‘Richard Swift’s S.O.S.: Alternatives to Capitalism makes a major contribution to changing the parameters of political debate. It helps us move beyond the pseudo-alternatives of the political mainstream and begin to work for the kind of change we can believe in without being delusional. We need serious and widespread discussion of Swift’s central thesis that a reinvigorated left politics focused on policies such as degrowth, control of capital, and a guaranteed income can lead us toward the overarching goal of a just, compassionate, ecologically sound and democratically self-managed post-capitalist society.’
John P Clark, Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans, and author of The Impossible Community.
‘Richard Swift knows that our planet and its people are in big trouble. Hence his title S.O.S. Yet his examination of the causes and the possible solutions is thoughtful, historical minded and humane. I came away from S.O.S. with the comforting sense that there was an enjoyable world before capitalism and there can be one after.’
Barbara Garson, playwright and author of Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live.
‘Where is the world headed? In the era of multiple crises that have taken the planet by a storm, Richard Swift’s thoroughly researched and timely book takes a much-needed view of the alternatives that existed – and still exist – beyond capitalism. The point that emerges through this book is singularly important: that the survival of our planet is more important than that of any one “ism”.’
Jaideep Hardikar, journalist and author of A Village Awaits Doomsday.
‘Swift guides his reader through a troubling political history of 20th-century capitalism and its stunted alternatives. He then explores ways out of our death trap known as business-as-usual. A genuine invitation both to dream and to recover from a nightmare.’
Federico Demaria, Research & Degrowth, Barcelona.
About the author
Richard Swift is a journalist/activist who works in print and radio. He was for more than two decades an editor of the New Internationalist magazine. He has written a number of books on themes as diverse as mosquitoes and street gangs. His current interests include forms of radical democracy and ecological degrowth alternatives. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Acknowledgements
To my editor Chris Brazier who makes the words that merely walk start to run. To my comrades in Montreal and Toronto and so many other places. To those close to me who continue to put up with me. And to the sages who are no longer with us, particularly André Gorz, EP Thompson, Daniel Singer and Kurt Vonnegut.
S.O.S.: Alternatives to Capitalism
First published in 2014 by
New Internationalist Publications Ltd
55 Rectory Road
Oxford OX4 1BW, UK
newint.org
© Richard Swift
The right of Richard Swift to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the Publisher.
Cover design: Andrew Kokotka
Design: Juha Sorsa
Imprint editor: Chris Brazier
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-78026-171-3
Contents
Introduction: A sad and beautiful world in peril
1 Sources of hope: life before capitalism
2 Capitalism: a system of reckless resilience
4 The anarchist impulse
5 The eco-divide
6 The utopia debate
7 Rebuilding the alternatives Southern-style
8 The democratic emergency
9 The autonomous rupture
10 What should we stand for?
Index
‘What is not possible, however, is to even think about transforming the world without a utopia, without a project.’
Paulo Freire
In these times the search for alternatives to capitalism is imperative. The world’s economy is in total disarray, having emerged from a very deep recession only to suffer what appears to be a prolonged stagnation in which governments cannot determine which is most perilous: spiraling public debt, looming deflation or dangerous new asset bubbles. Public policies lurch wildly to counter one, then the other of these alleged threats, while ignoring the fast disappearance of stable employment that pays a living wage and its replacement by precarious employment, or no employment at all. The rush to cut back public services and pensions and attack unions in desperate waves of austerity only exacerbates the underlying economic crisis.
And there is a still more urgent environmental crisis facing us. As Naomi Klein recently declared at the founding convention of Canada’s largest private sector union, Unifor: ‘Our current economic model is not only waging war on workers, on communities, on public services and social safety nets. It’s waging war on the life-support systems of the planet itself – the conditions for life on earth.’ In his exploration of alternatives to capitalism, Richard Swift sees no solution in state socialism, whether of the communist or social democratic variety, as both impose socialism from above. Echoing a view first expounded by the late Robert Heilbroner, he argues that ‘state communism was not really an alternative to capitalism at all but merely a transitional form of it which allowed certain large “backward” societies hitherto blocked in their developmental path, to move towards their own peculiar model of autocratic capitalism’. As for the social democratic variety, it long ago abandoned any hope of replacing