Is there a participatory and democratic alternative to capitalism? Is a classless society possible? —-

Wednesday, September 17 from 4:00pm - 5:50pm

66 W. 12th St. Room 518
newschoolsds {AT} riseup.net

Join the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) on Wednesday, September 17th for an evening discussion on market capitalism, central planning, and the participatory economic alternative. This event will be a follow-up to our event “Students & Revolution” (to be held on Tuesday, September 16th). —– Speakers from SDS will start the conversation by providing a historical overview of the non-capitalist economic systems that have been built, while political economist Michael Albert will discuss Participatory Economics, a proposed economic system that is an alternative to both market capitalism and central planning that comes directly out of the libertarian socialist tradition.

“Are we being utopian? It is utopian to expect more from a system than it can possibly deliver. To expect equality and justice ­ or even rationality ­ from capitalism is utopian. To expect social solidarity from markets, or self-management from central planning, is equally utopian. To argue that competition can yield empathy or that authoritarianism can promote initiative or that keeping most people from decision-making can employ human potential most fully: these are utopian fantasies without question. But to recognize human potentials and to seek to embody their development into a set of economic institutions and then to expect those institutions to encourage desirable outcomes is no more than reasonable theorizing. What is utopian is not planting new seeds but expecting flowers from dying weeds.” - Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

Be there Wednesday, September 17th!

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