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prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page i anti-capitalism a beginner’s guide prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page ii otherbeginner’s guidesfrom oneworld Artificial Intelligence: A Beginner’s Guide, Blay Whitby, ISBN 1–85168–322–4 Genetics: A Beginner’s Guide, B. Guttman, A. Griffiths, D.T. Suzuki and T. Cullis, ISBN 1–85168–304–6 The Palestine–Israeli Conflict: A Beginner’s Guide, Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami, ISBN 1–85168–261–9 Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide, Kevin Hart, ISBN 1–85618–338–0 Religion: A Beginner’s Guide, Martin Forward, ISBN 1–85168–258–9 prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page iii anti-capitalism a beginner’s guide simon tormey prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page iv anti-capitalism: a beginner’s guide Oneworld Publications (Sales and Editorial) 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England www.oneworld-publications.com © Simon Tormey, 2004 All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Convention. A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 1–85168–342–9 Cover design by the Bridgewater Book Company Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India Printed and bound by Thomson Press (India) Ltd prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page v contents acknowledgements vii introduction: ‘beginning’ anti-capitalism 1 one the hows and whys of the thing called ‘capitalism’ 9 A question of definition 9 Capitalism as a system of competition 15 Capitalism now 17 Learning to love capitalism 26 Neoliberalism and the end of the political 32 two why ‘seattle’? 1968, the ‘end of history’ and the birth of contemporary anti-capitalism 38 Problems of liberal-democracy 40 1968 and the ‘crisis’ of oppositional politics 48 Paris ’68: unofficial politics and the new radicalism 52 1968, ‘new social movements’ and direct action 56 From Berlin to Seattle: global anti-capitalism and the challenge to neoliberalism 61 three a ‘movement of movements’ i: ‘reformism’ or ‘globalisation with a human face’ 71 prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page vi vi anti-capitalism: a beginner’s guide Analysing anti-capitalist ideas: beginnings 74 ‘Strong’ and ‘weak’ (liberal) reformisms 78 ‘Strong(er)’ reformism – or the return of social democracy 88 ‘We are the world’: towards global social democracy 95 Could global social democracy work – for whom? 102 four a ‘movement of movements’ ii: renegades, radicals and revolutionaries 107 Marxism after the ‘fall of communism’ 107 Beyond ‘Bolshevism’: autonomism, council communism, and ‘heterodox’ radicalism 114 Anarchism, or the art of not being ‘in charge’ 117 Deep, deeper, deepest ‘green’ 124 Ya Basta!: A brief excursus on Marcos and ‘Zapatismo’ 129 Conclusion 137 five the future(s) of anti-capitalism: problems and perspectives 140 From here to there: movement dynamics and collective action 145 Beyond ideology: logics of resistance 148 In search of the ‘majority’ 151 Minoritarian logics – towards better world(s) 156 Conclusion(s) 167 glossary ofkey terms, thinkers and movements 171 contemporary anti-capitalism: a timeline 177 index 180 prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page vii acknowledgements I need, firstly, to thank the team at Oneworld for their help and guidance since the inception of this project. It has been a source of surprise, delight and fear to find publishers who took such a close interest in what I was writing. Secondly, I’d like to thank the many individuals who chipped in with ideas, read portions of what I was writing or otherwise made my life easier. I should mention in particular Pete Waterman and Graeme Chesters, both of whom came out of the blue with interesting suggestions, papers and bibliographies. Easily my largest debt in this regard is, however, owed to Andy Robinson. As well as supplying a near constant stream of activist materials over the past few years, he has been a valuable ‘sounding-board’ for more or less every idea or theme that has found its way into the book. He also read and commented – in his own inimitable fashion – on crucial parts of the manuscript. Finally, I’d like to thank Véronique and our children, Max, Gabrielle and Louis for putting up with me and my numerous ‘absences’ when I should have been reading them a book or playing in the field. This book is dedicated to the original anarcho-situationist- beatnik, my mother, Patricia Tormey. Some are given to write and think about life ‘after’ capitalism, and some already live it. vii prelims.024 21/01/2004 2:37 PM Page viii Intro.024 21/01/2004 2:44 PM Page 1 introduction ‘beginning’ anti-capitalism Those who write about contemporary radical politics, whether mainstream or ‘activist’, agree that something new was born at the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in December 1999. This was a global movement variously termed ‘anti- capitalist’, ‘anti-globalisation’, ‘anti-corporate’, ‘anti-neoliberal’. Now the movement is often referred to – and refers to itself – in more ‘positive’ terms, that is, as the ‘Movement for Global Justice’ or the ‘Global Justice and Solidarity Movement’ (being just two examples). All these labels point to the same people, the same groups, the same events and protests, though the proliferation oflabels gives an indi- cation of why it is that people are often confused about what it stands for or what it represents. Confusing though the picture may be, this is not to say that there is little to read on the subject. A great deal has alreadybeen written about the movement, so much so that it is legit- imate to ask why we need yet another book on what must be one of the most written about phenomena of recent years. Why do we need Anti-Capitalism: A Beginner’s Guide? What can I hope to add to what is already a mountain of often informed, sometimes entertaining, and just occasionally wearisome writing on the subject? As someone who has been teaching a variety of‘anti-capitalist’ subjects for two decades I have at least attempted to keep up with most things ‘anti-capitalist’ over the course of that time. This was a fairly straightforward task until 1999. Before then, ‘anti-capitalism’ meant looking mostly at the ideas and events of the past, sometimes the far-flung past. It also meant keeping abreast of the various activisms and ways in which deeply unfashionable ideas like ‘social- ism’, ‘anarchism’ and ‘Marxism’ were supposed to be evolving, 1