April 2015 - May 2015 | Issue 2580-2581
Chris Rogers, Capitalism and its Alternatives
WW1: Empire, Resistance and Revolution
Clive Barrett, Subversive Peacemakers – War Resistance 1914–1918: An Anglican Perspective
Becky Hogge, A Guide to the Internet for Human Rights Defenders
Cappiello & McInerney, Slut: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence; Nikki van der Gaag, Feminism and Men
Lorenzo Fioramonti, Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number
Climate not Trident! (Feature)
'This nonviolence stuff'll get you killed' (Feature)
The 20 March Yemen bombing: it's not ISIS and it's not Sunni-Shi'ite conflict (Feature)
Singing No to Trident (News)
Carbon divestment campaign surges (News)
The death of fracking in Wales? (News)
Talking Trident out (News)
Singing Trident out (News)
'Bless us, Bapu' (News)
Charges dropped for anti-drones activists (News)
Peace Pirates charged with vandalism (News)
Arms to renewables (Feature)
No Kan do! The message from Fukushima to Wales (News)
Stopping funding for mountaintop-removal (Feature)
The dangers of armed self-defence (Feature)
On common ground (Feature)
Building a global climate insurgency (Feature)
Richard Müller & the Revolutionary Shop Stewards (Feature)
From capitalism to Commonwealth (Comment)
Befriending Commonweal peace library (Feature)
Diary: When things go (very) wrong (Comment)
The Personal Column: Gospel Truth (Comment)
Obituary: Rosie Foster (Comment)
Obituary: Narayan Desai (Comment)
Obituary: Geoffrey Carnall (Comment)
Activism &... Inequality (Comment)
WW1: Empire, Resistance and Revolution (Review)
Clive Barrett, Subversive Peacemakers – War Resistance 1914–1918: An Anglican Perspective (Review)
Becky Hogge, A Guide to the Internet for Human Rights Defenders (Review)
Cappiello & McInerney, Slut: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence; Nikki van der Gaag, Feminism and Men (Review)
Lorenzo Fioramonti, Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number (Review)
75 years ago: He wants to see us banned by Smith's (Comment)
Roouminations (Cartoon)
Can you hear me at the front? (Feature)
Possibility of escape (Feature)
Almost ... (Cartoon)
Ava DuVernay (dir), Selma (Review)
Meghan Probstfield, Sara Towe Horsfall & Jan-Martijn Meij (eds), Music Sociology: Examining the Role of Music in Social Life (Review)
Frances Stracey, Constructing Situations: A New History of the Situationist International (Review)
News in Brief (14)
Review by Henrietta Cullinan
Zed, 2014; 176pp; £14.99
This book presents a compelling argument for exploring the 'million and one ways' of resisting capitalism.
It also provides a timely background to the recent economic crisis and the suffering caused by neoliberalism and austerity measures, and directly challenges the rhetoric of those who say that capitalism is inevitable. Indirectly, it provides the narrative behind the Occupy movement and the populist movements of Greece and Spain.
In his central argument, Rogers reminds us, with Marx, that 'capitalism is a product of social interaction between people' and therefore can be changed when people alter social interactions themselves.
There are real alternatives to capitalism that we can work towards as individuals, but these should be seen as processes, to be constantly renewed, rather than ready-made outcomes. He remains close to this theme while presenting detailed discussions of the work of four prominent economists (Adam Smith, Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek) and their critics.
Examining three historic periods of economic crisis (the Great Depression, 1970s stagflation and the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008), Rogers looks at the economic policies corresponding to each one (laissez-faire liberalism, Keynesianism and neoliberalism respectively) and why these were unable to maintain stability, arguing that capitalism is 'inherently crisis prone'.
Peace activists reading the book will learn how laissez-faire economic policies contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War, as well as some of the ways in which different forms of capitalism – far from benefiting everyone, as Adam Smith imagined – lead to inequality, injustice and antagonism between classes.
Top-down and paternalistic attempts at creating alternatives have tended to recreate the injustices that they intended to reform. But I still recommend Rogers' detailed discussion of Robert Owen's co-operative community at New Lanark, an active critique of capitalism from 150 years ago. Also Rogers' illustration of gender inequalities in some of the socialist alternatives to capitalism, with women excluded from trade unions and employed in the lowliest jobs in manufacturing.
The final chapter introduces John Holloway's ideas for anti-capitalism, where 'doing' is a social interaction, freed from labour power, and capitalism is resisted through all the many ways of simply saying 'no', accompanied by positive direct action.
Peace activists may be inspired to reflect further on the 'fetishisation of things', in which the reliance on technology, for instance armed drones, takes precedence over negotiations or due process.
Topics: Economics