Capitalism: A Structural Genocide 2

One last blog to tie together the Capitalism: A structural Genocide Summer Reading Group. If you could not make, no worries. The book will still be waiting for you. 

We had an engaging final discussion of the book and some of the issues that it raises.  

• we began with a discussion of respectability politics and how this permeates our lives in many different spheres.  How this reduces us to consumers and measures our worth in relation to the market.  We talked about how this imposes itself upon us and defines us in certain ways that are limiting; how it also tells us how to dress and what to buy; how it reproduces "civility"; and how it even creeps into the classroom through certain over-policing strategies under the guise of classroom management. And, we thought about the ways this thinking is inculcated in each of us and what that might mean for us as educators in different settings.
• we then discusses how our schools might reproduce unhealthy hierarchies that further internalize oppression. In the book Leech titles one of the chapters "Legitimizing the Illegitimate." He discusses coercion and hegemony using the work of Antonio Gramsci. Some of the things discussed from Gramsci include how ruling elites gain and maintain consent by utilizing various methods to socialize the masses and how civil society - the media, educational system, religion, and culture - serve to socialize people into thinking that capitalism is the only way. The school system fits in because by and large schools instill in children the values preferred by capital. Students are taught from a young age to compete with one another, to accept hierarchy without questioning, and about conformity through testing. The media then reinforces those values.
• We also discussed how schools often prepare students to maintain their place in society. 
• Education is often seen as a "get out of poverty" ticket. If you do the right things, work hard, go to college, you should be able to make it. But people are still not making it and the odds  are still against the majority.  This causes psychological trauma. People have been socialized into believing in the myth of meritocracy so when they cannot get ahead, they blame it on themselves, just as society has taught them to do. This is called second order blaming.  And this is capitalism
• One quotation from p. 104 - "The hegemonic discourse, in part through the philanthropic endeavors of capital, also seeks to socialize people into believing capitalism is a humane social system that provides opportunities for individuals who are willing to work hard." This led to some discussion of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (some resources below). 
• The book discusses environmental issues and we brought up how in order to survive, capitalism needs growth. That growth is based on the extraction, use and abuse of limited natural resources, therefore capitalism is not sustainable for any life on the planet.

·       ·      “The logic of capital is blind to the ecological crisis that has resulted from its constant expansion in pursuit of profit because it is solely focused on accumulation. And in order to accumulate, capital requires constant economic growth” (p. 85)

·      Vandana Shiva – “the growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates”  (p. 86).

• One member of the group brought up the work of Robin D.G. Kelley, particularly his book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Kelley talks about how we must use our imagination to create something new, but capitalism does not allow us to do this. It constrains us and punishes us if we imagine alternatives. (See the short video from the pervious synopsis of our discussion - Capitalism is Just a Story - https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/capitalism-is-just-a-story-rise-up-and-create-a-new-one/)
• We discussed alternatives to capitalism including socialism and cooperative systems like Mondragón in the Basque Region of Spain and Emilia Romagna in Italy which began in the 1860's 

·       ·      “Socialism is based on a simple idea – that the resources of society be used to meet people’s needs, n other words, at the heart of socialism is the impulse to further the development of all people in a sustainable manner” (p. 112).

• We talked about how it is important to both think about how we can survive more humanely now while we create alternatives. We need to continue to expand out knowledge by reading alternative sources and that we need to commit to working collectively for change
• Wee need to create systems that are less-exclusionary and more participatory and that do not use language that is alienating and academic. we can do this through]

·       ·      everyday life encounters (Jane Addams)

·       ·      building and nurturing relationships

·       ·      using existing resources like MLK speeches, Angela Davis, and others to spark conversation

·       these can all provide people with a vocabulary to help make sense of the world and then to act to make change.

I hope the rest of your summer goes well. 

Rosi Barbera

Some Resources

·       •Ballard., N. (2009).  To Live Well.  In D. Ransom & V. Baird (Eds). People first economics (pp 153-164). Oxford: New Internationalist Publishing.

·       •Berry, W. (2009).  Inverting the Economic Order. The Progressive, 73(9), pp. 18  – 25). Beacon Press.

·       Chadburn, M. (2015). Resilience is Futile: How Well-Meaning Non-Profits Perpetuate Poverty.  Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/resilience-is-futile-how-well-meaning-nonprofits-perpe-1716461384

·       Ciccierello-Mahr., G. Building the Commune

·       Collins, C. & Flannery, H. (2016) Gilded Giving: What happens when Billionaires Dominate the Charitable Sector. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/economy/billionaires-dominate-charity?akid=14904.17896.gZJOzq&rd=1&src=newsletter1067682&t=24

·       Davis, A. Y. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the foundation of a movement (Chapter One).  Chicago: Haymarket Books.

·       Ho, H. K. (2017). 8 Ways People of Color are Tokenized in Nonprofits. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@helenkimho/8-ways-people-of-color-are-tokenized-in-nonprofits-32138d0860c1

·       Kivel, P. (2000). Social Service or Social Justice. Retrieved from http://paulkivel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/socialserviceorsocialchange.pdf

·       Le, V. (2015). Are you or your org guilty of Trickle-Down Community Engagement? Retriefved from: http://nonprofitwithballs.com/2015/01/are-you-or-your-org-guilty-of-trickle-down-community-engagement/

·       Kelley, R. D. G. (2003). Freedom dreams: The Black radical imagination.

·       •Miller, E. (2009). Solidarity Economy:  Key concepts and Issues. In E. Kawano, T. N. Masterson & J. Teller-Elsberg (Eds.). Solidarity economy 1: Building alternatives for people and planet (pp. 24 – 41). Amherst: Center of Popular Economics.

·       Nixon, R. (2011). Slow Violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard Press.

·       •Ostrom, E. (2010). Eight Principles for Managing the Commons. In J. Walljasper (Ed.). All that we share:  A field guide to the Commons (p. 22). New York: The New Press.

·       •Restakis, J.  (2010: Humanizing the economy:  Co-operatives in the age of capital. British Columbia: New Society Publishers.

·       •Sitrin, M. (2006). Horizontalism: Voices of popular power in Argentina.  Oakland: AK Press.

·       •Wall, D. (2009). Open Source Anti-Capitalism. In D. Ransom & V. Baird (Eds). People first economics (pp 181-192). Oxford: New Internationalist Publishing.

·       •Walljasper, J. (2010). All that we share:  A field guide to the Commons. New York: The New Press.

·       •Wolff, R. (2012a).  Democracy at work:  A cure for capitalism.  Chicago: Haymarket Books.

•Wolff, R. (2012b, June 24).  Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism.  Mondragon shows the way.  The Guardian.  Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/alternative-capitalism-mondragon