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Trailer: The Next American Revolution

By admin | Published: March 8, 2013
More information about the film, including information on ordering and setting up screenings, at garalperovitz.com/nextamericanrevolution  
Posted in Audio and Video | Leave a comment

Interview with Elias Crim for Solidarity Hall: Living in the New “Pre-History”

By admin | Published: February 11, 2013
spacer This interview originally appeared on Solidarity Hall To begin with, tell us about the Democracy Collaborative’s focus on community wealth-building. How can that be done? We also use the term community-sustaining economy—and we’re interested in forms that build democracy, community and equity. In smaller companies, we know that worker ownership is a useful device. Indeed, we are strong supporters of worker coops and worker-owned companies in general. In large firms, worker ownership in some industries might produce different equity results. That is, the larger community has a stake in the impact of their operations.  And we’ve been interested in how you can blend these different interests most successfully. The problem with pure worker ownership of large industries is that the worker/owners are under the same market pressures as any other company. They are therefore as likely to pollute the environment, for example, if they’re under competitive pressures to do so, as the next guys.  So that means the worker-owned company’s interests are somewhat different from that of its surrounding community—which includes elderly people, young people, all those who happen to be out of the workforce. After all, half the society at any one time is not part of that worker ownership. So we think it’s critical, to use economists’ language, to begin to internalize the externalities through structures that reflect the broader community’s interests, rather than putting workers’ interests at odds with them. The Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, for example, is a key initiative that reflects this worker-community model, and which we helped design. Read More »
Posted in Articles, What Then Must We Do? (News and Updates) | Leave a comment

Ownership, Full Employment and Community Economic Stability

By admin | Published: January 23, 2013
This article originally appeared as a guest post on Robert Pollin’s “Back to Full Employment” blog. spacer The great British economist the late Joan Robinson once observed that the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism. This truth is felt acutely by anyone who is unemployed and looking for work. As the pain of the economic crisis continues and millions struggle to find employment there is an obvious imperative to create jobs—any jobs. But we shouldn’t stop there. In Back to Full Employment, Robert Pollin makes the essential point that “a workable definition of full employment should refer to an abundance of decent jobs.” Poor jobs that keep workers minimally employed but leave them in precarious circumstances and unable to participate fully in civic and political life are better than no jobs at all. But in terms of public policy we can and should aim higher—especially as decent jobs not only benefit the workers that hold them but also the communities in which they live. Absent a stable economic base, community itself is compromised. Read More »
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6 Economic Steps to a Better Life and Real Prosperity for All

By admin | Published: January 22, 2013
This article originally appeared on Alternet Most activists tend to approach progressive change from one of two perspectives: First, there’s the “reform” tradition that assumes corporate control is a constant and that “politics” acts to modify practices within that constraint. Liberalism in the United States is representative of this tradition. Then there’s the “revolutionary” tradition, which assumes change can come about only if the major institutions are largely eliminated or transcended, often by violence. But what if neither revolution nor reform is viable? Paradoxically, we believe the current stalemating of progressive reform may open up some unique strategic possibilities to transform institutions of the political economy over time. We call this third option evolutionary reconstruction. Like reform, evolutionary reconstruction involves step-by-step nonviolent change. But like revolution, evolutionary reconstruction changes the basic institutions of ownership of the economy, so that the broad public, rather than a narrow band of individuals (i.e., the “one percent”) owns more and more of the nation’s productive assets. 1. A People’s Bank One area where this logic can be seen at work is in the financial industry. At the height of the financial crisis in early 2009, some kind of nationalization of the banks seemed possible. It was a moment, President Obama told banking CEOs, when his administration was “the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” The president opted for a soft bailout, but that was not the only possible decision. Read More »
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A Checkerboard Strategy for Regaining the Progressive Initiative

By admin | Published: January 2, 2013
spacer President Obama is Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” – the first Democratic president to receive two consecutive popular-vote majorities since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet these are clearly tough times for progressives. Everything progressives have fought for is seemingly on the chopping block nationally, and in many states and cities. Programs are being cut; public assets are being sold off; school teachers are losing their jobs; unions are being attacked; pension and health care benefits are being slashed – even Social Security is being challenged. Progressives, in short, remain on the defensive. No one would deny that defense is important. But even as every effort must be made to hold the line, how, specifically, might it be possible to regain the political initiative? History suggests one powerful strategy – one that begins by getting clear about the checkerboard of power, and its possibilities. Read More »
Posted in Articles, Resources for The Next American Revolution, What Then Must We Do? (News and Updates) | Leave a comment

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    "This book offers by far the most serious, intellectually grounded strategy for system-changing yet to appear. It could be the most important movement-building book of the new century..."
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  • Recently Posted

    • Trailer: The Next American Revolution
    • Interview with Elias Crim for Solidarity Hall: Living in the New “Pre-History”
    • Ownership, Full Employment and Community Economic Stability
    • 6 Economic Steps to a Better Life and Real Prosperity for All
    • A Checkerboard Strategy for Regaining the Progressive Initiative
    • Wall Street Journal More Interested in Caviar and Foie Gras Than Worker Ownership
    • Podcast: How System Change Can Come To America with Gus Speth
    • Video: Talks in Seattle and San Francisco
    • If You Don’t Like Capitalism, and You Don’t Like Socialism, What Do You Want?
    • You Really Didn’t Build That
    • Anchoring Wealth to Sustain Cities and Population Growth
    • Speech at Strategies for a New Economy Conference
    • Wall Street Is Too Big to Regulate
    • On Democracy Now!: My keynote address to the 2012 Green Party convention
    • More Bullish Than You Think
    • Talking with the Paul Jay from the Real News about public ownership
    • A New Era for Worker Ownership?
    • The Cleveland Model
    • How Big Banks Run the World – at Your Expense
    • Beyond Corporate Capitalism: Not So Wild a Dream

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