The slow transition toward a leftist communitarianism

It was almost thirty years ago that Gar Alperovitz wrote his article: “Socialism Based in Community” . . .

https://garalperovitz.org/1991/04/socialism-based-in-community/

In it, he clearly broached a bioregionalist orientation: “William Appleman Williams argued that a national stalemate could force the question of a long-term regional regroupment. If the federal government cannot act, then problems must build up at the state or regional level; this defines another focal point for serious politics. In many states new economic planning techniques are being developed that could have implications for a community-building strategy — if new political coalitions would bend them to such purposes. Larger-scale, publicly accountable industry ultimately might best be located at the regional level as well. In some large polities — Texas and California, perhaps — a slow movement toward substantial political-economic self-determination might well gather real momentum in the context of long-term national stalemate. In others, groups of states — New England and the Pacific Northwest — might begin to act together.”

Thirty years ago . . . so prescient. The one thing I think Alperovitz’s article lacks is the degrowth perspective of Samuel Alexander.

* * * *

Three of our Key Values, considered together, imply a bioregionalist orientation:
. Decentralization
. Community-based Economics
. Respect for Diversity

In this context the latter can mean “respect for diversity of lifeways.” And that, in turn, suggests that we don’t have to stipulate a particular system of property relations. In a green-bioregionalist world we could expect to see diverse manifestations of economic relations, varying from mostly-privatized to mostly-socialized. But all enterprises, public or private, should be localized and subject to community oversight.

The current large capitalist conglomerates are essentially economic empires. We should disdain empires of all kinds . . . statist, economic, cultural, religious, etc.