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By Noam Chomsky at Mar 20, 2004
I spoke at a demo of about 20,000 people in Vancouver, very enthusiastic and engaged, and as far as I could tell, inspired to go on. Also to audiences of several thousands, which seemed the same. The pre-war demonstrations were without historical precede... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 11, 2004
Back in early 2003 ZNet hosted a call called the We Stand for Peace and Justice statement and site. In a period of just a few weeks, a little over 100,000 people signed the statement. At the time, it was a protest against on-coming war. I have been wonde... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 11, 2004
What political/social readings – not so well known – would I recommend for someone with a small carrying case? I get asked that pretty often. Here are a few: Wilhelm Reich had a very productive and insightful period, followed by devolution into insanity.... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 11, 2004
Many people seem to think that what candidates say bears dramatically on what they will do. That is only superficially the case unless they make public promises to constituencies that remain powerful during the ensuing administration and to which the cand... (More) Comments (0)
Routes To Economic Vision: Efficiency
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
When you hear the word “efficiency” do you get aggressive, expecting a conservative onslaught that you will have to battle against? I do. By this time it is a reflex, even if not always warranted. The reason isn't because efficiency is a bad thing per se.... (More) Comments (0)
Promoting Parecon, the Paperback
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
In a couple of weeks the paperback edition of Parecon: Life After Capitalism, will come off the press in England (Verso being the publisher). I imagine books will be available there and in the U.S. two or three weeks later. Verso has no real means of pr... (More) Comments (0)
Canadian Parecon Advocacy Group
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
I recently received the following message to the ZNet forum system from Matt Grinder who is a physics student at, I think, the University of British Colombia in Canada. He writes: “A presentation on Participatory Economics we (the vancouver paercon coll... (More) Comments (0)
Routes To Economic Vision: Sustainability
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
What is sustainability? This is a bit tricky, I think. Presumably it means operating in a fashion that is not self destructive. Regarding ecology, in other words, it means operating so that one isn't precluding continued operations in a similar manner in ... (More) Comments (0)
Routes To Economic Vision: Classism
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
Historically, a frequent route to trying to describe a better society is to demand classlessness. Classes are groups who share sufficient conditions and circumstances due to their economic position that they have broadly similar interests and motives, w... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
Yesterday I received in the mail the Korean edition of the book Parecon: Life After Capitalism. It is very elegant looking, but of course I couldn't read a word. If there is anyone out there from Korea who gets a copy of the book and reads through it, I w... (More) Comments (2)
Routes to Economic Vision: Criminality
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
Economies can have theft, fraud, etc. What would it mean to say we would like to have an economy that minimizes the likelihood of such occurrences? Well, the first possible meaning might be that we want an economy that has the death penalty for theft, a... (More) Comments (0)
Advocating Parecon: An Organization
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
What about creating an organization of pareconists, so to speak? I don't know whether this would be positive if it were it to grow to considerable size, nor even whether it would grow at all, for that matter. So this is an idea that pounds away in my mind... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
It has quickly become clear that this blog needs some introduction to participatory economics...as well as including an accumulating array of posts that more or less presume at least modest familiarity. The following essay was written as the first piece ... (More) Comments (0)
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
One possible topic for a parecon blog is how to best advocate participatory economics and what experiences we have and lessons we learn in doing so. My own efforts at advocating parecon have been only modestly successful. They involve ... My own efforts... (More) Comments (0)
Routes to Economic Vision: Alienation
By Michael Albert at Mar 10, 2004
Decades ago I came across a compelling definition of alienation, a concept not so easy to pin down even for those who use the word a lot. After all, how do you simultaneously capture psychological, sociological, economic, and other connotations? I think ... (More) Comments (0)


