By Cindy Milstein
ZSpace
[Contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications]
For many, a "new anarchism" seemed to have been birthed amid the cold rain and toxic fog that greeted the November 1999 World Trade Organization protest. Yet rather than the bastard child of an emergent social movement, this radical politics of resistance and reconstruction had been transforming itself for decades. Seattle's direct action only succeeded in making it visible again. Anarchism, for its part, supplied a compelling praxis for this historical moment. And in so doing, it not only helped shape the present anti-capitalist movement; it also illuminated principles of freedom that could potentially displace the hegemony of representative democracy and capitalism.
From its nineteenth-century beginnings on, anarchism has always held out a set of ethical notions that it contends best approximates a free society. In the parlance of his period, Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta (1853-1932) long ago described anarchism as "a form of social life in which men live as brothers, where nobody is in a position to oppress or exploit anyone else, and in which all the means to achieve maximum moral and material development are available to everyone."[1] This pithy definition still captures anarchism's overarching aims. Nevertheless, this libertarian form of socialism may well have been ahead of its day in advocating a world of transnational and multidimensional identities, in struggling for a qualitative humanism based on cooperation and differentiation. It is only in the context of globalization that anarchism may finally be able to speak to the times and thus peoples' hopes. Whether it can fulfill its own aspirations remains to be seen.
Curious as to how you "operationalize" this?
ReplyDeleteOne of the better facilitations is Parecon - Lafe After Capitalsim
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zcommunications.org/znet/topics/parecon
One of the better facilitations is Parecon - Life After Capitalsim
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zcommunications.org/znet/topics/parecon
Capitalism and technological innovation brought India's life expectancy from 30 years to 70 years. Before modern technological innovation, average global life expectancy was only 30 years.
ReplyDeleteWhat other system is there except for capitalism? What other way is there to reduce poverty without technological innovation?
Technological innovation means that producing goods and services cost less. Technological innovation means lower prices for goods and services and higher real living standards for the masses. Today China has 650 million cell phone subscribers. India has 200 million cell phone subscribers. Technological innovation has substantially reduced poverty in both countries.
India has about 400 million cell phone subscribers. My bad:
ReplyDeletehttp://trendsniff.com/2009/02/22/mobile-subscribers-china-india-2009/
What alternative to capitalism is there?
A system like that of the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.
ReplyDeleteScandinavia and the Netherlands are capitalist free market countries. In many ways they have less regulation, are more free trade, more free investment, and more free market than the US.
ReplyDeleteNokia, Philips Electronics and many of the world's largest multinationals are from those countries. Many of the world's most innovative start ups are from those countries. So are many of the world's richest and most successful business people.
What differentiates them from the US is higher taxes and higher spending. Some people call them market socialist.
"Scandinavia and the Netherlands are capitalist free market countries."
ReplyDeleteNo, there not.
Two thing Anand, capitalism did not bring you jack shit as far as the people are concerned. It was the democratic thrust of the people against capitalism that delivered high standards of living. If it wew left to capitalism you and your children would be working 17 hour days, 7 days a week at sub-standard wages (this is the reason for corporate globalism), and if you were injured or fell ill you would be thrown out like so much trash (and it is reverting back to this at record breaking speed today) -
ReplyDeleteCapitalism Works?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJLaRhTKzw8
Secondly, what "globalism" are you talking about? There is no globalism taking place for the people, only the few. Globalism in the true sense of the word brings the people along, not just making a few filthy rich. In fact you and other filthy capitalists do not own the word "globalism" and I am not "anti-globalism," I am for true globalism. If you want a definition of globalization as it is practiced today, it does not reflect your fantasy - none of the figures reflect your post NONE! Do you understand? Here is what globalization is today, and why it crashed in on itself -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZleYnq3nYw
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style="">Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson</span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style="">OSLO — When capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse last fall, Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s Socialist finance minister and a longtime free market skeptic, did more than crow.</span>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: 120%;"><span style=""><span style="color: #800080;">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14frugal.html?_r=2&em</span></span>
<div class="js-singleCommentBody js-singleCommentDepth4 js-comment-stripe-1">"Scandinavia and the Netherlands are capitalist free market countries."</div>
ReplyDelete<div class="js-singleCommentBody js-singleCommentDepth4 js-comment-stripe-1">No they're not.
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<div class="js-singleCommentText"><span><span style=" ">“</span></span>"Scandinavia and the Netherlands are capitalist free market countries."
No, there not.</div>
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"Scandinavia and the Netherlands are capitalist free market countries."
ReplyDeleteNo they're not.
Molly and everone else. As I am sure you know Anand is hopeless.
ReplyDelete1 or 2 years ago he said the same thing to me. "What alternative to capitalism could there ever oh ever possibly be?"
I said Scandinavia, etc. which he then said were SUPER HARDCORE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES!!! I had just spent the previous year in Zurich and gave him a bunch of stats which he ignored and ran away. 2 years from today he'll ask the same question again with the same feigned innocence and ignorance. TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND A TOTAL FRAUD, like his gay pedophile charlatan guru Sai Baba and his hero Tom Friedman. The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. ;)
Yes, and frauds have a way of sticking together, hence IM's site he haunts. Most are not anything they portray, just like what Datta said in the comments section on my site -
ReplyDelete"V, an Arab friend out of this country has been following this story and says the protests are furious.
This Iraqi oil minister, says my friend, and all the other peeps in Iraq's puppet parliament have dual citizenship in both Iraq and usually Britain. They fly in from their zillion dollar penthouses in Britain. Work in Iraq until they fulfill their evil deed, and then simply go back to Britain where they actually live, and finish out their lives in high style. They are hardly "Iraqis" at all."
What is inconceivable to many people is the totally disingenuous nature of these reprobates, both in the states, Britain (elsewhere), and serving their masters in the colonial target country abroad, or trying to foist disinformation here. They are traitors for their survival and some form of "informed" fame, the Hirsi's of the world. The scum of the earth.
Hey, if this is what you want to participate in, don't be surprised if I verbally tear you to shreads. If you want to turn this into a jungle watch out for the predators -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRC4H64EFk
Hey, if this is what you want to participate in, don't be surprised if I verbally tear you to shreads. If you want to turn this into a jungle watch out for the predators -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRC4H64EFk
I hunt the predators
The Netherlands is one of the most free trade countries on earth. They don't have as many Ross Perot/Lou Dobbs/Pat Buchanan/Amy Goodman/Jesse Jackson/Anne Coulter pro sanctions types.
ReplyDeleteIn America we had an embarassing show of bigotry when anti foreign nativist Americans blocked CNOOC from buying UNOCAL. Few things in recent decades have embarrased me as much about America as the big government socialist racist response of many Americans.
Could some similar flow of socialist bigotry happen in Netherlands? Netherlands is free trade, free investment, free business collaboration, and pro business.
Netherlands has one of the best performing economies in Europe and is one of the most free market/pro business countries on the continent.
For that matter, look at the extent of amazing entrepreneurship in wireless in Finland and Sweden. It isn't only Nokia. Remember that some scandanavian entrepreneurs founded skype. Some of the best social networking start ups have Scandanavian founders. Scandanavia has a lot of Venture Capital.
We need to remember that deregulation and international openness are better measures of how capitalist a country is in many ways than tax rates and public spending/GDP.
By the way, Moy has backed me up that Scandanavian countries are pretty capitalist. I think he would again. Where is he?
Norway's banks suffered along with everyone else's banks in the global financial crisis. The global financial crisis has been temporarily stabilized. But I think another leg down is coming. This said, I think that global governments have done enough to avoid the worst case complete global meltdown, subject to the globe avoiding a major natural disaster.
ReplyDeleteV, if you have a problem with Iraq's elected leaders; why don't you campaign for the people you support in the next Iraqi election. Why don't you donate your money to Iraqi politicians you support?
ReplyDeleteV, what Iraqi politicians do you support? Mutlaq? (Bruno, Arab Advocate, John the Canadian Baa3thi, and many other Baa3this support Mutlaq) The Iraqi Communist Party?
Anand the only worthwhile activity in Iraq is the expulsion of the occupation forces, and the dismantling of the puppet "government." Why don't you just shut up you idiot?
ReplyDeleteThe SOFA requires all foreign forces to leave by Dec 31, 2011.
ReplyDeleteWhat does "dismantling of the puppet "government"" mean? Be careful V. Iraqis might misunderstand. Most Iraqis hate those who violently attack their elected government and the IA and IP which are loyal to their elected government.
great song btw
ReplyDeleteWhile I realize that the preponderant opinion here is anti-capitalist, I'm sure people realize that I don't toe that line. As DJ suggests above, there are different capitalist systems; call them "shades" of capitalism, if you wish.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I get angry when people like that wingnut potty mouth that (apparently) doesn't comment here anymore, says stuff like 'the current (US) system is the best we can hope for' despite all its defects. To me that is utter defeatism. Not only must we hope for something better than THIS, but there is actual evidence out there that something better can be achieved (ie. the Scandinavian 'shade' of capitalism).
