Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2093284
L. Brownhill
The linocut print reproduced here portrays what we have elsewhere called the capitalist “hierarchy of labor power,” a hierarchy of the world’s population made by and for the 1% for the perpetuation of the power of capital (Brownhill and Turner 2018; Brownhill 2022; Turner 2022). Because capitalists are motivated by the imperative to increase their wealth and control over human and natural capital or else be swallowed up by the competition or be driven out of business, as a class they do not see anything in the universe as off-limits to their acquisition. Capitalism’s relations of exploitation have been created on a global scale through enclosures, witch hunts, conquest, slavery, colonialism, and corporate globalization—with the perpetuation of gendered and racialized intergenerational inequalities, maintained by the imposition of commodified mainstream cultures that reinforce and normalize the violent perpetuation of capitalists’ power. The capitalists’ need for control over Nature brings humanity perpetually to warfare and its horrors (Adler 2022). The print, Overcoming Hierarchy, shows united peoples turning to march out of capitalism’s exploitative relations and into harmony with humanity and Nature. An old monocled white man perches with cane in hand and extractive tools over his shoulder, atop the hierarchical world he rules. The hierarchy is held in place by a capstone of privilege, a “male deal” of legal and cultural biases giving white men historically-rooted, culturally-specific power over all men of color (in general whose land and/or labor the capitalists want) and over all women (who in general produce all the labor that capitalists need). For capitalists, labor is themost strategic commodity; we are human capital stock. Capitalists want control over labor not only at work but in society at large, and, as Roe v. Wade’s reversal shows, in control over the conditions of labor power production, starting in the womb. For centuries, capitalist male deals have cemented the acquiescence of somemen to their own dispossession and exploitation in return for elements of control over Nature and people ‘below them’ on the hierarchy (Brownhill 2009; Turner 1994; Turner 2022). At the same time, the work of controlling labor, including women’s fertility, is never done without the rank complicity of some (especially white) women (e.g., Farris 2017). These are classist, racist, sexist aspects of divide and rule.
{"title":"Overcoming Hierarchy: A Theory Illustrated","authors":"L. Brownhill","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2022.2093284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2093284","url":null,"abstract":"The linocut print reproduced here portrays what we have elsewhere called the capitalist “hierarchy of labor power,” a hierarchy of the world’s population made by and for the 1% for the perpetuation of the power of capital (Brownhill and Turner 2018; Brownhill 2022; Turner 2022). Because capitalists are motivated by the imperative to increase their wealth and control over human and natural capital or else be swallowed up by the competition or be driven out of business, as a class they do not see anything in the universe as off-limits to their acquisition. Capitalism’s relations of exploitation have been created on a global scale through enclosures, witch hunts, conquest, slavery, colonialism, and corporate globalization—with the perpetuation of gendered and racialized intergenerational inequalities, maintained by the imposition of commodified mainstream cultures that reinforce and normalize the violent perpetuation of capitalists’ power. The capitalists’ need for control over Nature brings humanity perpetually to warfare and its horrors (Adler 2022). The print, Overcoming Hierarchy, shows united peoples turning to march out of capitalism’s exploitative relations and into harmony with humanity and Nature. An old monocled white man perches with cane in hand and extractive tools over his shoulder, atop the hierarchical world he rules. The hierarchy is held in place by a capstone of privilege, a “male deal” of legal and cultural biases giving white men historically-rooted, culturally-specific power over all men of color (in general whose land and/or labor the capitalists want) and over all women (who in general produce all the labor that capitalists need). For capitalists, labor is themost strategic commodity; we are human capital stock. Capitalists want control over labor not only at work but in society at large, and, as Roe v. Wade’s reversal shows, in control over the conditions of labor power production, starting in the womb. For centuries, capitalist male deals have cemented the acquiescence of somemen to their own dispossession and exploitation in return for elements of control over Nature and people ‘below them’ on the hierarchy (Brownhill 2009; Turner 1994; Turner 2022). At the same time, the work of controlling labor, including women’s fertility, is never done without the rank complicity of some (especially white) women (e.g., Farris 2017). These are classist, racist, sexist aspects of divide and rule.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42356437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-10DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2051058
Marco Rosaire Rossi
ABSTRACT Throughout the 1980s, the politics of Burlington, Vermont, were dominated by two of the American Left's most prominent figures: Bernie Sanders and Murray Bookchin. While there was considerable overlap between the two in terms of their general critique of capitalist exploitation, Sanders and Bookchin were often at odds with each other regarding renewable energy, economic development, and direct democracy. Bookchin accused Sanders of promoting an out-of-date “bread-and-butter” form of socialism that neglected quality-of-life concerns, specifically the need for greater democracy. In turn, Sanders thought Bookchin had a “back-to-the-woods mentality” that failed to consider that significant economic growth was necessary to end poverty. This article will examine the differences between Sanders's and Bookchin's approach to socialism within the context of Burlington's politics. It will explore the implications for these approaches in building a broad-based and highly democratic left-wing movement.
