents passed a 32% tuition increase and similar measures were taken across the state, students have fought back by building an enormous movement to save affordable education. A recent compilation of links and information regarding the California student struggle can be found here (although it’s all over the internet).

[Alex Knight is an organizer and writer in Philadelphia. He is currently organizing with Philly Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the People's Caravan, which recently completed a story-listening and action trip to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. He also maintains the website endofcapitalism.com and is in the process of writing a book called The End of Capitalism. He can be reached at activistalex@gmail.com]

Find The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community at Amazon.com.

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Revolution or Evolution, Change Must Happen in Our Lifetimes

Angry Young Man, June 9, 2007. Copyright © Janice Dunn.
Obama Speaks Sweet Nothings, Time To Push For Change, My Life As An Angry Young Man
By Gary Crethers / The Rag Blog / September 9, 2009

I caught the last part of Obama’s speech tonight driving home from work. I got the part from where he was listing things like tit and butt examinations as part of the plan. That was probably more than I needed to know, but I am glad he mentioned some of the things he plans to cover.

I liked the bit he read from Ted. It teared me up a little. I didn’t think a political speech could do that to me any more, but I was all choked up for a minute, like a sad dog story will. You know the loyal dog that gets dragged on the road by its master, like that bit from National Lampoon’s Family Vacation. Sad.

No, I am not a total cynic. I knew Obama was going to waffle on the public plan. The last bit that would make this a decent health care plan and he was ready to let it go. Even Congresswoman Lee, a real liberal from Oakland barely could get any enthusiasm to mention single payer she was so enamoured with Obama. The rest is just a windfall for the insurance companies disguised as reform. They are getting exactly what they want, mandatory insurance. The companies get us all and we get no option. We are screwed coming and going.

Thanks Obama, thanks progressive caucus. Not one Republican made even the slightest move to meet you, and you just about bent over and said do it now. I am so sick of these half-hearted liberals and their imaginary reforms. When it gets down to the nitty gritty, they all wimp out. Dean was the only one I heard tonight with any fire left in his belly for the public option. The rest of it seemed to be roll over and play dead and listen to the president make nice noises.

If Obama is going to suck up and kiss Republican ass on tort reform, like Biden did with the bankruptcy laws, then he at least should get the public option for it in exchange. Period. Otherwise I say release the hounds, send the Attorney General on a witch hunt and go after every Republican operative who supported the war in Iraq, who supported torture and don’t let up until they agree to stop blocking on health care. Nixon and Johnson knew how to play down and dirty, even Kennedy did. What is wrong with Obama? Is he afraid to get his hands dirty? Make them pay for all the dirty games they have been playing this summer.

Done with that. I knew it would be a bunch of sweet rhetoric and it was. We have to let them know we want real reform not this bending over for the insurance companies.

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. I woke up thinking about all the evil I have done. I was thinking how I need to use that evil nasty shit kicker side of my nature to get things done. I was thinking about the nasty things Peter has said I did in the past and he was right. I did piss on an altar and walked checks at bistros in Boulder when I was a starving artist.

Hell back then I had shoes with holes in them. I used to have to stuff newspapers in the bottom of my shoes to walk to work in the snow. I used to eat leftover macaroni and cheese from the day care center run by my buddy Howard’s mother. I used to live in an unheated room in the middle of below zero Boulder winter weather. When I left the spiritual commune I had no money and used to sleep on the chairs at the restaurant I worked at as a dish washer.

The three of us, Howard, Peter and I were known as the Wrecking Crew. We terrorized downtown Boulder, not with anything serious, petty larceny, symbolic and poetic gestures mostly. We drove around in Peter's VW with the Sex Pistols blasting!! We were bad for Boulder, tame by modern standards. We were angry young men hanging out at the Dunkin' Donuts all night drinking bottomless cups of coffee and writing poetry about our alienation.

We did our punk rock Radio show on KGNU, we had our band the Dancing Assholes, we put on shows at the local Free School and put together a punk fanzine. That was when I founded the Colorado chapter of Rock Against Racism. I tried to organize a union at a couple of places and got blacklisted in Colorado. I ended up only being able to work at the recycling plant as a bottle smasher

Yeah, I was a little mean, and I had an attitude that said fuck you church and state. I was kicked out of school, left the commune I lived in because my best buddy and my girlfriend were sleeping together in the next room. I was glad to be out of that hypocritical BS where they preached about love and honesty and fucked you over when your back was turned just like any other corrupt social structure. When Peter met me I was pissed off and ready to riot.

That was when I started to believe in direct action, to throw bricks through piggy business windows and I protested gentrification, against racism, against capitalism, against nukes, against any and everything that seemed wrong in the world. When I was in my twenties I was ready to blow a fuse and at one point I was about five minutes away from picking up a gun and joining the hard core revolution. But by 1980 when I was ready most of those groups like the Red Army Faction and Badder Meinhof and the Red Brigades and the SLA and the Black Dragon Group and Black Liberation Army and the Weathermen had all been broken up and become inactive.

