Product details
Biographical note
Professor of Politics at the University of York'This is a tremendous polemic and analysis: robust, articulate, engaging, accessible, informative, uncompromising and provocative.'<br /> <p>Professor Anthony McGrew, Department of Politics, University of Southampton<br /> </p> <p>"...this book contains some undeniably valuable arguments and explanations of Marxist concepts" <i>Kit Robinson, Weekly Worker, July 2003</i><br /> </p> <p>"a politically engaged book" <i>John Gray, The Independent</i><br /> </p> <p>"insightful and surprisingly non-ideological" <i>Ethical Corporation Magazine</i></p>
But what does the anti-globalization movement stand for? Is it, as its most common name suggests, against globalization itself? Is it opposed merely to the neo-liberal Washington Consensus that became dominant in the 1980s and 1990s, or is its real enemy the capitalist system itself? The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre has popularized the slogan ‘Another World is Possible’. But what is that world?
Alex Callinicos seeks to answer these questions in An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto. He analyses the development of the movement, distinguishes between the different political forces within it, and explores the strategic dilemmas – notably over violence and the nation-state – that it increasingly confronts. He argues that the movement is directed against capitalism itself. The logic of competitive accumulation that drives this system is not only increasing global inequality and economic instability, but threatens ecological catastrophe and appalling conflict. To meet the challenge of global capitalism the new protest movement requires, according to Callinicos, a creative synthesis of its own inclusive and dynamic style and the best of the classical Marxist tradition.
An unscheduled event.
The revival of social critique.
Naming the movement.
Another unscheduled event.
Chapter 1 Capitalism Against the Planet.
So What’s the Problem?.
Financial Follies.
The Perpetual Motion Machine.
Accumulation and Catastrophe.
The Sword of Leviathan.
Chapter 2 Varieties and Strategies.
Varieties of Anti-Capitalism.
Reform or Revolution?.
Chapter 3 Imagining Other Worlds.
Anti-Capitalist Values.
A Note on Diversity.
What’s Wrong with the Market?.
Why We Need Planning.
A Transitional Programme.
Afterword.
Notes.
Index
But what does the anti-globalization movement stand for? Is it, as its most common name suggests, against globalization itself? Is it opposed merely to the neo-liberal Washington Consensus that became dominant in the 1980s and 1990s, or is its real enemy the capitalist system itself? The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre has popularized the slogan ‘Another World is Possible’. But what is that world?
Alex Callinicos seeks to answer these questions in An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto. He analyses the development of the movement, distinguishes between the different political forces within it, and explores the strategic dilemmas – notably over violence and the nation-state – that it increasingly confronts. He argues that the movement is directed against capitalism itself. The logic of competitive accumulation that drives this system is not only increasing global inequality and economic instability, but threatens ecological catastrophe and appalling conflict. To meet the challenge of global capitalism the new protest movement requires, according to Callinicos, a creative synthesis of its own inclusive and dynamic style and the best of the classical Marxist tradition.