{"title":"The Sanders-Bookchin Debate","authors":"Marco Rosaire Rossi","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2022.2051058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2051058","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Throughout the 1980s, the politics of Burlington, Vermont, were dominated by two of the American Left's most prominent figures: Bernie Sanders and Murray Bookchin. While there was considerable overlap between the two in terms of their general critique of capitalist exploitation, Sanders and Bookchin were often at odds with each other regarding renewable energy, economic development, and direct democracy. Bookchin accused Sanders of promoting an out-of-date “bread-and-butter” form of socialism that neglected quality-of-life concerns, specifically the need for greater democracy. In turn, Sanders thought Bookchin had a “back-to-the-woods mentality” that failed to consider that significant economic growth was necessary to end poverty. This article will examine the differences between Sanders's and Bookchin's approach to socialism within the context of Burlington's politics. It will explore the implications for these approaches in building a broad-based and highly democratic left-wing movement.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46563899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-23DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2021.2016878
M. Aidnik
ABSTRACT Socialism is one of the great visions of a society in the modern era. Born in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the early days of industrialization, socialism is about achieving freedom and equality in real, practical terms. This article revisits three currents of socialist thought: utopian, Marxian and eco-socialist. Through a reading of these bodies of thought, this article will address the great challenge of our own time – the time of Covid-19 pandemic, a deadly virus that has wreaked havoc across state borders and continents. To envision a remedy to the current socio-historical situation, this article argues for a convergence between Marxian socialism and ecosocialism. Given the current darkness of the Covid-19 pandemic, what is needed is bold and imaginative thinking. To calibrate socialism as a solution to the pandemic-ravaged world, I argue that ecosocialism ought to embrace the utopianism of earlier socialist thought. Ecosocialist demands constitute a real utopia – a radical but possible transformation. Its seeming contradiction between idealism and attainability is the generative tension inherent in concrete utopias. The impact of such a transformation would be a re-integration of the economy into the ecological and the social world.
{"title":"Envisioning a Utopian Ecosocialism in the Darkness of the Covid-19 Pandemic","authors":"M. Aidnik","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2021.2016878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2021.2016878","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Socialism is one of the great visions of a society in the modern era. Born in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the early days of industrialization, socialism is about achieving freedom and equality in real, practical terms. This article revisits three currents of socialist thought: utopian, Marxian and eco-socialist. Through a reading of these bodies of thought, this article will address the great challenge of our own time – the time of Covid-19 pandemic, a deadly virus that has wreaked havoc across state borders and continents. To envision a remedy to the current socio-historical situation, this article argues for a convergence between Marxian socialism and ecosocialism. Given the current darkness of the Covid-19 pandemic, what is needed is bold and imaginative thinking. To calibrate socialism as a solution to the pandemic-ravaged world, I argue that ecosocialism ought to embrace the utopianism of earlier socialist thought. Ecosocialist demands constitute a real utopia – a radical but possible transformation. Its seeming contradiction between idealism and attainability is the generative tension inherent in concrete utopias. The impact of such a transformation would be a re-integration of the economy into the ecological and the social world.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46630776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-14DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2037675
Alf Hornborg
ABSTRACT Somerville's brief critique of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) theory illustrates how entangled traditional labour theories of value are in 19th century discourse on political economy. His incapacity to understand the point of EUE theory reflects the idealist myopia of such discourse, largely oblivious of the material metabolism of world society. For theorists genuinely committed to historical materialism, EUE theory should provide a welcome antidote to mainstream economics.
{"title":"Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theory as Genuine Materialism: A Response to Somerville","authors":"Alf Hornborg","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2022.2037675","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2037675","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Somerville's brief critique of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) theory illustrates how entangled traditional labour theories of value are in 19th century discourse on political economy. His incapacity to understand the point of EUE theory reflects the idealist myopia of such discourse, largely oblivious of the material metabolism of world society. For theorists genuinely committed to historical materialism, EUE theory should provide a welcome antidote to mainstream economics.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42968448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-07DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2034173
Dorottya Mendly
ABSTRACT The article aims to make explicit connections between bioregionalism and Karl Polanyi’s work, through an avenue, which has been unexplored so far. A combination of his lesser-known work on regional planning and his ecologically informed ideas about habitation on the one hand, and core ideas of bioregionalism on the other, provide a prospective basis for a future beyond global capitalism. The main argument is that, with such a combination “reembedding through reinhabitation” emerges as a substantial strategy for regional planning. I will then consider this strategic idea further in the article as the substance of the politics of regionalism. I will discuss the crucial questions of bioregional formation along these lines and elaborate conclusions regarding their relevance for political strategy.
