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Revision as of 16:54, 8 March 2008

This article lists ideologies opposed to capitalism and describes them briefly. For arguments against capitalism, see criticisms of capitalism.
An anti-capitalist poster printed by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911.

Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Some of these oppose each other more than they oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system; however, there are also ideas which can be characterized as partially anti-capitalist in the sense that they only wish to replace or abolish certain aspects of capitalism rather than the entire system.

Socialism

Socialism argues for collective control of the economy,[dubious – discuss] which may or may not be associated with democratic control by the people over the state (there are both democratic and undemocratic philosophies which call themselves socialist). In addition, socialism advocates some degree (depending on the type of socialism) of economic equality and the eradication of poverty and unemployment.

  • Marxism argues for collective ownership of the means of production and the eventual abolition of the state, with an intermediate stage, of indeterminate length, in which the state will be used to eliminate the vestiges of capitalism. Marxism is the foundation of several different ideologies, including many forms of communism and certain types of socialism. Some states that identified themselves with Marxism claimed to have abolished capitalism, although some Marxist theorists describe them as state capitalist, rather than anti-capitalist.[1][2]
  • Social democracy is a partially anti-capitalist political view that has grown out of the reformist wing of the socialist movement. Social democrats wish to mitigate what they see as capitalism's most negative effects through the creation of a mixed economy and a welfare state.

Anarchism

Anarchist philosophies argue for a total abolition of the state, with many anarchists opposing capitalism on the grounds that it entails social domination, involuntary relations and coercive hierarchy. Some forms of anarchism oppose capitalism as a whole while supporting some particular aspects of capitalism. However, because some forms of capitalism can be said to reduce the role of government interference, there is a minority current within anarchism,, known as anarcho-capitalism, which embraces radical laissez-faire capitalism. For further discussion, see Anarchism and capitalism.

Ecofeminism

Ecofeminists criticise capitalism for defining the natural world as simply a body of resources to be exploited and reshaped to serve human purposes and interests. They also see it as inherently snapping the relationship between humans to one another and to the natural world. Ecofeminists see capitalism as a patriarchal construction "based on the colonization of women, nature, and other peoples."[3]

Religious aspects

Some religions criticize or outright reject capitalism:

Christianity traditionally forbade usury but modern groups of Christianity has over time abandoned identifying every form of lending at interest as usury.[citation needed] Many denominations of modern origins have dropped the prohibition altogether. More recently, Christianity has been the source of many other criticisms of capitalism, particularly its materialist aspects.[citation needed] The first socialists drew many of their principles from Christian values (see Christian socialism and the Social Gospel movement), against the "bourgeois values" of profiteering, greed, selfishness and hoarding.[citation needed] Many Christians do not oppose capitalism entirely but support a mixed economy in order to ensure "decent" labour standards and relations, as well as economic justice. Nevertheless, there are also many Protestant denominations (particularly in the United States) who are reconciled or ardently in favour of capitalism, particularly in opposition to secular socialism.[citation needed]

A Soviet anti-capitalist poster (1920).

Fascist aspects

Some writers, including right-wing libertarians, argue that fascism is a form of anti-capitalism, because it is opposed to laissez-faire capitalism, and because fascist governments made private corporations and other private individuals who owned the means of production to work to serve national interests--thus, undermining property rights--, and to employ more labor on the workers than is profitable for the employer. Italian Fascism is marked for anti-capitalism the law of "socialization". [4] Fascism protected the land owning elites and is regarded as a reaction against the rising power of the working class.[5] The Nazis, due to a belief in a Jewish conspiracy, were particularly vocal in their opposition to finance capitalism, interest charging, and "profiteering."[6] Fascists upheld the ownership aspect of private property - including private property over productive capital and the means of production[7] - but said that property was to be regulated to ensure that "benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual."[8] Hitler stated in Mein Kampf that "the attitude of the State towards capital would be comparatively simple and clear. Its only object would be to make sure that capital remained subservient to the State" and also made a clear distinction between "capital which is purely the product of creative labour and ... capital which is exclusively the result of financial speculation" [9]. There exists a belief or claim that fascism represented a "third way" between Marxian socialism and capitalism.[10] Marxists argued that fascism is a form of government control instituted to protect capitalism during a period of crisis or revolution.[11] Fascism operated from a Social Darwinist view of human relations. Their aim was to promote "superior" individuals and weed out the weak.[12] In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businessmen while destroying trade unions and other organizations of the working class.[13] Lawrence Britt suggests that protection of corporate power is an essential part of fascism.[14] Historian Gaetano Salvemini argued in 1936 that fascism makes taxpayers responsible to private enterprise, because "the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise... Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social."[15] Economic liberals, such as Ludwig von Mises, contend that fascism, an offshoot of socialism, was collectivist and anti-capitalistic. According to Mises, fascism maintained an illusion of respecting private property, since individuals could not use their property how the wished because the government frequently enacted regulations (on behalf of government allies in the business sector) that were not in line with the functioning of a free market. [16]

Other aspects

There are also strands of conservatism that are uncomfortable with liberal capitalism. Particularly in continental Europe, many conservatives have been uncomfortable with the impact of capitalism on culture and traditions. The conservative opposition to the French revolution, the Enlightenment, and the development of individualistic liberalism as a political theory and as institutionalized social practices sought to retain traditional social hierarchies, practices and institutions. There is also a conservative protectionist opposition to certain types of international capitalism.

See also

References

  1. ^ Friedrich Pollock, "State Capitalism: Its Possibilities and Limitations," Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, IX, 2 (1941), 200-255.
  2. ^ Tony Cliff, State Capitalism in Russia (1955).
  3. ^ Mies, Maria (1993). Ecofeminism. p. 298. ISBN 1-85649-156-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Calvin B. Hoover, The Paths of Economic Change: Contrasting Tendencies in the Modern World, The American Economic Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Forty-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. (Mar., 1935), pp. 13-20.
  5. ^ Fascism Encyclopedia Britannica
  6. ^ Frank Bealey & others. Elements of Political Science. Edinburgh University Press, 1999, p. 202
  7. ^ A private statement made by Hitler on March 24, 1942. Cited in Hitler's Secret Conversations. Translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens. Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc. 1953. p. 294
  8. ^ Richard Allen Epstein, Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty With the Common Good, De Capo Press 2002, p. 168
  9. ^ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Murphy translation
  10. ^ Peter Davies and Dereck Lynch. Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. Routledge 2003, p. 101
  11. ^ Daniel Guerin, Fascism and Big Business, excerpted at http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/guerin/1938/10/fascism.htm
  12. ^ Alexander J. De Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Routledge, 1995. pp. 47
  13. ^ Alexander J. De Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Routledge, 1995. pp. 48-51
  14. ^ Britt, Lawrence, 'The 14 characteristics of fascism', Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, p. 20.
  15. ^ Salvemini, Gaetano. Under the Axe of Fascism 1936.
  16. ^ von Mises, Ludwig. Socialism 1951.
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