Build It Now Socialism For The 21st Century Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Build It Now Socialism For The 21st Century book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
'Build it Now' provides a compelling set of arguments for socialism, showing both the new catastrophes being prepared by capitalism and the concrete steps being taken to initiate a transition from capitalism to a form of socialism fitted for the 21st century.
Build It Now: Socialism For The 21St Century by Michael A. Lebowitz Pdf
Build It Now puts forward a clear and innovative vision of a socialist future, and at the same time shows how concrete steps can be taken to make that vision a reality. It shows how the understanding of capitalism can itself become a political act-a defense of the real needs of human beings against the ongoing advance of capitalist profit. //Throughout the book, Michael Lebowitz addresses the concerns of people engaged in struggle to create a better world, but aware that this struggle must be informed by the realities of the twenty-first century. Many chapters of the book began life as speeches to worker organizations in Venezuela, where worker self-management is on the agenda. Written by an eminent scholar, this is far more than an academic treatise. The book brings an internationalist outlook and vast knowledge of global trends to bear on concrete efforts to transform contemporary society. //Build It Now is a testament to the ongoing vitality of the Marxist tradition, drawing on its deep resources of analytical insight and moral passion and fusing them into an essential guide to the struggles of our time.
Harnecker offers a useful overview of the changing political map in Latin America, examining the trajectories of several progressive Latin American governments as they work to develop alternative models to capitalism.--Provided by publisher.
Over the last few decades Marta Harnecker has emerged as one of Latin America’s most incisive socialist thinkers. In A World to Build, she grapples with the question that has bedeviled every movement for radical social change: how do you construct a new world within the framework of the old? Harnecker draws on lessons from socialist movements in Latin America, especially Venezuela, where she served as an advisor to the Chávez administration and was a director of the Centro Internacional Miranda. A World to Build begins with the struggle for socialism today. Harnecker offers a useful overview of the changing political map in Latin America, examining the trajectories of several progressive Latin American governments as they work to develop alternative models to capitalism. She combines analysis of concrete events with a refined theoretical understanding of grassroots democracy, the state, and the barriers imposed by capital. For Harnecker, twenty-first century socialism is a historical process as well as a theoretical project, one that requires imagination no less than courage. She is a lucid guide to the movements that are fighting, right now, to build a better world, and an important voice for those who wish to follow that path.
The Socialist Imperative by Michael A. Lebowitz Pdf
In a little more than a decade, economist Michael A. Lebowitz has written several major works about the transition from socialism to capitalism: Beyond Capital(winner of the Deutscher Prize), Build It Now, The Socialist Alternative, and The Contradictions of “Real Socialism.” Here, he develops and deepens the analysis contained in those pathbreaking works by tracing major issues in socialist thought from the nineteenth century through the twenty-first. Lebowitz explores the obvious but almost universally ignored fact that as human beings work together to produce society’s goods and services, we also “produce” something else: namely, ourselves. Human beings are shaped by circumstances, and any vision of socialism that ignores this fact is bound to fail, or, at best, reproduce the alienation of labor that is endemic to capitalism. But how can people transform their circumstances in a way that allows them to re-organize production and, at the same time, fulfill their human potential? Lebowitz sets out to answer this question first by examining Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme, and from there investigates the experiences of the Soviet Union and more recent efforts to build socialism in Venezuela. He argues that socialism in the twenty-first century must be animated by a central vision, in three parts: social ownership of the means of production, social production organized by workers, and the satisfaction of communal needs and communal purposes. These essays repay careful reading and reflection, and prove Lebowitz to be one of the foremost Marxist thinkers of this era.
“A good society,“ Michael Lebowitz tells us, “is one that permits the full development of human potential.” In this slim, lucid, and insightful book, he argues persuasively that such a society is possible. That capitalism fails his definition of a good society is evident from even a cursory examination of its main features. What comes first in capitalism is not human development but privately accumulated profits by a tiny minority of the population. When there is a conflict between profits and human development, profits take precedence. Just ask the unemployed, those toiling at dead-end jobs, the sick and infirm, the poor, and the imprisoned. But if not capitalism, what? Lebowitz is also critical of those societies that have proclaimed their socialism, such as the former Soviet Union and China. While their systems were not capitalist and were capable of achieving some of what is necessary for the “development of human potential,” they were not “good societies.” A good society as Lebowitz defines it must be marked by three characteristics: social ownership of the means of production, social production controlled by workers, and satisfaction of communal needs and purposes. Lebowitz shows how these characteristics interact with and reinforce one another, and asks how they can be developed to the point where they occur more or less automatically—that is, become both a society’s premises and outcomes. He also offers fascinating insights into matters such as the nature of wealth, the illegitimacy of profits, the inadequacies of worker-controlled enterprises, the division of labor, and much more.
