S.O.S. Alternatives to Capitalism

Click here to access article which is a book review by Mike Carr from System Change not Climate Change.

This critical book will be controversial for much of the left from social democrats to autonomists, but it opens many much needed crucial questions.  It is grounded in an impressive base in the literature of alternatives to capitalism and in a wide knowledge of many social movements around the world.  Swift’s creative approach to imagining alternatives to capitalism has sparked this reviewer’s imagination, and I hope it will yours. 

Here are some quotes from the book that I really like:

Clearly, there are limits to growth on a finite planet.  The earth’s capacity to adsorb “the filthy by-products of global capitalism’s voracious metabolism is maxing out”.  As Swift underlines: “Have no doubt – de-growth there will be!  It is just a question of weather this will result in equitable and democratic social arrangements or in gate-guarded communities serviced by underpaid workers and surrounded by large populations of environmental refugees”.