1. How to be an anticapitalist for the 21st century Erik Olin Wright University of Wisconsin – Madison April 2017

2. the central question
Is it possible to have a viable strategy for transforming and transcending the fundamental structures of capitalism as an economic system?
Hayek’s warning in the fatal conceit

3. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Escaping Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

4. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Escaping Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

5. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Escaping Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

6. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Escaping Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

7. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Escaping Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

8. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Eroding capitalism

9. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Escaping capitalism

10. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Escaping capitalism
Communist movement

11. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Escaping capitalism
Social
Democracy
& Labor
movement
Degradation of socialdemocracy comes from severing the anchor in resistance

12. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Escaping capitalism
Social movements

13. Strategic logics of Anti-Capitalism Transcending structures
Goal of Strategy
Neutralizing
harms
Transcending structures
Primary locus of strategy
The state
Taming capitalism
Smashing Capitalism
Civil Society
Resisting Capitalism
Escaping capitalism
logic of eroding: ecosystem, dominance, eroding dominance. Requires: taming capitalism in ways that expand the potential of building noncapitalist alternatives within an economic structure still dominated by capitalism.
Eroding Capitalism

14. Three additional issues to be resolved:
Introduction
Three additional issues to be resolved:
The destination: what is the alternative?
The theory of the state: Can a capitalist state contribute to eroding capitalism?
Agency: Who are collective agents for struggle?

15. Introduction
1. The Destination
Socialism as radical, heterogeneous economic democracy:
Replace a market-conforming democracy with a democracy-conforming market
Expand and deepen the cooperative market economy, the social/solidarity economy, and the peer-to-peer collaborative economy
Protect the commons and expand the array of publicly provided goods and services
Democratize the corporation

16. Introduction
1. The Destination
Socialism as radical, heterogeneous economic democracy:
Replace a market-conforming democracy with a democracy-conforming market
Expand and deepen the cooperative market economy, the social/solidarity economy, and the peer-to-peer collaborative economy
Protect the commons and expand the array of publicly provided goods and services
Democratize the corporation

17. Introduction
1. The Destination
Socialism as radical, heterogeneous economic democracy:
Replace a market-conforming democracy with a democracy-conforming market
Expand and deepen the cooperative market economy, the social/solidarity economy, and the peer-to-peer collaborative economy
Protect the commons and expand the array of publicly provided goods and services
Democratize the corporation

18. Introduction
1. The Destination
Socialism as radical, heterogeneous economic democracy:
Replace a market-conforming democracy with a democracy-conforming market
Expand and deepen the cooperative market economy, the social/solidarity economy, and the peer-to-peer collaborative economy
Protect the commons and expand the array of publicly provided goods and services
Democratize the corporation

19. Introduction
1. The Destination
Socialism as radical, heterogeneous economic democracy:
Replace a market-conforming democracy with a democracy-conforming market
Expand and deepen the cooperative market economy, the social/solidarity economy, and the peer-to-peer collaborative economy
Protect the commons and expand the array of publicly provided goods and services
Democratize the corporation

20. Introduction
2. The Capitalist State
Democratizing democracy to expand the limits of socialist relations within capitalism.
The capitalist state is not an optimal instrument for expanding socialist relations in ways that erode the dominance of capitalism, but struggles to deepen the democratic character of the capitalist state are nevertheless possible, and this, in turn can enlarge the space for democratic egalitarian alternatives.

21. Introduction
3. Agency
Constructing a democratic egalitarian coalition for multilayered collective action.
There is no ready-made coherent historical subject capable of acting politically to undermine capitalism. This must be constructed by linking diverse non-class identities with the critique of capitalism and the class interests harmed by capitalism. The working class, broadly understood, is at the center of this coalition; but the collective actor is not defined exclusively in class terms.

22. Introduction
Thanks

23. Introduction

24. Introduction
The Problem
We live in a world in which capitalism generates enormous harms and yet to most people it seems like the only way of organizing a complex economic system.

25. Four Tasks Normative foundations Diagnosis and critique of capitalism
Alternatives
Transformation: how to get form here to there.
Three tasks to resolve this problem
A few comments:
Diagnosis and critique: this is where the main effort of critical social science has gone.
Alternatives
Transformation.
I am going to focus on the third of these here.