Radical Political Economy

Tuesdays 7pm - 9pm starting on January 18, 2005

At Uprising Books (6A Kensington, 1 W. of Spadina, just N. of Dundas)

Ashar Latif asharkl@hotmail.com

While a critique of capitalism plays a central role in radical liberatory projects, it is only addressed (if ever) in vague terms. This course is intended to provide an introduction to historically rooted concrete critiques of capitalist social relations, as well as to look at and develop ideas proposed for a humane and fair economy. Challenging the conventional wisdom that equates economics with markets and profits, we will trace the process from production through allocation to consumption in light of equitable distributions of wealth.

The first half of the course looks at the salient features of capitalism throughout history, exploring the origins of the modern behemoth. We will look at how the construction of social, political, and economic relationships led to modern state capitalism, and how these features translate into day-to-day behavior.

The second half of the course covers historical and current visions for a just distribution of the world’s wealth. The ultimate aim of this portion is to situate these utopian expressions in a historical context, as reactions to their times, as well as forming linkages between these various movement and linking them to the modern era. The goal is to develop a vision for an equitable society and to articulate methods for implementation of these ideals at the level of individuals and small groups, in terms of concrete steps towards change.

Detailed Overview (the readings are subject to discussion and change)

• Week 1 – Economics, Property, and the Division of Labor
  • Albert, Michael – Parecon: Life After Capitalism
    • Chapter 1: What is an Economy text: ParEconChapter1
  • Bakunin, Mikhail – “The Capitalist System” text: TheCapitalistSystem

• Week 2 - Production & Consumption
  • Proudhon, Pierre Joseph - Philosophy of Misery
    • Chapter 2.1 - Opposition of value in USE and value in EXCHANGE text: ProudhonChapter2.1
  • Kropotkin, Peter - The Conquest of Bread
    • Chapter 14: Consumption & Production text: KropotkinChapter14

• Week 3 - Trade and the Myth of Laissez-Faire
  • Carson, Kevin - "The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand" text: IronFist
  • Birrell, Neil – “Some Notes for an Anarchist Theory of Trade” text: AnarchistTheoryofTrade

• Week 4 - Markets and Competition
  • Albert, Michael – Parecon: Life After Capitalism
    • Chapter 3: Judging Economies (subsection on markets) text: ParEconChapter3

• Week 5 - Money
  • Highberger, Boog - "Money" text: BoogMoney

• Week 6 - Mutualism
  • Carson, Kevin - Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
    • Chapter 9: Ends and Means text: http://www.mutualist.org/id105.html

• Week 7 - Anarcho-syndicalism
  • Guillen, Abraham - "Anarchist Economics" text: AnarEcon
  • Puente, Isaac - "Libertarian Communism" text: LibComm

• Week 8 - Parecon
  • Albert, Michael and Robin Hahnel - "Socialism as it was Always Meant to Be" text: SocialAsItWas

• Week 9 - The Gift Economy
  • Vaughan, Genevieve - "The Gift Economy" text: GiftEcon
  • Graeber, David - "Give it Away" text: GiveAway
  • Raymond, Eric Steven "The Hacker Milieu as Gift Culture" text: HackerMilieu

• Week 10 – Future Ideals, or, Where to From Here?
  • Barbrook, Richard - "The Hi-Tech Gift Economy" text: HiTechGift
  • "Copyleft" from Wikipedia text: CopyLeft

Additional Resources

What is Property? by Pierre Joseph Proudhon http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/conquest/toc.html

Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/mutaidcontents.html

The Wage System by Peter Kropotkin http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/Kropotkin/wages/wages.html

Anarcho-syndicalism by Errico Malatesta: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/617/malatesta_synd.html

Anarcho-syndicalism by Rudolph Rocker: http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/rocker/sp001495/rocker_as1.html

Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism by Rudolph Rocker: http://anarchosyndicalism.net/theory/aasind.htm

Studies in Mutualist Political Economy by Kevin Carson: http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html

A Mutualist FAQ by Kevin Carson: http://www.mutualist.org/id23.html

The Political Economy of Participatory Economics by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel: http://www.zmag.org/books/polpar.htm

Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert: http://www.zmag.org/books/pareconv/parefinal.htm

Looking Forward by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel: http://www.parecon.org/lookingforward/toc.htm

The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand (full text) by Kevin Carson [highly recommended]: http://mutualist.org/id4.html

various writings on society and economics by Benjamin Tucker: http://www.blackcrayon.com/library/tucker/

An Anarchist FAQ Section C: "What Are the Myths of Capitalist Economics": http://www.infoshop.org/faq/secCcon.html

http://www.syndicalist.org/

Info on the Time Dollar: http://www.timedollar.org/

A Critique of Syndicalist Methods by Alfredo Bonanno: http://www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/ioaa/critsynd.html