WORLD WORLDWIDE CZECH News Journal Update - (en) Czech, AFED: The fight against capitalism is a fight for humanity - Review of the book "Farewell to Capitalism" by Jérôme Baschet (Neklid publishing house). (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 One of the titles I bought at the Anarchist Book Festival, which took

place in May at the Cross club in Prague, was a book from the Neklid
publishing house, Goodbye to Capitalism. Not only its title, but also
the subtitle Autonomy, the society of the good life and the multiplicity
of worlds suggested that it was exactly what I might be interested in.
And it was. I even dare to say that this book should not be missing from
the library of any anarchist. That is, at least those who want to think
about anarchism according to the current development of society, the
world and subjectivity and do not approach it as a canon once and for
all given 150 years ago. Although anarchism is not directly named in the
book, a significant part of it is based on its principles and is thus
easily grasped by all free-minded readers, regardless of whether they
need to give themselves an ideological label.

Right from the beginning, Baschet defines himself against Marxist myths
emphasizing the internal contradictions of capitalism and the resulting
prophecy regarding its inevitable end. He points out that "in the course
of a history full of crises and wars... capitalism was able to give
birth to new configurations that made it possible to at least partially
overcome some contradictions, without, however, leading to the
overcoming of the capitalist system as such". Anti-capitalist criticism
must also rest on ethical judgment, and "uncertainty about the survival
of the human species, given the unprecedented level of contemporary
predation and ecological damage, will soon become one of the strongest
levers of anti-capitalist criticism." Here, Baschet follows Guattari,
who identified three areas of the devastating effects of capitalism. In
addition to the destruction of the environment, it is the destruction of
social ties and the destruction of subjectivities, under which we can
imagine the degradation of experience, the increase of mental disorders,
the feeling of dispossession and emptiness.

It is necessary to know from the beginning that it is nonsense to save
capitalism. On the contrary, we must save ourselves from him. After all,
the same logic always stands behind most horrors - "the logic of money
and the imperative of profit, which will win over even the most basic
demands for health, life and the preservation of the ecological
balance". But the worst thing is that such logic also spreads in
individual subjectivities - we evaluate ourselves according to what we
have and sacrifice ourselves to the cult of appearance and performance.
A person is forced to become a miniature company whose lifelong goal is
to increase their employability. This reign of fear associated with the
commodification of people into goods is accompanied by the anxiety of
disqualification and the associated pressure to conform.

It is also necessary to know that we cannot be supported by the state,
which has served as the last resort guarantor of the free market since
the beginnings of liberalism. And neoliberalism does not mean
dismantling it, but transferring its methods of governance to the
service of the market for the full subjugation of society to the
economy. "The people delegating their sovereignty to the state has
become a fiction, and the state apparatus long ago appropriated the
monopoly of (abstractly) defining the public interest." Moreover, we
witnessed that one of the main culprits of the excesses of the failed
revolutions of the 20th century was the inseparable pair of avant-garde
and state power.

And another thing to know is that alternatives to the state and
capitalism are not only possible, but even necessary. The ruling elites
try to convince us otherwise, because they are afraid that we will not
discover that we can govern ourselves.

Baschet illustrates the possibility of alternatives with the Zapatista
rebel experiment in Chiapas. "Zapatista autonomy is a modest practice,
sticking 'to the land'. It is not based on any model and has no ambition
to create an ideal world," but "we have before us a 'school of
governance' through which the insurgent communities create their
self-government and, with it, a new social reality." The Zapatistas
reject the Marxist two-phase model of revolution, i.e. first taking
power and then arrange the world as is best (but not for the world, but
for the one in power).

The general conclusion is that the only possible way out is to return
the word democracy to its radical meaning, i.e. to make it the power of
the people not only in terms of origin, but also in the exercise of
power. "Radical self-governing democracy can only rest on the principle
of dignity... Dignity has yet to be won through resistance, in the
struggle against everything that denies it, all forms of discrimination
and humiliation. It does not exist by itself: dignity is a bridge, a
view - the other's view of me, my view of the other and the reflection
of the other's view in my own view. Dignity... is relationship and
sharing. This regained dignity is at the foundation of self-government
and, more generally, of any process of self-emancipation."

Baschet exhorts "that we must accept the future in its indeterminacy and
unpredictability; however, this does not make it less thinkable and
imaginable precisely in its openness, and less burdened with both risks
and hopes. It is time to awaken the future, to revive our desire for it.
Contemporary activism desperately needs a utopian impulse to draw energy
and strength from. The emancipatory process will give birth to a
profoundly different world: a world composed of many worlds. In
connection with these ideas, the author discusses the question of work,
non-growth, the revolution of time and general despecialization, so that
the post-capitalist society becomes a society of free time, where we can
live a buen vivir (good life) based on the principles of mutual support
and cooperation. Moreover, subjectivities will "by their nature ...
contribute to the common good as the basis of their own freedom ... and
indulge in ... the interests and pleasures of leisure, which is also a
way of contributing to the deepening of the experiences of their fellows."

The path to buen vivir will be given by enabling the combination of
multiple fronts and freeing up space for experimentation and ingenuity
in various forms of anti-system engagement, from the most minor to the
most radical. "There can only be a multiple temporality, including the
immediacy of what is happening in the present, the immediacy of what is
to come, and the hope of what is not yet." Since the revolutionary
dynamic begins here and now, our goal should be "to support with all
available means the emergence of various forms of what we can call
liberated spaces". And we also "should strive for a certain inner
liberation from the idol of work," which means, among other things,
"consuming less so that we can work less and therefore live better, in
greater leisure," and doing many things alone or in cooperation with others.

We should not be deterred from our emancipatory aspirations by the
possible pitfalls of liberated spaces, which Baschet addresses in the
end, just as the reader should not be deterred from reading this
excellent book by the wishes of the printing press.

Jérôme Baschet: Goodbye to capitalism. Autonomy, the society of the good
life and the multiplicity of worlds. Restlessness, 2022. 215 pages, CZK
295. Available at neklid.org.

https://www.afed.cz/text/8060/boj-proti-kapitalismu-je-bojem-za-lidstvo
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