Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz, with Gerry Gold and Phil Sharpe: A World To Win: A Rough Guide to a Future Without Global Capitalism.

Paul Feldman and Corinna Lotz, with Gerry Gold and Phil Sharpe: A World To Win: A Rough Guide to a Future Without Global Capitalism

Lupus Books, 2004, 392 pp.

ISBN 0-952-34541-2 (pbk) 10 [pounds sterling]

A World To Win is one of a small number of hard-hitting books seeking to (re)establish the idea that capitalism has failed most of humanity, not to mention the rest of the planet, and that it cannot be reformed and should be transformed. This is an especially important task given that large sections of the political Left and the trade union movement have, despite the odd bleat, made their peace with capitalism, and given up even thinking that 'another world is possible'.

The first part of the book accepts the thesis that globalisation is a reality, and goes on to expose the failings of global capitalism. It is packed with facts, figures and anecdotes that leave the reader in no doubt that transnational capitalism is as anarchic as it is barbaric. It deals with alienation; the alliance between global corporations and global institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO (a senior WTO official is cited as saying that this institution is 'the place where governments collude in private against their domestic pressure groups', p. 34); the shift from a welfare to a market state; the role of mass consumption; the destruction of the environment; and attempts by business to hijack science. While there is not much here that is actually new, the very act of assembling this information and presenting it in 150 pages is actually very useful, especially to readers who are new to the ideas of anti-globalisation and anti-capitalism.

The second part puts forward proposals for transforming the economy, the state, our cultural heritage, the misuse of science and the destruction of the environment. There are two ways of approaching this section. On the one hand, we could read it as a kind of naive and overly vague blueprint for some kind of transitional economy. There are shades of a strong central state, albeit tempered with ideas about democratic control and the latest advances in new technology. In places, and despite the authors' intentions, it conjures up images of a quasi-Stalinist planned regime, albeit one with transparent and open science, and using the latest information technology. One idea, for example, is to create databases (using the kinds of technology that support customer loyalty cards) to facilitate the operation of a kind of just-in-time production system. It is difficult to avoid the thought that a 'technological fix' is being smuggled in here. Another idea is to 'set an agenda for addressing unmet needs for food, clothing, housing, health, energy, communication, transport, education, arts, entertainment, sport, recreation, safety, social support, security in older age and self development' (p. 192). While I have no problems with these laudable goals, the burning (and unanswered) question is: How do we do it? On the other hand, we could be far more charitable. We could read this section as a kind of dialogue about how best to make use of the 'raw materials' we have to hand today, so that tomorrow we might make a start on identifying a hierarchy of human needs, and then set about linking our productive capacities in order to meet them.

I have to say that the third part of the book is not as good as the rest of it. This is, in part, due to the extremely truncated nature of the chapters, which provide something like fourteen pages each on topics as vast as human nature, materialist dialectics and postmodernism, and the case for a revolutionary party. Take the last of those, for example.

While there are many sound arguments for the need for a revolutionary party, there are three crucial issues that cannot simply be ignored, especially in a book claiming to assist us in changing the world. First, the far Left has been trying to build a revolutionary party for around half a century now; and the best we have managed to come up with is the Socialist Workers Party. This is not a swipe at the SWP, just a candid recognition of the magnitude of the task. Maybe the recent advances made by Respect will mark a turning point; but it is unlikely that the authors would see such a development as the way forward. Second, many anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation activists have sound reasons for doubting the role of a revolutionary party, and the authors do not recognise the seriousness of those doubts. Third, George Monbiot's description of the World Social Forum as a 'dictatorship of those who turn up' (p. 219) cannot simply be dismissed because he underestimates the power of the state and its willingness to use force if necessary: he could be wrong about the state, and still be right about this 'dictatorship'. In sum, the final section says nothing about how to go about transforming capitalism. In itself this is not a fair criticism, because it is hard to imagine how any single book could, realistically, do this. But a more thorough treatment could, at least, have run through some of the options in more depth.

While A World To Win will serve to inform all of its readers to some degree, its hard-hitting style and a couple of important omissions are likely to infuriate and, in places, disappoint those readers who have a fair understanding of the political economy of global capitalism. But it is also likely to inspire readers and activists who are reasonably new to the political economy of global capitalism. We need more books like this, prepared to argue that 'another world is possible'.