Yes, and I require you to stop mentally mastrubating in public on this site Anand, idiot. The puppets have now just taken away any future of the Iraqis -
ReplyDeleteTHE MOTHER OF ALL SELL OUTS
http://notinhisname.blogdrive.com/archive/cm-06_cy-2009_m-06_d-19_y-2009_o-0.html
Yes, and I require you to stop mentally masturbating in public on this site Anand, idiot. The puppets have now just taken away any future of the Iraqis -
ReplyDeleteTHE MOTHER OF ALL SELL OUTS
http://notinhisname.blogdrive.com/archive/cm-06_cy-2009_m-06_d-19_y-2009_o-0.html
The people that Anand says who "support" their puppet government are having furious protests
Oh, and allow me to post my preface in this link, because I think it clarifies what is taking place not only in Iraq but globally -
ReplyDeleteSo now here we are after years of oppression, invasion, and wholesale slaughter of a nation of people - who have been put in a terrible position by the "powers that be." After the wholesale rape of the country, and now the continued occupation, they want to remove the entire future of Iraq to coddle their overfed crooked corporate children - the oil companies. After all, they have the "approval" of their puppet government that invites them to do so.
This situation is nothing new, it comes about because of not only the crimes I mentioned above, but because the entire global economic system and mode of commerce and trade are corrupt. With a dominant few holding the technologies and materials necessary to make Iraqi oil a productive and profitable enterprise. Allowed to strangle building resources, the movement of both materials and product, and the closure of markets to whom they wish to rule by both occupational presence and tyrannical proxies. So, if you are thinking that it is a set of circumstances out of the control of the hands of humanity that has befallen the Iraqis, and is "has" to be this way - YOU WOULD BE WRONG! This is because this entire global system, which is not wrong because it is merely "global," but because it posits the wealth of the many in the hands of the few (which is not true globalism), has caused this collapse that you see today. This is why it is time for a new global vision, where all of humanity may grow, thrive, prosper and not a few corrupt individuals from a few dominant countries that "rule" the world.
Anand,
ReplyDeleteI have one simple question which no one has been able to answer to my satisfaction (and I teach in a graduate business school). If the "customer reigns supreme" in the capitalist system, as many economists like myself like to preach, why don't companies make products that last? Or put another way: Why do we have planned obsolescence? Answer that and you might get the Nobel prize in economics.
Did you like that song r.s.? Here are a couple more, from a group called Turbonegro, who displays what the dominant system and its promoters are doing to the present world -
ReplyDeleteFUCK THE WORLD
http://www.burningheart.com/_lib/util/streamvideo.php?id=174&s=hi
Also, how is this for prophetic done in 2005 -
CITY OF SATAN
http://www.burningheart.com/_lib/util/streamvideo.php?id=2513&s=hi
Here is a song for some of the dishonest lot that post here, they have already done this so the invitation is mute. They think they can dance with the devil (so to speak) yet remain pristine clean, they have already sold out -
ReplyDeleteSELL YOUR BODY TO THE NIGHT
http://www.burningheart.com/_lib/util/streamvideo.php?id=171&s=hi
Oh come now Mara, you are not going to try to bifurcate what "capitalism" does with a smiley face on its own soil (domestic) from what is done in other weaker countries, are you? Tell me this is not the case.
ReplyDeletehttp://archives.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/NET_07English.pdf
ReplyDeleteThanks, FTW is best
ReplyDeleteShall we go into the rarefied air of world capital?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWoJBHibhM
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWoJBHibhM
ReplyDeleteHere is a song for some of the dishonest lot that post here, they have already done this so the invitation is moot. They think they can dance with the devil (so to speak) yet remain pristine clean, they have already sold out -
ReplyDeleteSELL YOUR BODY TO THE NIGHT
http://www.burningheart.com/_lib/util/streamvideo.php?id=171&s=hi
Yes, good one r.s., I am surprised sometimes how straight forward their music is -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qKGZ4Ysy5M
"Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners."
ReplyDeleteEdward Abbey
And likewise -
ReplyDelete"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. (P.-J. Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.)"
Most "systems" are mixed. Cuba is a mixed system. Venezuela is a mixed system. China is a mixed system. I have shown examples of capitalist free enterprise that are worthy of extolling. We have been over this ground before and I intend not to repeat it. I made my case. You can disagree respectfully.
ReplyDeletehehehe...well, I am sure there is 1% worth preserving :)
ReplyDelete