Endorsements

Since the 1980s, anti-capitalist activism has taken a new form. Instead of planning the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist state, or mobilising in mass political parties, there has been an embrace of 'Alternative Societies', nominally non-capitalist spaces which exist within the here and now. Famous examples of these purportedly non-capitalist projects are co-operative firms, mutual aid groups, and calls for a Universal Basic Income. Such projects gained prominence during COVID-19 and have shot to the forefront of social and political theorising. These Alternative Societies are increasingly supported by anti-capitalist thinkers and activists as they are held to possess radical transformative potential. Yet, to date, the viability of an anti-capitalism based on investing in a plurality of models of Alternative Societies remains unclear and under-examined. Developing insights from the early Frankfurt School, in Critical Theory & Alternative Societies, Harris poses an alarming and hitherto under-explored question: what if these purportedly radical 'non-capitalist' spaces are actually stabilising component parts of the capitalist totality? Drawing on Marcuse's concept of 'repressive desublimation' and Adorno's analysis of 'reified consciousness', Harris suggests that even the most promising Alternative Societies may actually contain system-affirming tendencies. When he delves further into this question, he shows there to be an actionist-inflection to much of the Alternative Societies literature, and a reluctance to engage in critique and strategic thinking. As such, Harris makes the case for an urgent rebalancing of the relationship between critique and activism, pointing towards a renewed centrality for critique in the anti-capitalist project.