Thinking Beyond Capitalism: An African American Alternative

By Cynthia Hamilton and Robert Terrell

The book is divided in two. The first section addresses the theoretical shortcoming that result from the predominance of capitalism. We recognize that capitalism was initially accepted as progressive and incorporated elements of democracy however slavery (the first contradiction of capitalism) was the economic activity which produced the profits

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Jan 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781635245738

Cynthia Hamilton

Cynthia Hamilton, Ph. D. is retired Professor Emeritus, University of Rhode Island where she was chair of African and African American Studies. She fancies herself a scholar/activist even though she has had multiple sclerosis for twenty years. She has had her Ph. D. for thirty years and has taught at several universities from California to Massachusetts. She studied and worked with C.L.R. James in the 1970’s, was a community organizer in the 1980’s, diagnosed with MS in the 1990’s. Her mother moved from California to Rhode Island to give her the last active years of her academic life. Her mother now has dementia and does not walk. They live together in Newport, Rhode Island, still working for change in their personal lives and the lives of others.

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Thinking Beyond Capitalism

An African American Alternative

Copyright © 2018 by Cynthia Hamilton and Robert Terrell

ISBN: 978-1-63524-573-8

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher or author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

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Contents

Chapter 1

Thinking Beyond Capitalism

Introduction

Capitalism And Slavery: The Contradictions Are Born

Age Of Enlightenment: The Contradictions Take Shape

Individuals and Individualism

Endless Growth as Colonialism

America’s Internal Colony:

Living With Contradictions

Growth and Blight

Environmental Destruction and Capitalism

Chapter 2

An African American Alternative

Introduction

Economic Democracy

Cooperatives

Unions

Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOP’s)

Consumer Stock Ownership Programs (COSOPs)

Land Trusts

Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

Credit Unions

Housing and The Non-Speculative Market

Political Empowerment

Proportional Representation

One Man, Many Votes?

Public Financing of Elections

Decentralization of Government

Coordination of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary politics

Sustainable Development

Land Use and Environmental Racism

Energy Efficiency

Food and Urban Agriculture

Public Transportation

Sustainable Development and Jobs

Conclusion

Footnotes

Bibliography

Chapter 1

Thinking Beyond Capitalism

Introduction

What we intend with this book is to encourage thinking about alternatives in the way we live our lives—every aspect, personal and economic. In many areas it’s a matter of starting over because some of the mistakes we’ve made, in our more is better philosophy of growth, can’t be fixed (for example, environmental problems caused by decisions we’ve made about farming or weapons production).

While we don’t presume to answer the big questions we think we can ask them. For example thirty years ago Schumacher declared small is beautiful¹. I don’t think there’s any doubt that it is but we are afraid to say so if it means we have to choose between big and small. In the U.S. the modern era promised more and better but it hasn’t produced that for everyone.

We can look back to antiquity and compare Greece and Rome, clearly problems increased with size but there wasn’t complete equality in Greece. We are not attempting to produce a grand new economic theory but the criticisms of capitalism should give us clues about what works and what doesn’t even when our intentions are good.

Maybe our discussion will point to goods, the possibility of working with multiple theories/economic systems as long as there is an agreement between countries that colonialism, imperialism, any form of economic or military domination is rejected. Unfortunately, domination is/was an integral part of capitalism as we know it. Capitalism exists because domination was so complete. It was a different form of domination—colonialism—which acknowledged the dominate partner but also recognized the subservient nation as just that. First, as the supplier of workers, second as the supplier of raw materials, third as the consumer of first world produced goods. We can surely see the dependence of the industrial revolution on these