How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century by Erik Olin Wright Pdf
What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it? Capitalism has transformed the world and increased our productivity, but at the cost of enormous human suffering. Our shared values—equality and fairness, democracy and freedom, community and solidarity—can provide both the basis for a critique of capitalism and help to guide us toward a socialist and democratic society. Erik Olin Wright has distilled decades of work into this concise and tightly argued manifesto: analyzing the varieties of anticapitalism, assessing different strategic approaches, and laying the foundations for a society dedicated to human flourishing. How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century is an urgent and powerful argument for socialism, and an unparalleled guide to help us get there. Another world is possible. Included is an afterword by the author’s close friend and collaborator Michael Burawoy.
Socialism in the 21st Century by Anil Rajimwale,M. Vijaya Kumar Pdf
The present collection contains papers of the first national workshop organised by the All India Progressive Forum (AIPF) on '21st Century Socialism' in Hyderabad. Socialism is a controversial issue, rendered more controversial by the great collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist regimes. The collapse has reignited the controversies on the nature, path and viability of socialism in its many interpretations. In the meantime the scientific and technological revolution has added new features to the theory of social transformation, and has reopened many issues settled by history of individual revolution. The papers discuss many old and new aspects of socialism, social revolution and transformation. They also seek to add many new features. They particularly emphasize the notion that socialism of '21st century' will be different, in many crucial ways, than that of the 20th century. Please note: This title is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
The Contradictions of "Real Socialism" by Michael Lebowitz Pdf
What was “real socialism”—the term which originated in twentieth-century socialist societies for the purpose of distinguishing them from abstract, theoretical socialism? In this volume, Michael A. Lebowitz considers the nature, tendencies, and contradictions of those societies. Beginning with the constant presence of shortages within “real socialism,” Lebowitz searches for the inner relations which generate these patterns. He finds these, in particular, in what he calls “vanguard relations of production,” a relation which takes the apparent form of a social contract where workers obtain benefits not available to their counterparts in capitalism but lack the power to decide within the workplace and society. While these societies were able to claim major achievements in areas from health care to education to popular culture, the separation of thinking and doing prevented workers from developing their capacities as fully developed human beings. The relationship within “real socialism” between the vanguard as conductor and a conducted working class, however, did not only lead to the deformation of workers and those elements necessary for the building of socialism; it also created the conditions in which enterprise managers emerged as an incipient capitalist class, which was an immediate source of the crises of “real socialism.” As he argued in The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development, Lebowitz stresses the necessity to go beyond the hierarchy inherent in the relation of conductor and conducted (and beyond the “vanguard Marxism” which supports this) to create the conditions in which people can transform themselves through their conscious cooperation and practice—i.e., a society of free and associated producers.
Socialist Economic Development in the 21st Century by Alberto Gabriele,Elias Jabbour Pdf
Over a hundred years after the first socialist revolution broke the global monopoly of capitalism, a new class of socialist-oriented socioeconomic development is coming to the fore. Capitalism is still dominant worldwide, although its hegemony is no longer undisputed, and humankind is now faced with a key existential challenge. This book proposes an alternative path to overcoming the worldwide crisis of globalized capitalism. It offers a novel, balanced and historically rooted interpretation of the successes and failures of socialist economic construction throughout the last century. The authors apply a multidisciplinary, holistic and purpose-based methodology to draw basic lessons from stylized facts, emerging in different areas of knowledge, ranging from political economy to biology, and from key national socioeconomic experiences, with a particular focus on China. The book is divided into three parts. The first is mainly theoretical and general in nature, identifying the major contributions bequeathed by the hard sciences to their social counterparts. Consistent with these findings, the authors offer a stylized interpretation of the contemporary state-of-the-art of the debate on the core concepts of economic science and advance a few elementary theories about what socialism in the 21st century could look like. The second and third parts analyze and discusses the core features of a few select experiences, which have evolved in certain countries since 1917, some of which are still unfolding. The book will find an audience among academics, researchers and students in the fields of economics, political science, history, and geography, as well as, policy makers, particularly in developing countries.
Following a decade of U.S. bombing campaigns that obliterated northern Vietnam, East Germany helped Vietnam rebuild in an act of socialist solidarity. In Building Socialism Christina Schwenkel examines the utopian visions of an expert group of Vietnamese and East German urban planners who sought to transform the devastated industrial town of Vinh into a model socialist city. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research in Vietnam and Germany with architects, engineers, construction workers, and tenants in Vinh’s mass housing complex, Schwenkel explores the material and affective dimensions of urban possibility and the quick fall of Vinh’s new built environment into unplanned obsolescence. She analyzes the tensions between aspirational infrastructure and postwar uncertainty to show how design models and practices that circulated between the socialist North and the decolonizing South underwent significant modification to accommodate alternative cultural logics and ideas about urban futurity. By documenting the building of Vietnam’s first planned city and its aftermath of decay and repurposing, Schwenkel argues that underlying the ambivalent and often unpredictable responses to modernist architectural forms were anxieties about modernity and the future of socialism itself.
