I can't unsee capitalism as “the cause of the causes.”
In my family we have a tradition of Mother’s Day croquet.
My kids will set up a wacky course in the backyard, and we play once or twice before/after brunch. It’s a highlight of the year for me. Side note: it was only in 2019 that I learned there exists a standard course that dictates proper placement of the wickets.
This past Mother’s Day, in response to my repeated suggestions that someone “hit the ball again,” or “that swing didn’t count,” and that we “wait for everyone to catch up” to the same wicket, my oldest child called me a socialist. I wish I could remember his exact words because he is witty, and was kidding, and made me laugh. This non-insult got me thinking: Really, though, is socialism my idea of the good life? Actually?
After that game, I looked up socialism and communism on Wikipedia, which has been described as "fundamentally anti-capitalist;” and finally, I just Googled “alternatives to capitalism.”
I read this post by the now-deceased Allan G. Johnson.
And parts of this book entitled, Nonviolence versus Capitalism, by Brian Martin.
And this article in the Guardian where I learned about Mondragon Corporation in Spain.
Feeling mildly frustrated that Google had me considering mostly ideas put forward by White men, I sourced inward with a journal brainstorm, where I just wrote down, in no particular order, words that I free-associated with the phrase “alternatives to capitalism.’
Yes: at the beginning, I came up with socialism and communism.
But also: Feminism. And Activism. And Anti-Racism.
“She is committed to the survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. ”
And when I let myself out of the -ism box: survival, public lands, sustainability, music, meditation, arts and culture.
What’s the alternative to capitalism? It turns out there are many types of large-scale (national) and local-level economies. There’s: Leninism, socialist electoralism, social democracy, libertarianism, Sarvodaya, demarchy, and anarchism; and workers self-directed enterprises (WSDEs), co-ops, regional currencies, and hackerspaces.
These system-level solutions have been enacted, are ongoing, are yet to come.
Image Description: This picture shows Mother’s Day croquet Endgame in my backyard circa 2018. On a background of green grass, assorted leaves, and one shriveled dandelion. Circling around the starting and finishing stake are five muddy croquet balls: one yellow, one black, one blue, one red, one green. You can also see my daughter’s rainboot-clad toes near the bottom of the photo.
I find myself examining all the possibilities, circled around the starting and finishing stake, as the muddy croquet balls in the photo above. The fascinating alternatives beg the question: which one? Which one?
In my experience, if a problem surfaces, a Black woman has already faced it and acted. In pondering alternatives to capitalism, I deepened what I knew about Fannie Lou Hamer, whom I mostly associated with her “sick-and-tired” and “nobody’s-free” words that have called me across time to dig deeper. One summary of her outsized role(s) in and contributions to the civil rights movement, including co-founding a third party to challenge Democrats’ racism, can be read here.
Image Description: Fannie Lou Hamer stands facing forward speaking to a group of people who appear to men, including one who is holding a speaker connected to a amplifier in her hand. Photo Credit: AP Photo, William J. Smith.
Working in community, Mrs. Hamer created an alternative to the capitalist practice of sharecropping that didn’t require Black people to migrate from their homes in the South to a different reality of racism in the North. Around 1968, she employed an economic strategy for people to control the means of production of their own food and housing via the 600+-acre Freedom Farm Cooperative. I plan to read Dr. Monica White’s (2020) Freedom Farmers, to learn more about the FFC and related efforts.
I wonder actively about this strategy and others because I often think our society is at Endgame, and we really need to rally.
The American two-party form of democracy is being tested again, again, and again. It feels about to break. I sort of wish it would.
More evidence accumulates each day that our planet is suffering, that people are suffering, species are ceasing. I try to meet this news with greater curiosity than fear — gosh this really reminds me of losing at the board game of Monopoly, hmm… I don't think this is just random — but I hear more.
The words of Dr. Cornel West in this video directed by Julian Marshall, have buzzed around my ears since June of 2020. He said, “in all honesty and deep sadness:”
“[...] It looks as if the system cannot reform itself. ”
Recently, I listened to a talk hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago entitled, “21st Century Capitalism and the Future of Public Health in the 2020s” by Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg. I summarize it here because he breaks it down into digestible bits.
In the first part of his talk, he outlined five premises:
Business as usual is not working.
Current global economic and political system is fundamental cause of recent health crises.
Driving forces for public health changes are social movements.
Evidence needed to transform public health practice is all around us.
There are alternatives to our current political and economic system.
He then laid out a public health agenda that included:
Expand search for what works to take on the most fundamental drivers of ill health.
Talk about capitalism.
Ground public health and political practices in efforts of others looking to bring about change.
Defend truth and science.
Insist another world is possible.
And while I am working on the first three verbs within my comfort zone, I am also marveling at those who are already busy defending and insisting.
Image Description: A copy of an Instagram square post with white block letters on a black background displaying a quote from Jasmine Banks (@parentingis political) that says, “We will not cower at the terrorism of men who refuse to recognize that they can no longer control us with fear. To be clear: the men we are talking about are the ones who uphold white, cis, hetero, patriarchal, capitalist realities. We are building a new world. One where there are no borders. There are no cops, There are no prisons. A world where we keep us safe. A world in which we have what we need to thrive and experience the self determination that is our birthright. A world where black, trans women and femmes are the safest among us. A world where our native siblings are returned what’s owed to them. it is not an impossibility. It is an ever-advancing reality and it is emerging from the ashes of everything we burn down. Parent the revolution.” More from Jasmine here and here.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
