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Blog Post Albert: New pages comparing Capitalism and Parecon

Blog Post, May, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

I am busy creating a "site" within ZNet and the Parecon site that is about comparing capitalism and participatory economics. It means to be succinct, aesthetically appealing, and provocative to further investigation. I could use help. As...

Blog Post Albert: Q/A More Personally...

Blog Post, May, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

I recently put a Q/A on the site and in the mail about the Parecon paperback edition, the recent mailings re parecon, etc. I thought I would answer the same questions here, a bit less formally -- a bit more personally -- in accord with blog expect...

Blog Post Albert: Left Academics

Blog Post, April, 11 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

This weekend I had the unusual and rather mixed pleasure of speaking at an academic gathering. I actually thought it was going to be my usual type of audience -- students, activists, interested folks, etc. But instead, much to my surprise, it was ...

Blog Post Albert: My Shoes...and Dylan

Blog Post, April, 11 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

Bob Dylan meant and means a lot to me -- so you can perhaps imagine my mood on seeing him advertising Victoria's Secret. I don't know which is sadder. That he did it. Or that reports indicate there is a huge sales bump as a result. In any event, I...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert, Last

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

Ehrenreich: In the book Parecon, you make no mention, that I can find anyway, of remuneration for the work of "caring" in the home – child raising, caring for the elderly, etc. This is a big issue with feminists: how do you address it? Albert: I ...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 11

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

Ehrenreich: Why don't you call yourself a socialist? It seems to me Parecon is well within the socialist tradition. Are you uncomfortable with being associated with that tradition? Is the socialist tradition about fighting against domination and ...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 10

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

Ehrenreich: You say your notion of parecon was influenced by your experiences with real "alternative" organizations like South End Press. Can you tell us something about these experiences and how they shaped your thinking? Parecon emerged concept...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 9

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 materi...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 8

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 so...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 7

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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'...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 6

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 dis...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 5

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 l...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 4

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 c...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert Q/A 3

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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" -- t...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert, Q/A 2

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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...

Blog Post Albert: Ehrenreich Interviews Albert

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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...

Blog Post Albert: Gloves off, Clarified

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 ...

Blog Post Albert: Interview

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 socie...

Blog Post Albert: Article for Polish Periodical

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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...

Blog Post Albert: Parecon and Visionary Practice

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

(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 unde...

Blog Post Albert: Gloves Off

Blog Post, April, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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-c...

Blog Post Albert: Organizing an Organization

Blog Post, March, 11 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 be...

Blog Post Albert: Lightweight Library

Blog Post, March, 11 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 i...

Blog Post Albert: The Election

Blog Post, March, 11 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 ...

Blog Post Albert: Routes To Economic Vision: Efficiency

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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...

Blog Post Albert: Promoting Parecon, the Paperback

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 mea...

Blog Post Albert: Canadian Parecon Advocacy Group

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 paer...

Blog Post Albert: Routes To Economic Vision: Sustainability

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 ma...

Blog Post Albert: Routes To Economic Vision: Classism

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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 mo...

Blog Post Albert: Korean Parecon

Blog Post, March, 10 2004 Michael Albert
Albert's ZSpace page

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...

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