{"title":"Reembedding Through Reinhabitation: Towards a Bioregional Planning","authors":"Dorottya Mendly","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2022.2034173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2034173","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article aims to make explicit connections between bioregionalism and Karl Polanyi’s work, through an avenue, which has been unexplored so far. A combination of his lesser-known work on regional planning and his ecologically informed ideas about habitation on the one hand, and core ideas of bioregionalism on the other, provide a prospective basis for a future beyond global capitalism. The main argument is that, with such a combination “reembedding through reinhabitation” emerges as a substantial strategy for regional planning. I will then consider this strategic idea further in the article as the substance of the politics of regionalism. I will discuss the crucial questions of bioregional formation along these lines and elaborate conclusions regarding their relevance for political strategy.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42357134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2032609
Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro
The current conjuncture is critical—socially and geo-ecologically (that is, environmentally and ecologically). Globally, decades of capitalist grand theft and destruction of workers’ gains in most countries overwhelm the major social achievements characterising countries like the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Cuba (Baracca and Franconi 2016; Cereseto and Waitzkin 1986; Fitz 2020; Foster 2015; Ghodsee 2018; O’Connor 1998; Prashad 2019; Trinder 2020; Xu 2018). The militarily most powerful liberal democracies persist in wreaking havoc on much of the rest of the world through imperialist and neo-colonial interventions while veering increasingly rightwards. Environmentally, climate change has continued to intensify unabated, with extreme weather events becoming ever more commonplace. Ecologically, net biodiversity decline, deforestation, pathogen outbreaks, and soil destruction keeps rising alongside cases of shortand long-term contamination and pollution. Such a critical conjuncture beckons the unification of forces worldwide that share broadly defined socialist objectives and concerns over the state of ecosystems and environments. For the sake of brevity, I call such objectives and concerns ecosocialist, realising such a term encompasses a much wider political spectrum than the term ecosocialism currently covers. The point is to discuss, first, the tremendous overarching challenges and obstacles to ecosocialist prospects and, second, the sort of socialist responses that appear prevalent. By socialist, I mean anyone striving for the realisation of state-free, classless society. This is an admittedly (and purposefully) wide definition that can accommodate a variety of existing convictions or visions that are not necessarily ecologically mindful or supportive of decolonisation, but that can be transformed into perspectives aligned with ecosocialism. I conclude by identifying strategies conducive to unifying socialist forces and realising ecosocialist objectives. The overarching challenges are unprecedented and of two general kinds. One challenge is geo-ecological and the other social. They are intimately
{"title":"Critical Conjunctures, Socialist Unity, Radical Prospects","authors":"Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2022.2032609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2022.2032609","url":null,"abstract":"The current conjuncture is critical—socially and geo-ecologically (that is, environmentally and ecologically). Globally, decades of capitalist grand theft and destruction of workers’ gains in most countries overwhelm the major social achievements characterising countries like the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Cuba (Baracca and Franconi 2016; Cereseto and Waitzkin 1986; Fitz 2020; Foster 2015; Ghodsee 2018; O’Connor 1998; Prashad 2019; Trinder 2020; Xu 2018). The militarily most powerful liberal democracies persist in wreaking havoc on much of the rest of the world through imperialist and neo-colonial interventions while veering increasingly rightwards. Environmentally, climate change has continued to intensify unabated, with extreme weather events becoming ever more commonplace. Ecologically, net biodiversity decline, deforestation, pathogen outbreaks, and soil destruction keeps rising alongside cases of shortand long-term contamination and pollution. Such a critical conjuncture beckons the unification of forces worldwide that share broadly defined socialist objectives and concerns over the state of ecosystems and environments. For the sake of brevity, I call such objectives and concerns ecosocialist, realising such a term encompasses a much wider political spectrum than the term ecosocialism currently covers. The point is to discuss, first, the tremendous overarching challenges and obstacles to ecosocialist prospects and, second, the sort of socialist responses that appear prevalent. By socialist, I mean anyone striving for the realisation of state-free, classless society. This is an admittedly (and purposefully) wide definition that can accommodate a variety of existing convictions or visions that are not necessarily ecologically mindful or supportive of decolonisation, but that can be transformed into perspectives aligned with ecosocialism. I conclude by identifying strategies conducive to unifying socialist forces and realising ecosocialist objectives. The overarching challenges are unprecedented and of two general kinds. One challenge is geo-ecological and the other social. They are intimately","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43216533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2021.2010107
P. Somerville
ABSTRACT Ecologically unequal exchange theory has become popular in recent years but it is confused, internally inconsistent, and misrepresents the nature of global extractivism and labour exploitation.
生态不平等交换理论近年来变得流行，但它是混乱的，内部不一致的，并歪曲了全球采掘和劳动剥削的本质。
{"title":"A Critique of Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theory","authors":"P. Somerville","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2021.2010107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2021.2010107","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Ecologically unequal exchange theory has become popular in recent years but it is confused, internally inconsistent, and misrepresents the nature of global extractivism and labour exploitation.","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59539364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2021.1995310
Matthew MacDermant
{"title":"Mississippi is Still Burning: Life in the Vortex of Carceral Capitalism","authors":"Matthew MacDermant","doi":"10.1080/10455752.2021.1995310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2021.1995310","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39549,"journal":{"name":"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48989183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：