Darrell G. Moen, Ph.D.

From Michael Albert and Znet

For those of you who feel that having a viable, worthy anticapitalist economic vision would help us answer questions about what we want as well as help us orient our activism — I need your help.

The vision that is seeking visibility is participatory economics, called parecon for short.

Parecon is getting growing international coverage, as it now begins to appear in different languages.

For example, international invitations to speak on parecon are well beyond my means to accommodate. In Sept. and Oct. I am going to Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Italy again, and probably England, and possibly also Norway and Finland…and the venues for these talks are diverse and the audiences large. Later there may be trips to South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Korea, and so on. Interviews with left and also even mainstream media occur, articles appear, reviews are published, etc.

In contrast, parecon’s visibility in the U.S. is rather minimal despite its having had a much longer tenure here. There are virtually no visible U.S. reviews, public discussions, talks, etc.

In other words, in many parts of the world those who administer movements, determine the content of periodicals, set up speaking events — and incredibly even those who hand out major awards — are propelling parecon into visibility. But in the U.S. those who administer movements, determine the content of periodicals, and set up speaking events are either doing nothing positive for parecon or are actively rejecting efforts for parecon to gain visibility.

So what’s the solution? (more…)