When they were going underground in the early seventies I joined the spiritual commune. I was ready to make the society that we dreamed of a reality. But by the late seventies I was fed up with the power trips and the false spiritual leadership in the group. I was ready for the revolution but it wasn’t ready for me. I guess I was lucky. If I had joined it in the early seventies I might be dead by now. Instead I waited and when I wanted to bust a move, the only thing left was gang banging.

Last night I felt the weight of the misery of my anger. How it has served me both to ill effect and to help me persevere when a weaker person might have gone under. It got me through the Reagan years of hell and the Clinton years of hypocrisy and the Bush years of more hell. Now I guess I had better get ready for more hypocrisy but I am older and a little wiser, perhaps. At least I can see what is in front of me and understand where it comes from. I rage against the machine in my own way, but I know how to chill and cope with my own frustration a little better. I am still learning the meaning of the old saw, organize don’t agonize.

I am ready to do one more round of attempts to encourage the Democrats to stand for something besides selling out to corporate greed. Then I am going to work for the Green Party, and for libertarian communism in our time. Perhaps this is a waste of time, but I still can feel my heart pounding and feel the blood coursing through my veins. As long as there is life, there is hope. Revolution or evolution, but change must happen in our lifetimes!!!

[This article was also posted on The Carbonholic Anti-Entropic Continuum.]

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Mariann Wizard: García Lorca's Grave

García Lorca's Grave

García Lorca's grave
has been found, they say,
in Spain –
           in Spain, where the rain
           fell on Abel and on Cain –
           where those without fear
           were shortly seen to disappear –
           in Spain, where the brave
           fell mainly into mass graves –
in fascist Spain.

García Lorca's grave has been found
just where it should be, of course, in Spain!
For people don't just "disappear",
not him, nor any of the tens of thousands of
           poets, patriots, shopkeepers,
           communists, loudmouths,
           troublemakers who didn't know
           when to Shut Up
           and who still, it seems,
           have something to say.

His books were burned, then banned; what's left to save?
Ah, but words don't need books; they whisper on the waves!

Federico, hermano, ¿que dices?
           "The bull does not know you, nor the fig tree,
           nor the horses, nor the ants in your own house.
           The child and the afternoon do not know you...
           "Because you have died for ever...
           like all the dead who are forgotten
           in a heap of lifeless dogs."
So he wrote, and so it was;
he was no wraith to walk in wishful dreams,
but a man full of bullets, covered with dirt.

As Whitman sang, of himself, of the body, of fragile Life,
of ordinary people and ordinary strife,
and, in the hearing, self-awareness rose –
so in García Lorca's work this ferment grows:
           "Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you."
           Now the faggot poet's bones are rising,
           entwined with all the bones with which our "Spain" is paved,
           for nothing hidden is ever truly lost,
           and nothing true remains forever hidden,
           nor will the people's voice be silenced in the common grave.
García Lorca's grave has been found
in Spain, where shells fell, in an uncivil hell,
and bells tolled, for the young and the bold –
in Spain, in this bloody, hallowed ground.

— © Mariann G. Wizard
October 19, 2008

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Report from Nicaragua : Repression in the Revolution

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega when he was a leader of the Sandinistas
‘I met Martin Vega just after the Nicaraguan revolution when we all saw such promise there.’
By Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte / The Rag Blog / October 14, 2008

Below is a dispatch from Martin Vega about conditions in revolutionary Nicaragua followed by remarks by Rag Blog contributor Ron Ridenour.

I am lucky that Martin Vega has been a close friend for almost 30 years. He is a University of Texas alum with a MA in Business. I usually stay with him and his family when I visit New York. I have always admired his personal and political ethical life.

I met him just after the Nicaraguan revolution when we all saw such promise there. When I met him he was working to help Nicaragua realize that promise. He was in the Foreign Ministry, having gone there from his home in San Francisco to help in the Revolution. He was eventually a key staff member with the Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States.

He recently spent several months there with a funder trying to bring some assistance to the nation. His news below is so disheartening that I pass this along with a hope you can help with his request to let others, especially press people and human rights advocates, know about these abuses.

Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal: Government has frozen his bank account and threatened to jail him.
Repressive tactics in revolutionary Nicaragua
By Martin Vega / The Rag Blog / October 14, 2008

I never thought I would see the day when the forces of the current Nicaraguan government would be used in such a coercive and repressive style as I have observed today. [As has been reported in El Nuevo Diaro and El Prensa], the judicial, fiscal bodies as well as the police forces of the state have been unleashed and are being instrumentalized for political ends to attack and denigrate members of civil society, the opposition press and political parties, the intelligentsia and cultural artists, etc. In the past few months the government has ostensibly closed most avenues of free expression while resorting to increased levels of intimidation and violence against those it deems its "enemies".

