Uploaded April 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.
By new economy, we mean an economy whose component parts are democratic and non-extractive, rather than undemocratic and extractive.
Here, Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org chats with Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper magazine and the Transnational Institute.
Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/state-market-hilary-wainwright
Highlights
1. Ultimately all value comes from human creativity, and that value is extracted, appropriated and privatised. But the value is inherently social. It’s the product of social collaboration, so an alternative has got to start from that level – inside the production process rather than from the state. It’s about people’s tacit, practical knowledge, that’s not necessarily explicit.
2. There’s nothing per se wrong with a market, which is just a means of exchange. But you have to take into consideration the social context in which a market is embedded, and a capitalist market isn’t ‘free’.
3. Corporations only have power because they have a monopoly on material production. If co-ops and mutual organisations are producing food and the other necessities of life, then corporations won’t have that power. So we have to create that material base for a different kind of state. So when an alternative government is elected, it’s not just up against the corporate sector, it’s resting on an emerging alternative.
We’re interviewing key players in the new economy, to:
a) bring their work to a wider audience
b) try to find ways to co-ordinate their efforts
c) stimulate debate
d) help to grow the new economy.
By new economy, we mean an economy whose component parts are democratic and non-extractive, rather than undemocratic and extractive.
Here, Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org chats with Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper magazine and the Transnational Institute.
Here's a transcript of the interview, with links to organisations mentioned in the video: lowimpact.org/state-market-hilary-wainwright
Highlights
1. Ultimately all value comes from human creativity, and that value is extracted, appropriated and privatised. But the value is inherently social. It’s the product of social collaboration, so an alternative has got to start from that level – inside the production process rather than from the state. It’s about people’s tacit, practical knowledge, that’s not necessarily explicit.
2. There’s nothing per se wrong with a market, which is just a means of exchange. But you have to take into consideration the social context in which a market is embedded, and a capitalist market isn’t ‘free’.
3. Corporations only have power because they have a monopoly on material production. If co-ops and mutual organisations are producing food and the other necessities of life, then corporations won’t have that power. So we have to create that material base for a different kind of state. So when an alternative government is elected, it’s not just up against the corporate sector, it’s resting on an emerging alternative.
