Reviews

Dreaming of America Beyond Capitalism? Gar Alperovitz

Ethan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:01:19 -0500

According to its publisher's publicity release, America Beyond Capitalism "offers hope for the future." The evidence offered for this hopeful scenario is two-fold: first, that a vast array of diverse micro-level economic alternatives, consistently ignored by the mass media, is developing throughout every region of this beleaguered land; and second, that these neighborhood-, community- and state-based alternatives are heading us towards a "radical restructuring," a new homegrown all-american macro-system-beyond capitalism, beyond socialism, neither liberal, conservative, red, or blue-which Alperowitz calls a Pluralist Commonwealth (PC).

Autonomy and/Or Economic Development? David Ellerman and Helping People Help Themselves

Ethan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:57:02 -0500

This is a remarkable book. The author, having worked within the World Bank for a decade, knows whereof he writes. And he tells us that almost all development assistance is self-defeating-misguided at best if not deliberately harmful. And that's just the tip of an enormous iceberg that spans across every helping field. That is, as Ellerman puts it, every field in which some humans ("helpers") try to get others ("doers") to do something: parents/children, teachers/students, managers/workers, medical professionals/patients, counselors/clients, etc.

Build It Now: Socialism For the 21st Century

Ethan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:15:06 -0500

Michael A. Lebowitz. Built It Now: Socialism for the 21st Century. Monthly Review Press, 2000.

A book review by Frank Lindenfeld

What would a humanist, participatory "socialism for the 21st century" look like? In this short book, Michael Lebowitz shares his vision and asserts that the Chavez administration has embarked on transforming Venezuela into such a society through its Bolivarian Revolution.

Work, Dignity & Social Change

admin — Sat, 19 May 2007 23:09:22 -0400

A VIDEO REVIEW by Frank Lindenfeld, GEO Collective

This video is about the struggles and successes of the unemployed worker movements in Agentina, intended for use by social change workshops. It is a useful complement to Naomi Klein and Avi Lewisâ??s film, The Take, about the recovered factories movement, where workers take over abandoned factories and re-start production under worker self-management. The dialogue in Work, Dignity & Social Change is in Spanish, with English subtitles. Members of four MTDs, autonomous groups of unemployed workers, discuss their hopes, dreams and accomplishments in building a better life for themselves in the aftermath of the country's economic collapse in 2001.