A Socialist Alternative




I invite (reasoned) responses and contributions. Mail me your contributions either in text, Word or html and I'll deal with formatting and posting. All copyrights will remain with the owner and the usual disclaimers apply. As ever, Comrade Karl will be watching over us and wondering no doubt, if all those long days spent in the British Library were worth the effort.

Economic Democracy: A Worthy Socialism that Would Work	Economic DEmocracy is intended to demonstrate rigorously that there is an alternative, at least in theory: an economically viable form of socialism that would be more democratic than capitalism and at least as efficient.
What Kind of Party Do We Need?	Ahmed Shawki
Die gesellschaftliche Bedeutung von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik als besonderer Produktivkraft (PDF)	WOLF GÖHRING - An exploration of the ideas about networked socialism (see below). Only in German I'm afraid (unless someone wants to translate it?).
The Crisis of White Supremacy	Gerald Horne
The Renewing of Socialism: An Introduction	by John Bellamy Foster
Karl Marx voted most revered philosopher on BBC web site	By Fred Weston
Towards a practical context: From Bolivar, to Marti, to Chavez and Fidel	Simon Farabundo Rios
The Oxman/Bageant Exchange (Part One)	By Richard Oxman
Imperialism Reconsidered	By S Artesian
Networked Socialism - an economic model for the 21st century (30/11/03)	By William Bowles One of the most contentious issues that divided the left during the 20^th century was whether or not the Soviet Union was socialist or not, which of course brings into sharp focus the question, what is a socialist economy and how does one achieve it?
The 'Split' Part 3: Beyond Imperialism but not yet socialism (23/09/03)	By William Bowles Can the EU be viewed as a viable 'launch platform' for a socialist alternative to a future of imperialist barbarism on a global scale which can be the only outcome of the USUK alliance if it is allowed to succeed in its plans for global domination?
The 'Split' Part 2: The 'Malaise' (02/09/03)	By William Bowles It’s no accident that Tony Blah has appropriated the images and desires of the traditional socialist project eg, "Building the New Jerusalem" but recast it in the corporatist mould.
The 'Split' Part 1: Out of the horse's mouth (26/08/03)	By William Bowles My contention that the leading expressions of contemporary capitalism has ‘split’ into two major factions has raised some hackles amongst the ‘coms’, so I’d like to explore the idea further and try and illustrate why I think the ‘split’ represents if not a fundamental parting of the ways, then at least the potential for one, especially in the context of the development of a socialist alternative.
Accumulation of Capital(s) (25/08/03)	By William Bowles "If the whole class of wage-workers were to be abolished owing to machinery, how dreadful that would be for capital which, without wage labour, ceases to be capital." Marx, Wage, Labour and Capital
The Macintosh computer - archetypal capitalist tool? (10/87)	By William Bowles I've posted this here because it was one of the first explorations I wrote on the implications of the computer and it spells out some of the basic ideas that underly my contention about the implications of the IT revolution for a 21st century socialist economy.

Related Resources
World in Torment By Stafford Beer PDF file (1992)	In the essay Networked Socialism, I mention the cybernetician Stafford Beer (who died last year), whose historic project to create a cybernetic model of the Chilean economy under Allende in 1971, published an essay that I think is worth reading in the context of the essay. I plan to put more links on Beer's works and ideas online over the coming days.
Fanfare for Effective Freedom By Stafford Beer PDF file (1973)	A groundbreaking essay written following his experiences in Allende's experiment with building socialism in Chile.
The Healer	Robert Kagan is the American thinker who first identified the growing transatlantic rift and coined the phrase "Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus". Here he argues that Tony Blair is the only leader who can bring the two back together.
The new liberal imperialism	Robert Cooper's call for a new liberal imperialism and admission of the need for double standards in foreign policy have outraged the left but the essay offers a rare and candid unofficial insight into the thinking behind British strategy on Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond.

MIMO	By William Bowles & Michael Jensen A socio-economic model for the 21st century

Some loosely related resources
Cultural Capital	Bourdieu argues that cultural capital [or intellectual capital] is a particular "form" of capital, convertible with but irreducible to economic capital, itself only another form of capital.
Book Review	Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation by John Guillory.
The Economy of Ideas	*Selling Wine Without Bottles on the Global Net by John Perry Barlow*
The Sociology of Culture	in Computer-Mediated Communication: An Initial Exploration
"Scientific Worldview"	The Cultural Nature of the Concept
Human Made & Cultural Capital	A systems perspective on the interrelations between natural, human-made and cultural capital
Rationality & Cultural Capital	Rationality and Cultural Capital in Improving International Understanding
Social Capital	Social Capital Formation and Institutions for Sustainability
Crafting Selves	Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity on a Japanese Workplace
Cultural Capital	Cultural Capital is a very general theory, in the sense that it attempts to construct explanations for things like differential educational achievement in a way that combines a wide range of differing influences.

Main Index