AMERICA BEYOND CAPITALISM
Originally published in Shareable
In this interview, Shareable publisher and editor Neal Gorenflo and P2P Foundation’s Michel Bauwens chat with Gar Alperovitz, the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative.
NG: In your book, America Beyond Capitalism, you say that 120 million Americans are involved in citizen-controlled cooperatives and credit unions, and that there are 11,000 worker owned companies in the United States. This paints a totally different picture of Americans today than seems to be popularly understood – that ordinary Americans are helpless in the face of corporate and government power. Why are Americans so blind to their own economic power? But on the other hand, are you sure that this actually the case, have some of these older organisations lost their original spirit?
GA: I spend a great deal of time asking, “Is there anything that the major media—which greatly shape Americans’ worldviews and perceptions—aren’t covering?” I try to learn what’s out there, and I’ve been doing it for longer than I care to remember. What I’ve found out is exactly what you describe—an astonishing number of developments that the press doesn’t cover, either for lack of interest or funding for on-the-ground reporting. Read More
By Maria Armoudian, 
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