Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA - Paperback

by Frances Goldin (Author), Debby Smith (Author), Michael Smith (Author)

The polar ice caps are melting, hurricanes and droughts ravish the planet, and the earth's population is threatened by catastrophic climate change. Millions of American jobs have been sent overseas and aren't coming back. Young African-American men make up the majority of America's prison population. Half of the American population are poor or near poor, living precariously on the brink, while the top one percent own as much as the bottom eighty. Government police-state spying on its citizens is pervasive. Consequently, as former President Jimmy Carter has said, "we have no functioning democracy."

Imagine: Living In a Socialist U.S.A., edited by Francis Goldin, Debby Smith, and Michael Steven Smith, is at once an indictment of American capitalism as the root cause of our spreading dystopia and a cri de coeur for what life could be like in the United States if we had economic as well as a real political democracy. This anthology features essays by revolutionary thinkers, activists, and artists--including Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, civil rights activist Angela Davis, incarcerated journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, and economist Rick Wolff-- addressing various aspects of a new society and, crucially, how to get from where we are now to where we want to be, living in a society that is truly fair and just.

This collection from leading voices on the left offers a bold vision for what comes next:

• A Critique of Capitalism: Essays from Paul Street, Rick Wolff, and others explore how the profit-driven system is the true enemy, leading to ecological crisis, social breakdown, and the erosion of democracy.
• Economic Democracy: Move beyond the 1 percent. Discover concrete proposals for a democratically run economy based on worker-owned and community-controlled enterprises, not Wall Street oligarchs.
• Social Justice in Practice: Angela Davis and Mumia Abu-Jamal imagine alternatives to the prison-industrial complex, while others explore what housing, healthcare, and education would look like when treated as fundamental human rights.
• A Roadmap to a New America: Beyond the critique, this anthology offers practical strategies for how to get there, with contributions from activists and thinkers like Michael Moore on how to build a truly fair and just society.

Back Jacket

"What are the possibilities inherent in Socialism? What is it? What can it mean to humanity 's future? What would it look like in America? These are the questions raised in this exquisitely timely book. We must profoundly change the way we live, or we will not survive. A Socialism that we make ourselves could be the answer."--Alice Walker

The polar ice caps are melting, hurricanes and droughts ravish the planet, and Earth's population is threatened by catastrophic climate change. Millions of American jobs have been sent overseas and aren't coming back. Young African American men make up the majority of America's prison population. Half of the American population is poor or near poor, living precariously on the brink, while the top one percent owns as much as the bottom eighty. Government police-state spying on its citizens is pervasive. Consequently, as former President Jimmy Carter has said, "we have no functioning democracy."

Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA is at once an indictment of American capitalism as the root cause of our spreading dystopia and a cri di coeur for what life could be like in the United States if we had economic as well as a real political democracy. It features thirty-one concise and accessible essays by revolutionary thinkers and activists on various aspects of a new society and, crucially, on how to get from where we are now to where we want to be, living in a society that is truly fair and just.

Contributors Include

Paul Street - Joel Kovel - Ron Reosti - Rick Wolff - Michael Steven Smith - Mumia Abu-Jamal - Angela Davis - Ajamu Baraka - Harriet Fraad - Tess Fraad-Wolff - Renate Bridenthal - Blanche Wiesen Cook - Leslie Cagan - Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz - Steven Wishnia -Juan Gonzalez - Frances Fox Piven - Arun Gupta - Tom Angotti - Dave Lindorff - William Ayers - Mat Callahan - Clifford D. Conner - Fred Jerome - Michael Moore - Michael Ratner - Kazembe Balagun - Michael Zweig - Dianne Feeley - Paul Le Blanc - Martin Espada - Terry Bisson