Until today I had refrained from making any type of comment on the worsening situation in the country hoping that officials within the Nicaraguan government would reflect and seek some form of accommodation and dialogue with its growing opposition. But quite the contrary, the government has seen fit to falsely accuse persons of Carlos Fernando's stature of "laundering" money; it has denigrated Nicaragua's revered poet Ernesto Cardenal threatening to jail him and frozen his bank accounts; it has falsely accused one of Nicaragua's most competent journalists, Sofia Montenegro of being a "CIA dupe" given her critical position towards the government's corruption; it has declared Nicaragua's main feminist organization, MAM to be "illegal" merely because it has advocated for women's reproductive rights and taken a critical stand against the government's prohibition on abortion rights; it has eliminated Nicaragua's two main opposition parties via legal fiat and through the control of the Electoral Council; and just two weeks ago, it unleashed virulent attacks against a civic and political rally of the opposition, resorting to the use of mortars, machetes, clubs and the burning down cars.

Because of these and other untoward developments, I feel that I have a moral duty not to remain quiet but let all of you know of my serious concerns about the Nicaraguan situation and ask that you move your consciences in any way possible towards the alleviation of this aggression against the Nicaraguan people. I ask that if any of you have any contacts in human rights organization, press associations, etc. that you please make known your outrage at this type of behavior and request that the Nicaraguan government cease committing arbitrary acts such as those outlined above. I would also be important for you to express your solidarity towards Carlos Fernando Chamorro B. who is being threatened with jail for merely expressing his views as as a renown and widely-respected journalist and intellectual.

Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo (in Gucci?) wave to the press Nov. 6, 2006, in Managua. Photo by AFP / Getty Images.
'The problem is: Nicaragua is so divided into so many factions and not one of them is trustworthy.'
By Rod Ridenour / The Rag Blog / October 14, 2008

[Prominent writer Ron Ridenour, who wrote a series of articles on Venezuela for The Rag Blog, has expertise in Latin American politics. He provides these remarks as historical perspective.]

I was unaware of these events but they don't surprise me too much. I know [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega and his aristocratic wife, for whom I worked as PR director when she was head of the ASTC, cultural workers association, in 1984. I wrote the book, "Yankee Sandinistas" (Curbstone, 1986), about which Ernesto Cardenal, then cultural minister, wrote a lovely blurb. I knew Tomas Borge and thought he should have been president. The Ortegas have always been suspects in that they lie, love the wine and dining life, the fancy houses, etc.

Ortega lost the 1990 election, in part, because he offered a hand out to the rich one day and then another hand to the workers another day. He hired a New York political spin doctor firm to run his campaign and bought Gucci clothes and expensive sunglasses in NY while the Yankees were murdering his people. To re-win at all costs the high post of president, Ortega has stooped lower than any politician, at least on the left, that I know of. He hired a vice-president who had been a torturing-murdering contra; he kissed the ass of the worst cardinal in current times; he rejected the right of women to decide over their bodies.

The problem is: Nicaragua is so divided into so many factions and not one of them is trustworthy, as I see it from far far away now. The original FSLN, which had three main factions somewhat united for a good many years, broke into opposing groups and none of them -- including the best of guerrilla leaders – ended up being revolutionary, rather they went towards the right. Ortega's FSLN, what is left, was the "best" of evils. But I knew from the day he won that something rotten would occur in his regime.

The next problem is that Ortega is supported by Fidel and Chavez. He uses the rhetoric they use when he is with them and in context of ALBA etc.

And, all the three dailies are (were) run by the Chamorro family, which split into three factions. And when one of them, El Nuevo Diario (for which I did some writing), calls what is happening now "worse than Somocismo" so are we really down in the pits of bullshit and exaggeration. As I read the situation today no one has been tortured, jailed or murdered, and that was daily occurrence in Somoza's time.

Of all the many original leaders very few remain by Ortega's sleazy side, but Tomas Borge is his ambassador to Peru, I think. At least he was. He was one of the few I trusted. Martin Vega I do not know. He lives in New York. We need some voice(s) we can trust who is (are) in the struggle within Nicaragua to give validity to what is going on.

That will take some time. If I were you, I'd wait a bit and find some backup, find some balance. This is quite delicate but I am not recommending throttling the matter. This is the kind of situation where [activist, writer and Latin American expert] James Petras would have a strong argument.

The Rag Blog decided to publish Martin Vega’s dispatch, along with Rag Blog contributor Ron Ridenour’s comments, but we will also seek other input on the situation in Nicaragua. We do not believe in uncritical support, even for a revolutionary movement. We encourage the readers to add their comments to this post.

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