eBook: SOS Alternatives to Capitalism by Richard Swift

Financial collapse and crisis; disgust at bankers’ greed; the devastating effects of yawning inequality: all these and more have led to widespread dissatisfaction and disenchantment with capitalism. People are crying out for an alternative but are continually told that one does not exist. Richard Swift is a former editor of New Internationalist magazine and author of the No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy. In 2011 he won the Daniel Singer Millennium Prize for an original essay which helps further socialist ideas. 'I came away from S.O.S. with the comforting sense that there was an enjoyable world before capitalism and there can be one after.' - Barbara Garson, playwright and author of Down the Up escalator: How the 99% live 'Richard Swift's thoroughly researched and timely book takes a much-needed view of the alternatives that existed – and still exist – beyond capitalism.' - Jaideep Hardikar, journalist and author of A Village Awaits Doomsday. 'Commendably judicious… With S.O.S.: Alternatives to Capitalism, Swift joins a growing strand of 21st-century literature that explores radically different ways of organizing our economy and politics.' - Cy Gonick, founder and long-time editor of Canadian Dimension magazine. 'Swift guides his reader through a troubling political history of 20th Century capitalism and its stunted alternatives. He then explores ways out of our death trap known as business-as-usual. A genuine invitation to both dream and recover from a nightmare.' - Federico Demaria, Research & Degrowth. 'This critical book will be controversial for much of the left from social democrats to autonomists, but it opens many much needed crucial questions. It is grounded in an impressive base in the literature of alternatives to capitalism and in a wide knowledge of many social movements around the world. Swift’s creative approach to imagining alternatives to capitalism has sparked this reviewer’s imagination, and I hope it will yours.' - Ecosocialists.org 'Hope for imagining a world beyond corporate control: finding ways to democratically control our common wealth, from Quebec to India.' - Extracted from On the Commons 'This timely book is required reading for the conversation we need to have.' - Ynes Sanz, Australian Options. 'Richard Swift's S.O.S. Alternatives to Capitalism makes a major contribution to changing the parameters of political debate. It helps us move beyond the pseudo-alternatives of the political mainstream and begin to work for the kind of change we can believe in without being delusional.' John P Clark, Professor of Philosophy; Loyola. 'Richard Swift’s advocacy of a ‘democratic ecosocialism’ as an alternative to capitalism is sustained and persuasive... Eloquent and inspirational.' - Jeremy Seabrook , Red Pepper. eBook: 208 pages Publisher: New Internationalist (April 2014) Language: English