reformism

The capitalist mode of production, characterised by exchange for profit, private property, wage labour and capital accumulation, has only existed for around 300 years. Since the late 19th century it has found its way to even the most remote corners of the Earth by the way of exploitation, dispossession and imperialist competition. It has brought immense scientific and technological progress but at great cost. Wars, poverty, hunger, inequality, and oppression have plagued this system throughout its existence.

A brief reminder. In January 2015 Paul Mason proclaimed on his Twitter account: "come to Athens – the revolution is happening". It is 2018 now, and three years later it is Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, who is ecstatic: "You did it! Congratulations to Greece and its people on ending the programme of financial assistance." What happened?

Eleanor Robertson on the need for a communist, as opposed to liberal or reformist, approach to fighting oppression. This post first appeared on Medium.

The text of a 2017 presentation examining the significance of the “third sector” or “social economy”, the non-profit community development and assistance sector, its origins as a replacement for faltering government aid programs for excluded sectors of the population, its diversification and increasing economic impact on job creation, service provision and housing, its association with the “civil society” movement, its avoidance of conflict with state and private power and its reliance on parliamentary procedures and negotiations, its ideological smokescreens, and the rise of the “new commons” ideology as a delusional strategy for non-confrontational withdrawal from the system.