Communism in the 21st Century by Shannon Kurt Brincat Pdf
A compelling three-volume exploration of the philosophical, social, and political facets of the theory and practice of communism within the conditions of 21st-century world politics and late capitalism. The world has changed significantly, and so has communism. This groundbreaking three-volume series comprises contributions from over 30 experts that thoroughly address the past, present, and future of communism. The entries assess the modern re-articulation of the notion of communism and its potential emergence against the backdrop of recent historical conditions and contemporary world politics, taking into account the ongoing global financial crisis, recent revolutions throughout the Middle East, Occupy protest events, and anti-globalization movements. The first volume reexamines Marx's ideas from many distinct viewpoints while the second volume considers the numerous challenges facing existing communist parties, including those in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. The last volume explores the future of communist thought and practice in the context of the modern world and the recurrent crises of capitalism.
Counter-Globalization and Socialism in the 21st Century by Thomas Muhr Pdf
Framed by critical globalisation theory and David Harvey’s ‘co-revolutionary moments’ as a theory of social change, this book brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to empirically analyse how socialism is being constructed in contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean, and beyond. This book uses the case of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) to invite to a re-thinking of resistance to global capitalism and the construction of socialism in the 21st century. Including detailed theory-based ethnographic case studies from Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the USA, the contributors identify social and structural forces at different levels and scales to illuminate politics and practices at work. Centred around the themes of democracy and justice, and the more general reconfiguration of the state-society relations and power geometries at the local, national, regional and global scales, ALBA and Counter-Globalization is at the forefront in the trend of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of social phenomena of global relevance. Counter-Globalization and Socialism in the 21st Century will be of interest to students and scholars of Latin American politics, global governance, global regionalisms and rising powers.
Socialism in the 21st Century by Richard Westra Pdf
Now is an opportune time to be writing about socialism. 2017 and 2018 are landmark years for socialism. 2018, of course, is the 200 year anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, whose name is mostly associated with modern socialism. 2017 is the 100 year anniversary of the Soviet Revolution which brought into being the first socialist experiment in the world. Furthermore, 2017 is the 150 year anniversary of the publication of Volume One of Marxs monumental Capital. Finally, 2017 is the 100 year anniversary of the publication of the iconic short booklet, Imperialism, authored by leader of the Soviet revolution, V. I. Lenin. The procedure adopted for this book on socialism in the 21st century is as follows: Chapter One sets the stage for the book by looking at the way the notion of socialism has gained renewed respectability through calls for it to commence via mainstream political parties. Chapter Two considers questions of the sources for socialist ideas and follows how these were progressively shaped to animate revolutionary actors in putting socialist experiments into practice. Chapter Three reviews the record of the Soviet Unions socialist journey. It examines Soviet discontents and explanations for this movement; it then ends with a review of the initial theoretical response to Soviet failings. Chapter Four explores the transformations undergone by capitalism in the 20th and 21st century. The purpose of this is to show that the kind of capitalist economy socialist revolutionaries believed would be the antechamber for socialism now no longer exists.
The Socialist Imperative by Michael A. Lebowitz Pdf
In a little more than a decade, economist Michael A. Lebowitz has written several major works about the transition from socialism to capitalism: Beyond Capital(winner of the Deutscher Prize), Build It Now, The Socialist Alternative, and The Contradictions of “Real Socialism.” Here, he develops and deepens the analysis contained in those pathbreaking works by tracing major issues in socialist thought from the nineteenth century through the twenty-first. Lebowitz explores the obvious but almost universally ignored fact that as human beings work together to produce society’s goods and services, we also “produce” something else: namely, ourselves. Human beings are shaped by circumstances, and any vision of socialism that ignores this fact is bound to fail, or, at best, reproduce the alienation of labor that is endemic to capitalism. But how can people transform their circumstances in a way that allows them to re-organize production and, at the same time, fulfill their human potential? Lebowitz sets out to answer this question first by examining Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme, and from there investigates the experiences of the Soviet Union and more recent efforts to build socialism in Venezuela. He argues that socialism in the twenty-first century must be animated by a central vision, in three parts: social ownership of the means of production, social production organized by workers, and the satisfaction of communal needs and communal purposes. These essays repay careful reading and reflection, and prove Lebowitz to be one of the foremost Marxist thinkers of this era.
