Abstract
The article focuses on several figures who are particularly interesting in terms of identifying a radical critique of capitalism that does not shrink from the possibility of designing and imaging a different future. Following Michael Löwy, in our study we have identified relationships of ‘elective affinity’ between figures who might appear different and dissimilar, at least at first glance: the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai, the German communist Paul Mattick, the Italian Socialist Raniero Panzieri and the French social scientist Alain Bihr. After providing some biographical information, we analyze their respective paths to a socialism based on, and achieved through, self-organization and self-government.We do not intend to build a new tradition with this review of thinkers, most of whom were also political militants; rather, more modestly, we hope to suggest a path forward for both research and political activism. In order to show how significant the questions raised by these four intellectuals-militants still are even today, in the Conclusions we analyze the social and political experiment carried out by the Movement for a Democratic Society of the Rojava region in Syrian Kurdistan.
Highlights
In the history of anti-capitalistic movements, there has long been a tendency to believe that an alternative vision of the future cannot be formed in advance because any possible alternatives depend on the specific circumstances in effect at the time of the transition
Having admitted that socialism cannot be invented sitting at a desk, anticapitalistic movements should try to put forward a vision, albeit one that remains open to corrections and new pathways, if they wish to enjoy credibility when speaking to the vast majority of people who have interiorized capitalistic exploitation as a natural law
In this article we outline some of the findings of our recent research (Quirico & Ragona 2018), focusing on several figures who are interesting when it comes to develop a radical critique of capitalism that does not shrink from the possibility of designing and imaging a different future
Summary
In the history of anti-capitalistic movements, there has long been a tendency to believe that an alternative vision of the future cannot be formed in advance because any possible alternatives depend on the specific circumstances in effect at the time of the transition.
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