I'm not anti-capital, I'm anti-wanker*

[friend_of_tofu]

Of late, I've been thinking a lot in passing about how the concept of "anticapitalism" is used against social justice movements. Whether it's Louise Mensch on HIGNFY asking how the Occupy London protesters outside St Paul's can be anticapitalist if they're drinking Starbucks coffee, or claims that the Occupy Wall Street movement is a Jew-hating mob

Comments

[friend_of_tofu]

Yes, I'm broadly in agreement with this. In some ways, "anti-consumerist" or "anti-globalist" are useful shorthands that we ourselves use, as a neat description of where the core of our politics lie/s. In that sense, it's not so far from "left-wing" or "right-wing" as a way of getting a diverse range of viewpoint into the big (metaphorical) tent. The problem is that very general terms like that seem to lend themselves well to becoming simplistic boo-words as well. Which is why I loved that Occupy Wall Street poster so much: the woman who made it (assuming she was the author) had clearly thought about being dismissed as anti-capitalist, anti-corporate or similar, and decided to challenge that oversimplification. But it did also demonstrate that precision & complexity don't make for catchy slogans

[friend_of_tofu]

I'd really like to read Ha Joon Chang actually, on my reading list after "Treasure Islands

[pellegrina]

I read that barter article (unless there are two out there) via a link at www.thebrowser.com - you should be able to find it there.

Oh, and I agree with pretty much everything you've said here.

[friend_of_tofu]

You genius :-) Cheers

[cartimandua]

If this is the quality that you post for us, I suggest polishing the edges a bit (to meet grammar, spelling and general format guidelines) and either submitting it somewhere for wider readership, starting your own commentary blog, or both.
Others deserve a chance to read it.

(Personally, I think the protesters are drinking Starbucks because they like the flavour and oh yes, they're thirsty. They do sell fair trade there, after all.)