Once privatization had transformed enough public spaces into parts of the capitalist economy, the inherently political nature of the economic became more visible. A major ideological contradiction of capitalism emerged.

First, the weak signs included the alterglobalization protest movements, the vague corporate social responsibility talk, the fact that Amnesty International decided to enter economic and social rights. These were expressions of the gradual erosion of the economic neutrality doctrine of capitalism, even if at first without that much apparent impact on struggles over hegemony.

The transformations of the 2030s and 2040s did not take place because the capitalists finally decided that they needed to start a process of democratization. It was rather the fact that when they first accepted to talk about things like corporate responsibility at the very beginning of the century, they almost without noticing took a step away from their traditional comfort zone of economic neutrality. Once the democratization movements learned to take advantage of this, the legitimacy of maintaining antidemocratic decision-making mechanisms in the economic institutions nose-dived. An intense period of civil disobedience, electoral victories, riots, neighborhood study circles and mutual learning between movements on global democratization strategies followed. More should follow.

Love & peace,

Teivo

Postcard image info

Picture of Merihaka, a neighborhood of Helsinki/Originally appeared in "Ylioppilaslehti". Photographer/Teemu Granström

Author: Teivo Teivainen