Peter Kropotkin, I am curious to know your opinions on Huey Long, Henry George, Thomas Piketty, Dorothy Day, and other political thinkers.
Great — I am happy to discuss them all.
I appreciate Huey Long's redistribution of wealth to the poor, his expansion of social programs, education, and hospitals, and his attack on monopolies. BUT I don’t endorse his methods, because he was authoritarian, he craved and aggressively used his centralized state power, and he tolerated and employed corruption. Huey Long wanted to give people bread, but at the cost of their personal freedom.
Henry George - I respect his ideas enormously, especially his insight that land monopoly is the basis of poverty, but I don’t believe his thinking went far enough. I appreciate his attack on landlordism, his realization that private land ownership creates inequality, his understanding that unearned income is exploitative, his moral argument that land should belong to all, and his intended tactic of capturing land value for public benefit. But of course, I completely disagree with his vision of retaining the state, retaining market, that a tax alone can solve inequality. Implementing Henry George’s ideas would have only been a half-step forward, because he just wants to regulate exploitation, not abolish it.
Thomas Piketty - the author of Capital in the 21st Century - I love his diagnosis but I reject his curative policies as inadequate. I agree with Piketty that wealth inequality is extreme and growing, capitalism concentrates power, inherited wealth destroys democracy, exploitation is baked into the system, and I appreciate that his data research empirically proves that capital will always accumulate in fewer and fewer hands unless it is checked. I disagree with Piketty on his methods, however, he makes mistakes similar to Henry George. It is erroneous for Piketty to expect progressive taxes to fix capitalism, to retain markets and private property, to leave production in private hands, and to rely on the state to administer redistribution. Piketty’s data is very brilliant, but society “cannot redistribute the fruits of theft and call it justice.” Capitalist structures cannot merely be taxed, they need to be abolished.
Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement - I am closest to her mindset; I admire her deeply, we just have minor philosophical disagreements. I appreciate her radical houses of hospitality that function as mutual aid centers, her support of communal living, her voluntary poverty, her service to the homeless and hungry, her anti-war activism, her anti-capitalist critique, and her belief in decentralization, local self-reliance, cooperatives and worker communities. Of course I like her - she borrowed many of her ideas from my books Mutual Aid and The Conquest of Bread. My only mild criticisms are her spiritual and religious framing, her emphasis on personal sacrifice, her occasional tone of suffering, and her framework of Christian morality. I thoroughly support her theories, but I dislike the theology it’s based on. Overall though, Dorothy Day is one of the very few 20th century activists I admire.
Can you Name 20 modern or semi-modern thinkers that you agree all, or in part, with?
Sure. Murray Bookchin, Colin Ward, David Graeber, Noam Chomsky, Paul Goodman, Gustav Landauer, Éliseé Reclus, Dorothy Day, Paulo Freire, Howard Zinn, Grace Lee Boggs, Ivan Illich, Fritjof Capra, Vandana Shiva, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Thomas Piketty, Richard Wolff, Kate Raworth, Ella Baker, Martin Luther King Jr., (late period), Malcolm X (post-Mecca period), Audre Lorde, Vine Deloria Jr., Glen Coulthard, Winona LaDuke, Rutger Bregman, Anand Giridharadas
Do you admire Kshama Sawant, the Seattle socialist?
Yes, she embodies several principles that I value highly, Kshama Sawant fights for the people, she confronts the rich, she builds solidarity. Her heart is in the right place.but I have a few reservations about her strategy. I support her Anti-capitalism (she consistently challenges big corporations, tech monopolies, and wealth inequality), I appreciate her Advocacy for the working class (her campaigns for a $15 minimum wage and tenant protections are empowering.) I agree with Her utilization of direct action and grassroots organizing emphasizing strikes, protests, and local mobilization; I value her vision of cooperative economy
My reservation is that she wants to keep working within the state. I am skeptical of achieving anarchist goals through national institutions. She already sat on a city council, which is a form of political hierarchy. She also works on partial reforms, not on systemic change. Minimum wage laws and corporate taxes are reformist rather than revolutionary. They are necessary steps, but not insufficient to end structural exploitation
How would you advise activists today?
Focus on structural change. 1) Build an alternative economy with worker cooperatives, collectives, and mutual aid networks. Make your community self-sufficient. 2) Resist exploitation by publicizing inequality as a moral and social problem; supporting movements that reclaim wealth for communities, campaigning against monopolies, and combating tax avoidance and corruption. 3) Organize politically without replicating hierarchy, utilize direct action that is horizontal and cooperative, avoid reliance on elites or state patronage, empower ordinary people to take control of resources, 4) Focus on education and culture. Teach mutual aid, solidarity, and social justice, shift culture away from idolizing wealth, encourage voluntary sharing and cooperation
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