On March 17, Between The Lines Radio News Magazine hosted a panel at the Left Forum entitled, “From Evolution to Revolution: The Path to Systemic Change in American Society.”
This podcast is adapted from a longer recording available at BTL’s website, which hosts other audio files from the three-day conference’s various speakers and events. This podcast features Gar Alperovitz’s presentation, followed by his responses during the wide-ranging and extensive question-and-answer period that followed.
Below is an excerpt of the panel “Creating New Economic Models and Launching Initiatives” featuring Gar Alperovitz of the University of Maryland [1:10]; Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First and co-author of a study on community benefits agreements [15:40]; and Gayle McLaughlin, the Green Party mayor of Richmond, California [24:00].
Tonight on Political Analysis, Sandy LeonVest hosts a groundbreaking conversation on how the 99 percent can create a sustainable (and livable) future – even as the nation’s disemboweled “democracy” becomes less accessible to the “living majority.” Tonight’s guests, author and educator Gar Alperovitz and entrepreneur, organic farmer Bryan Welch have very different — but sometimes converging — ideas about how to create such a future.
Bryan Welch is the publisher of the highly successful Mother Earth News, Utne Reader and other publications, and one of the nation’s leading thinkers on what some have dubbed the “new capitalism.” His vision of a more just and sustainable world proposes a capitalism that distributes value according to the durability, provenance and sustainability of products — by paying attention to every consequence of a company’s operation.
Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Among his most recent books are America Beyond Capitalism and (with Lew Daly) Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back. He believes — as conveyed by the title of one of his books — that we need to move beyond capitalism, in order to pave the way to a vibrant democracy with a sustainable economy that can satisfy human needs — not least of which is the need to control one’s work and life.
The Nation recently hosted a half-hour talk at the magazine’s New York offices earlier this month, entitled, “Can Cooperative Workplaces Save America’s Economy?,” the audio of which is now available at the NationConversations page. This discussion is also available on this site, as a podcast and mp3:
On March 18, the Left Forum in New York hosted a panel to explore economic alternatives to capitalism, with Richard Wolff, professor of economics at the New School and author of Capitalism Hits the Fan, and David Schweickart, professor of philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago and author of After Capitalism.
Part 1: Three presentations
Richard Wolff – 1:00
David Schweickart – 18:20
Gar Alperovitz – 37:00
"Concrete and feasible ways to reverse the ominous course of the past several decades and to open the way to a vibrant democracy with a sustainable economy…
A marvelous book…I recommend it all the time"
—Noam Chomsky
"Highly readable; excellent for students…. A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works."
—Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
AMERICA BEYOND CAPITALISM
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