"A great many activists and concerned people ask, quite rightly, what alternative form of social organization can be imagined that might overcome
the grave flaws -- often real crimes -- of contemporary society in more
far-reaching ways than short-term reform. Parecon is the most serious
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questions, crucial ones, based on serious thought and careful analysis."
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Event Description: There are some wars that spring up for reasons that have little to do with the world's sole remaining super power. But most wars since the collapse of Communism have been centered around US imperial ambitions, and even the wars that start for other reasons often become entangled in US imperial machinations. The first duty of all who oppose war and imperial domination is to build a world-wide movement for peace that is so powerful that even the world's only military super power finds it too costly to wage war. But as long as economies are governed by competition and greed, even a peace movement more powerful than the one we have been able to build so far will find itself challenged over and over again to douse the flames of war. Besides preventing wars, stopping the wars that do break out as quickly as possible, and checkmating imperial plans, to be successful in the long-run the peace movement must address the underlying forces that cause war. One underlying cause of war is the economics of competition and greed. (Sexism, racism, and militarism are others.) This means replacing the economics of competition and greed with the economics of equitable cooperation is an integral part of a successful strategy for achieving world peace. Robin Hahnel came of age politically in the anti-Vietnam war movement, and has participated actively in the US anti-imperialist movement ever since. He is also co-creator, along with Michael Albert, of an alternative to capitalism known as participatory economics. Together with the Vancouver Participatory Economics Collective, Hahnel will talk about war, peace, and participatory economics.
Click here for VPC member Marla Renn's interview with Robin on "A Participatory Peace: A Look Inside the Anti-War Movement".
Robin Hahnel has taught political economy at American University for 30 years. He has co-authored, along with Michael Albert, numerous books on participatory economics. Robin has been active in many social movements and organizations beginning with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the anti-Vietnam war movement in the 1960s, and most recently with the Southern Maryland Greens and Green Party USA. His most recent book is Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation published by Routledge (2005).