Building Fair and Sustainable Economies
* Book: Nelson A and Timmerman F (2011) (Eds) Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies. Pluto Press: London. ISBN: 978-0-7453-3165-2. Hardcover and paperback,
URL = http://www.lifewithoutmoney.info blog
The book site includes testimonials, media, extracts from a review in Journal of Australian Political Economy and lists talks overseas and in Australia under events. Brings together arguments for collective organisation of production and trade beyond money and, in effect, the transfer of all ownership and management to commons".
Description
"Do we need money? The authors of Life Without Money argue that we need to free ourselves from monetary values and relations to achieve democratic and meaningful relationships with one another and a sustainable dynamic with nature. Money is a key aspect of damaging practices that cannot be reformed.
Beyond constructive critiques of our world and its uncertain future, Life Without Money points out how we can stage a concerted collective revolution. Written by ten scholar-activists the book is an introductory field guide to contemporary non-market socialism.
Resuscitating the Left’s humanist critique of twentieth century communism and drawing on utopian, anarchist and Marxist literature, the contributors explore work refusal, self-management, gift economies, a collective labour-credit system, the non-monetary ecological economics of urban and rural squatters, and the radical economic philosophy of Che Guevara." (http://www.lifewithoutmoney.info/)
Contents
"Contents
1. Use Value and Non-Market Socialism: Introduces the book's themes and chapters, by Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman
Part I Critiques of Capitalism and Communism
2. Money versus Socialism: Examines the essential role of money in the economic structures of capitalism and market socialism, by Anitra Nelson.
3. Work Refusal and Self-Organisation: Focuses on the political implications of monetary structures and the creative power of people’s refusal to deal with monetary forms, by Harry Cleaver.
4. Money, Markets and Ecology: Delves into historical debates on the environment, non-monetary models, associational form of socialism and the potential and limitations of techniques of deliberative democracy, by John O'Neill
5. The Value of a Synergistic Economy: Reveals how capitalist economic and political structures determine and define the lives of women and the marginalised masses in the South, by Ariel Salleh.
6. A Gift Economy: Serves as a bridge to Part II in that its sociological critique includes a broad utopian vision of a gift economy that might evolve from already existing transitional ‘hybrid strategies’, which anticipate the values and relationships of such an economy, by Terry Leahy.
PART II Activism and Experiments
7. Non-Market Socialism: Explains how he became a member of an international party that advocates that socialism can only operate without money and analyses various socialist strategies of contemporary movements, by Adam Buick.
8. Self-Management and Efficiency: Speaks from the experience of socialism in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall, by Mihailo Marković
9. Labour Credit — Twin Oaks Community: Analyses a communal labour-credit system in a North American community that has operated for decades, by Kat Kinkade and Twin Oaks Community.
10. The Money-Free Autonomy of Spanish Squatters: Deals with the values and practices of squatters in Spain, by Claudio Cattaneo.
11. Contract and Converge: Draws together the main themes of the book and proposes a global–local strategy for achieving a world without money, a world beyond money, by Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman.