To start pageEd. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels, 2009, 182 pages (English)
Reader of the conference "The World Crisis and Beyond" on the 28th of October 2010 in Brussels, organized by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels in cooperation with the World Forum for Alternatives and the Transational Institute
From the text:
Neoliberal financial-market capitalism has dragged the world into a crisis which threatens human civilisation as such. It is characterised by an extreme form of the combination of, on the one hand, the expansion of production, transport and life-style, with, on the other, the destruction of its own foundations, and suffers from a crisis of social reproduction, societal integration, democratic identification and security. Climate destruction, resource wars, terror, the transformation of democracy into oligarchy, class divides, a new racism and fundamentalism, etc. are unavoidable. It therefore leads to a crisis of civilisation, and produces ever stronger elements of barbarism and authoritarian power, which can only be contained at ever greater expense. (Michael Brie)
In the contemporary global situation, the principal focus of the working masses in the world is on the ongoing and the unabated economic crises that lay centred in the US enveloping the world, as the brunt of this phenomenon is being borne by them. Bailouts and stimulus packages have been doled out by the governments of the imperialist triad – US, Europe and Japan in a bid to pull out their economies from the quagmire of this crisis variously named as – Financial Meltdown, Financial Crisis, Recession and Economic Downturn. (MURTHY PK) The current crisis marks an important historical moment, as it marks the end of a capitalist phase that has been unprecedented, from its very beginning with the industrial revolution of the 19th century and its undisputed victory over what had been its unfortunate “alter ego” for half a century: the rapidly dismissed experiment of Soviet socialism. This crisis is both fortunate and pertinent, as it is a result of capitalism itself; and that is why we must seek the reasons for the catastrophe – and why not also for its «passing» – in capitalism. (Ali El Kenz)
Content:
Part 1: Synopsis of thesis papers
Part 2: Thesis Papers
Elmar Altvater: The crisis and green ways out
Samir Amin: Exiting the crisis of capitalism or capitalism in crisis?
Pierre Beaudet: Beyond the crisis: North American perspective
Michael Brie: Five theses for the conference on alternatives and transformation paths to overcome the regime of crisis capitalism
Bernard Cassen: Short thesis
Sandeep Chachra: Socialising a socialist vision
Jennifer Cox and Cheri Honkala: Building the "Unsettling Force": To make another U.S. and another world possible: the economic crisis, the new class and historyopportunities for organizing in the U.S.
Wim Dierckxsens: Requiem for the free market: towards a post-capitalist utopia
Bernard Founou: Prerequisites for an effective struggle against imperialism in sub-saharan Africa: a detour via the Bandung era
Mamdouh Habashi: I have a dream
Francois Houtart: The multiple aspects of the crisis and the way out
Dot Keet: Emancipatory transformation and alternative development paths within and from regions of the South
Ali El Kenz: An anthropological view on the crisis
Lau Kin Chi: Transformation of politics: The new role of the state and the social movements
Gustave Massiah: Opposition movements foreshadow ways out of the crisis
P. K. Murthy: India in the midst of the global econoic crisis
Paulo Nakatani: The world financial crisis
Pedro Páez: Towards an environmentally sustainable, culturally and scientifically sensitive planetary program of decent fully employment
Florian Rochat: A note on Switzerland
Vera Vratusa: Short thesis
Hilary Wainwright: From the heartlands of a persistent neo-liberalism: a union led alternative
Wen Tiejun, Liu Huaiyu, Li Chenjie: Global crisis and grain security in China
Rick Wolff: Short thesis (addressing especially the crisis in the US and a proposed new strategy to mobilize workers).
More in the PDF-file.