1:30PM - 2:45PM EST  |  November 9, 2015  |  Online Panel Event (FREE)

Featuring:
Gar Alperovitz (Next System Project)
Sohnie Black (Fund for Democratic Communities)
John Fullerton (Capital Institute)
Julie Matthaei (Wellesley College)
Keith Harrington (YES! Magazine / Moderator)

Does building a truly just, democratic and sustainable economy mean creating an entirely new system beyond capitalism—or can we reform capitalism to operate according to those values?

This as an important strategic question that new-economy advocates must come to terms with as we attempt to build public understanding of and support for a just and sustainable new system. Indeed, as the first Democratic presidential debate of the season highlighted, “capitalism” can be a politically charged and confusing term. Thus, as with all controversial terms, how we use the “c-word” matters.

Yet, as one might expect from a diverse and growing movement, new-economy advocates have widely differing views on the term. Thus, for example, while Gar Alperovitz may write of an America Beyond Capitalism, we see his friend and colleague John Fullerton promoting a Regenerative Capitalism that nonetheless resonates with Alperovitz's vision in its particulars. Some feel the need to qualify our current system as "corporate" capitalism, while others are happy to call it capitalism, plain and simple. Yet in each case the choice of terminology is a deliberate one, indicating that the differences are not merely semantic, but reflect deeper political and cultural realities that no advocate should ignore.

This New Economy Week panel will serve as a live installment of Keith Harrington's " Checkerboard Revolution" series of articles for YES! Magazine, which explores big picture strategic issues confronting the emerging new-economy movement. To shed light on this often murky issue, an expert panel will discuss varying views of capitalism from the perspective of theory and practice. The discussion will not necessarily aim to build consensus around a particular definition of capitalism, but will attempt to help participants develop a more strategic understanding of the concepts, beliefs and values we evoke when we use the c-word.

This online panel is sponsored by the New Economy Coalition and YES! Magazine and is a featured event of New Economy Week 2015: From Austerity to Prosperity.

Panelists

	Gar Alperovitz Co-founder of the  Next System Project and author of America Beyond Capitalism
	Sohnie Black Community organizer for the  Fund for Democratic Communities
	John Fullerton Founder of the  Capital Institute and author of Regenerative Capitalism
	Julie Matthaei Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, and researcher on the emerging solidarity economy.

Moderator

Keith Harrington M.A. Economics, author of the YES! Magazine article series,  "The Checkerboard Revolution"