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Page 10
G.A.: A systemic crisis is one in which
the basic trends — like inequality,
incarceration, civil liberties, ecological
sustainability and climate change — get
worse decade by decade by decade no
matter who is elected, so that the crisis is
much deeper than simply politics. What are
the fundamental institutions in the system
driving the long trends? You can’t change
the trends in a positive direction unless you
change the institutional design. I think we
are in the midst of a profound systemic
crisis, and I think it’s time to debate
alternatives and begin building many
variations on the next system.
The renowned historian and economist’s new
book calls for a new democratic political economy
BY ALEX BECKER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Ideas are important, but unless you can
bring that vision down to earth, it’s just pie-
in-the-sky,” Gar Alperovitz said. This
philosophy seems to guide much of his
work. A distinguished historian, political
economist, activist and writer, Alperovitz is
well known for his critically acclaimed books
on the atomic bomb and atomic diplomacy.
He has also written extensively on the
subject of building alternative economic
systems and, among his many achievements,
he was the architect of the first modern
steel industry attempt at worker-ownership
in Youngstown, Ohio.
His latest book, “Principles of a Pluralist
Commonwealth,” builds on his vision for a
new economy — one that goes “beyond
corporate capitalism and state socialism” to
create a democratic political economy “from
the ground up.” Released online for free by
The Next System Project, where Alperovitz
serves as cochair, “Principles” is a handbook
for activists, organizers and practitioners,
weaving together theory and practice and
highlighting many examples of “institution
building projects” already underway in
communities across the country. Alperovitz
argues that these projects - which include
public banks, worker cooperatives,
municipal land trusts and urban farms - can
serve as the building blocks for the new
democratic society and economy that we so
desperately need: the “next system.”
In this time of deepening political,
economic and ecological crisis, Alperovitz’s
vision and extensive research helps readers
imagine what is possible and inspires them
to roll up their sleeves and get to work
making change in their local communities.
Alperovitz spoke by phone, discussing his
newest book and his perspective on the
current political moment.
A .B .: What is The Next System Project?
G .A .: The Next System Project is an
attempt to open a big debate. If you don’t
like corporate capitalism and you don’t like
state socialism, what really do you want, and
how do we get there? On one hand, we have
people debating design for systems beyond
capitalism and socialism. On the other hand,
we look at very specific institutions like
public banks in cities or community-owned
land or nonprofit structures that provide
services - institutions that would, if you
build them up piece by piece, begin to look
like pieces of a next system.
A .B .: In “Principles of a Pluralist
Commonwealth,” you argue that we are in the
midst o f a “systemic crisis. ” Please explain.
Street Roots • Dec 8-14, 2017
Whereas Exxon, for example, as a matter of
inherent design of the institution, must sell
more oil and must create more problems for
the climate. That’s what we mean by
institutional or system change - changing
the inherent property of institutions.
A .B .: You write about the importance of
establishing a new institutional basis for
progressive politics. In the past, you point out,
labor unions provided the backbone for
progressive movements.
G .A .: M ost progressives who are alive
today come out of a progressive vision that
assumed corporate capitalism as the
fundamental design of the system, but it was
A .B.: What is the “Pluralist
reformed by politics that would try to
Commonwealth ”?
establish regulation of the environment or
labor laws or Social Security and so forth
G.A.: The vision of what I call the
without changing the nature of the system.
Pluralist Commonwealth is that any viable
It wasn’t just politics at the core of the
democratic and ecologically sustainable next
reform programs, there were also
system is going to have plural forms of
institutions that gave it real muscle.
common ownership. So, for example,
Throughout the Western world and the
starting at the bottom, the ordinary
United States, the
cooperative is a
most important of
particular form of
these institutions
common or
were labor unions.
democratic ownership.
" Y oh ean*t change the trends
They supported
A neighborhood land
In a positive direction nnless
liberalism and they
trust in which the
supported social
yon chang e the Institutional
neighborhood owns
democracy even
housing and land is a
design® 1 think we are In the
when there were
neighborhood form of
midst of a profonnd systemic
fights within
common ownership. A
crisis, and I thlnfc I f s time to
movements. When I
city public utility is a
debate alternatives and begin
was much younger I
larger form. A state
worked for Sen.
b n lld ln g many variations on
bank, as in North
Gaylord Nelson, the
the n e it system®"
Dakota, is somewhat
founder of Earth Day.
larger. The Tennessee
And he was a great
Valley Authority, which
environmentalist, but
covers seven states
he was also strongly backed by labor unions
and has both power and environmental
and could not have been elected without
aspects, is a larger publicly owned wealth or
labor-union backing. Most people who think
utility form. State ownership of nationalized
about movement-building forget about the
industry, such as the French railroads, or
importance of institutions. Now labor unions
the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),
would be an example. Rather than the vision have gone from 34 percent of the labor
force down to 6 percent in the private
of state-owned companies in the socialist
sector. So one of the tasks of the future
vision, I look for different forms of
politics, and particularly system change, is
democratic ownership based on what is
to build new institutions that can also help
appropriate to the specific function. So, for
build the politics at the same time they
example, in land-use it’s probably a
change the nature of the institutions. It’s
neighborhood or a small cooperative store.
both movement-building and institution
[It’s important to] look at the functions that
building.
make sense at different scales, and in all
cases honor the principle of democracy
while building out a community vision from
the ground up.
A .B.: How does this vision relate to and
intersect with the goals and efforts of social
movements?
G .A .: It intersects directly, but I think in
some cases it’s the next step. It’s not either/
or. For instance, in the environmental
movement and the climate change
movement, on the one hand there’s a
resistance to various forms of institutions
that pour CO^ into the environment, and on
the other hand there’s installation of solar
panels by a worker co-op, or a community-
owned windmill, or state-owned windmills.
It’s not only resisting and not only
legislation and not only movement-building,
but also simultaneously generating new
institutions that are built to support the
vision rather than, as in the Big Oil
companies, opposing the vision. We’re
trying to build institutions that support
democracy and ecological sustainability as a
matter of inherent design of the institution.
A .B .: Let’s talk about the 2016 U.S.
election. A lot o f people are still trying to
understand the outcome.
G .A .: I think the dangers of real
repression or a very right-wing government
were always there. One of the reasons is
that there is just too much anger and too
much loss of power. Labor unions are too
weak to support progressive politics, and
there’s too much upset and anger available
to fuel right-wing politicians all over the
world. I think that is why we’ve had this
kind of election. In one sense, it’s the
collapse of the old traditional liberal
alternative — what’s called social democracy
in Europe — and part of that is the loss of
labor unions. That means that the power
balance changes radically in the favor of big
corporations and in favor of people with
very right-wing politics. We need to change
the institutional power balance as well as
the politics. We also have to go beyond
resistance. Resistance is very important, but
See ALPEROVITZ, page 11