SOS

Alternatives to Capitalism

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers’ greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist.

In this fully updated new edition Richard Swift examines the past shortcomings and present health of not one but many other paths to changing the world, including socialism, social democracy, anarchism, ecology, and degrowth.

Combining the practical with the visionary, he shows that finding alternatives to capitalism is no longer an academic issue for the left – it is an urgent planetary necessity.

Contributors

Richard Swift

Richard Swift is a Montreal-based writer and activist and was a long time editor with New Internationalist magazine. He is the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy.
Chapter Contributors Pages Year Price
5 $0.50
The introduction states that the purpose of this book is to tease out what genuine alternatives to capitalism might look like, discussing the history of capitalism, questions of modernity, …
4 $0.40
Chapter 1 explores what life was like before Capitalism, discussing the rise of capitalism, human happiness, Anthropology, hunter-gatherers and primitive communism, the commons, pre-capitalist …
9 $0.90
Chapter 2 examines capitalism as a system discussing the historical roots of capitalism, primitive accumulation and privitization, neoliberalism, market freedom, regulation, and ‘market …
13 $1.30
Chapter 3 focuses on state Socialism, discussing its roots in the 19th century, the relationship between communism and social democracy, a comparison of two social democracies (François …
15 $1.50
Chapter 4 examines the theory of anarchy, discussing authority, self-government, organised anarchist movement during the 1848 Revolts across Europe, the commune, titles to libertarianism, and the …
13 $1.30
Chapter 5 explores the relationship between the environment and politics, discussing ecological socialism, the rise of environmental consciousness, ‘greening’ the Left, and more.
11 $1.10
Chapter 6 focuses on the idea of ‘utopia’, discussing Plato’s Republic, the anti-utopians, utopianism for the powerful and wealthy, and lived utopias.
11 $1.10
Chapter 7 explores the ongoing projects to reinvent ’21st-century socialism’, discussing what is 21st-century socialism, the Global South, defending and expanding the commons, the …
24 $2.40
Chapter 8 examines why the North lacks the same political energy for enacting change, discussing the decline in political awareness and engagement, Social movements , the business oligarchy, …
11 $1.10
Chapter 9 focuses on the emergence of more autonomous leftism, discussing topics like the 1960s New Left, the Red Brigades, co-operative alternatives, politics and anti-politics, and what is to …
20 $2.00
Chapter 10 explores what we should stand for in the coming decades, discussing the 2011 Occupy movement, programs for change, degrowth, achieving wider finance control for the masses, improving …
23 $2.30