Anticapitalist Quotes

“We have no interest in breaking the glass ceiling while leaving the vast majority to clean up the shards. Far from celebrating women CEOs who occupy corner offices, we want to get rid of CEOs and corner offices.”
― Cinzia Arruzza, Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto

“Take one famous example: arguments about property destruction after Seattle. Most of these, I think, were really arguments about capitalism. Those who decried window-breaking did so mainly because they wished to appeal to middle-class consumers to move towards global exchange-style green consumerism, and to ally with labor bureaucracies and social democrats abroad. This was not a path designed to provoke a direct confrontation with capitalism, and most of those who urged us to take this route were at least skeptical about the possibility that capitalism could ever really be defeated. Many were in fact in favor of capitalism, if in a significantly humanized form. Those who did break windows, on the other hand, didn't care if they offended suburban homeowners, because they did not figure that suburban homeowners were likely to ever become a significant element in any future revolutionary anticapitalist coalition. They were trying, in effect, to hijack the media to send a message that the system was vulnerable -- hoping to inspire similar insurrectionary acts on the part of those who might be considering entering a genuinely revolutionary alliance; alienated teenagers, oppressed people of color, undocumented workers, rank-and-file laborers impatient with union bureaucrats, the homeless, the unemployed, the criminalized, the radically discontent. If a militant anticapitalist movement was to begin, in America, it would have to start with people like these: people who don't need to be convinced that the system is rotten, only, that there's something they can do about it. And at any rate, even if it were possible to have an anticapitalist revolution without gun-battles in the streets -- which most of us are hoping it is, since let's face it, if we come up against the US army, we will lose -- there's no possible way we could have an anticapitalist revolution while at the same time scrupulously respecting property rights. Yes, that will probably mean the suburban middle class will be the last to come on board. But they would probably be the last to come on board anyway.”
― David Graeber, Revolutions in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art, and Imagination

“Regulation has nothing to do with setting standards; it meant putting rules in place that worked in favor of a few.”
― Samanta Schweblin, Kentukis

“Conformists, let go of this chapter.
The forests, will echo with laughter.”
― Freequill

“We have a fundamental systemic flaw. We have managed to create scenarios where you can ‘earn’ a living without contributing.”
― Freequill

“There was once a time when information was the source.”
― Freequill

“In a revolution of consciousness the windows slowly become mirrors. We will see that there was only an illusion of freedom and at the same time we are forced to look at ourselves and contemplate the consequences of our own actions.”
― Freequill, What's Going On? How Can We Help?: The consequences of capitalism and actionable steps towards a healthy and sustainable future

“An oil owner is someone who has claimed ownership of something that has been there for millions of years.”
― Freequill

“Creativity flourishes with practice, collaboration, and a willingness to embrace failure—not as a personal shortcoming, but as a challenge to the systems that tell us our ideas must be perfect or profitable to matter.”
― Frankie Saturn, You Are Creative: Free Yourself to Free the World

“Owning one’s sexuality may be an important aspect of personal empowerment, but a queer sex party is no more likely to disrupt capitalist production than a heteronormative grandmothers’ knitting circle.”
― Holly Lewis, The Politics of Everybody: Feminism, Queer Theory, and Marxism at the Intersection

“He had never owned a car. He biked or hitchhiked where he needed to go. He had recently turned against the word should, and doing so had made him a happier person. He found the market economy and it's anonymous exchange boring. He'd like to imagine a farm where no money changed hands, only goodwill and favors. He had a theory that you had to start out by giving stuff away- preferably big stuff, worth, he figured, about a thousand dollars. At first, he said, people are discomfited by such a big gift. They try to make it up to you, by giving something big in return. And then you give them something else, and they give you something else, and pretty soon nobody is keeping score. There is simply a flow of things from place of excess to place of need. It's personal, and it's satisfying, and everyone feels good about it. This guy is completely nuts, I thought. But what if he's right?”
― Kristin Kimball, The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love

“The dragon is withered,
His bones are now crumbled;
His armour is shivered,
His splendour is humbled!
Though sword shall be rusted,
And throne and crown perish
With strength that men trusted
And wealth that they cherish,
Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
And elves are yet singing
Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
Come back to the valley!

The stars are far brighter
Than gems without measure,
The moon is far whiter
Than silver in treasure:
The fire is more shining
On hearth in the gloaming
Than gold won by mining,
So why go a-roaming?
O! Tra-la-la-lally
Come back to the Valley.”
― Tolkien J. R. R.