By LEONARDO BOFF*
Interdisciplinary collaboration is the foundation for innovative and effective solutions in a complex world
1.
Some have claimed that the end of the world is more likely than the end of capitalism. This statement, ironic as it may be, reveals the genius of capitalism. It took hold in the West and imposed itself on the entire world, even China itself.
Its aim is unlimited accumulation on the false assumption that the Earth's resources are also unlimited. Nothing could be more misleading and deceitful, as the encyclical denounces. Laudato Si (n.106), because science has demonstrated the Overload (Overshoot) of the Earth whose non-renewable goods and services substantial for the maintenance of life are being depleted.
We need it every year to meet the excessive voracity of the opulent countries of 1,7 Earths. We do not know how long the Earth will be able to withstand this systematic plundering, but it has already given us signs that it is reaching its limits, sending us extreme events such as Covid-19, global warming and the profusion of viruses and bacteria.
The dramatic thing is that we do not see a housing project on Earth in sight that could be a saving alternative. Everything indicates that if we follow the dynamics of capital with the use of all virtual means, especially Artificial Intelligence, we will experience ecological-social disasters – each one more serious than the last.
Shortly before he died on June 5, 2017 in Quito, François Houtart, a dear friend and well-known Belgian sociologist with a deep knowledge of Latin America, wrote an inspiring article from which we have taken some points, as they are very relevant today. The title was: “The content of anti-systemic struggles.” It was clear to him that the struggle is not only against neoliberalism, but against the system of capital. A fine Marxist and Catholic theologian, he left us a vast body of work that deserves to be rescued.
Firstly, it is urgent to delegitimize capitalism as the true cancer of the Earth that consumes everything it can, through radical competition, with a view to enrichment, the plundering of nature and the exploitation of the workers' strength.
This means, in the words of François Houtart, fighting against the new frontiers of accumulation: peasant agriculture, which is being transformed into capitalist productivist agriculture; the privatization of public services; profiting from natural or political catastrophes. This delegitimization must be economic rather than ethical.
2.
Secondly, to forge the steps of anti-systemic struggles. The first step is to create awareness of the human and ecological perversity of the capital system, which goes beyond economic and political domination; it affects culture and penetrates the deepest mentalities. It is not interested in creating critical citizens, but rather simple consumers and passive spectators of history.
The key is the articulation of all popular movements and some progressive political groups. They all have the same adversary, emphasizes François Houtart: globalized capital, especially speculative capital (which is the majority of capital), which produces nothing but more money.
Each group maintains its identity, but articulates and unites against the common enemy. It is important to join forces with anti-systemic movements in the political field. The struggle must take place locally, regionally and nationally, as has been reinforced by global social forums.
Within the group, think about an alternative, eco-democratic, popular, inclusive society project for everyone and start living it in groups as is already done in so many places. It is a seed. But it is a fertile seed of a new society.
Thirdly, the axes of a post-capitalism or an eco-socialism of the 21st century. It is not a matter of imposing a doctrine from above, nor of talking about a single alternative. It is a matter of gathering together what has been experienced, reconciling theory and practice in a collective effort in search of a practical utopia, valuing minimal utopias, of small steps because people will not die or suffer tomorrow, but today.
The four axes of the anti-systemic and amancipatory project:
The first is the sustainable use of natural goods and services, which requires not exploitation but symbiosis with nature. The second is to prioritize use value over exchange value. Capitalism has made everything an object of exchange for profit. The third axis consists of establishing a widespread democracy in all spheres beyond the political, which is understood as democratic ecosocialism. Power is not centralized, but participatory and circular.
Fourth axis: building multiculturalism, that is, within the Common Home, all philosophies, religions and cultural values contribute to creating a new society of good living and coexistence. The culture of capitalism with its model of unlimited growth does not help at all in this construction.
Everything we write is seminal. But it has the power of the seed that holds within itself the roots, the trunk, the leaves, the flowers and the fruits, in a word, the possible future. We must live the hope of Paulo Freire and remember the oratorio that an Israeli composed on the occasion of the assassination of Bishop Arnulfo Romero: “Hope cannot be killed”.
*Leonardo Boff is an ecologist, philosopher and writer. Author, among other books, of Caring for our common home: clues to delay the end of the world (Vozes). [https://amzn.to/3zR83dw]
the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE
