Organizing for the anti-capitalist transition

   David Harvey

   City University of New York

The  current  crisis  originated  in  steps  taken  to resolve the crisis of the 1970s. Te political forces that coalesced and mobilized behind these measures had a distinctive class character, and clothed  themselves  in the vestments of a distinctive  ideology called neoliberalism.  While  this  ideology  rested  upon  the  idea that  free markets,  free  trade,  personal  initiative  and entrepreneurialism were  the best  guarantors of  individual liberty and freedom, and that the “nanny state” should be dismantled for the benefit of all, neoliberal practice meant  that  the  state must  stand behind  the integrity of financial institutions, thus massively introducing “moral hazard” into the financial system. The resulting  system  amounts  to  a  veritable  form  of communism  for  the  capitalist  class.