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Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 9
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: Singer also asked, what do you do when changed conditions, say a natural disaster, require instant decision-making? How do you answer this question? Albert: The question about responding to changes in people's preferences or in material condi... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 8
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: OK, let's forget about the slackers v. the nerds and approach the time issue in a more socially serious way. On a panel you organized at the 2003 World Social Forum, a former mayor of Porto Alegre described a real-life experiment in something ... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 7
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: That response raises all kinds of questions and sets off some alarm bells in my mind. To start with one of them, which may seem trivial, but is actually very central to our differing visions of a utopian arrangement: When you say "let's say so... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 6
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: Have you ever tried to calculate the human labor costs of all the planning involved in parecon? Or maybe I should say "time" not dollar "costs." Yes, in the various books the issue of time allotment is certainly addressed. And the discussions... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 5
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: Before proceeding to other matters, my big reason for wanting some things to remain marketized is that it would reduce the burden of planning. As you know, some have complained that parecon condemns us to endless meetings, so why not leave "no... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 4
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: I don't want to prolong the skirt discussion (I hardly ever wear them myself), but I am confused about the way you conflate markets with capitalist exploitation. There were markets of one kind or another for thousands of years before capitalis... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 3
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: An eloquent answer, and I fully agree on the importance of keeping our vision in sight even while battling in the trenches. But there are alternatives to the present global power arrangements other than -- you might say "short of" -- the parti... (More) Comments (0)
Ehrenreich Interviews Albert, Q/A 2
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Ehrenreich: The book is incredibly optimistic, some would say utopian. At a time when most on the US left are fighting constant erosions of rights and services -- all of which were limited enough in the first place -- what do you think the role of a book ... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
Here is the first question and answer from a long recently completed but as yet unpublished interview of Michael Albert by Barbara Ehrenreich. The rest will follow, day by day... Ehrenreich: I have heard that there's been a lot of interest around the wor... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
The point isn't that everyone should cease analyzing existing relations and only develop vision and strategy. To propose that would take us from one imbalance to another. The point is that our overall attention to these different tasks needs to shift si... (More) Comments (2)
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
In the same spirit as the last message -- this is an interview done for a major Pakistani periodical and for translation to Urdu, as well...again on parecon, and other matters too... 1. What has been the attitude and role of American civil society towar... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
I was recently asked for an article on parecon for a prominent Polish periodical of the left, and sent what follows. It is a bit long, an adaptation of earlier essays. I thought I would put it here though -- this kind of thing is happening quite a lot now... (More) Comments (2)
Parecon and Visionary Practice
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
(An excerpt from the introduction to Parecon: Life After Capitalism...In today’s world large movements espousing similar aspirations struggle worldwide to better the lives of disenfranchised and abused populations around the globe. Some undertakings... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Apr 10, 2004
I guess I am all out of patience and running dry on civility as well. Is it unreasonable to want to know where the left stands regarding capitalism and “other worlds”? Are various movements, institutions, media outlets, and constituencies anti-capitalis... (More) Comments (0)
By Noam Chomsky at Apr 10, 2004
Typically, military occupations are quite successful, even by the most horrendous conquerors. Take, say, Hitler's occupation of Western Europe and Russia's postwar occupation of Eastern Europe. In both cases, the countries were run by collaborators, secu... (More) Comments (2)


