Plunder of the Commons
A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:29th Aug '19
Should be back in stock very soon
This book highlights the urgent need to reclaim shared resources, addressing the impact of austerity and neoliberal policies on public wealth in Plunder of the Commons.
In Plunder of the Commons, Guy Standing explores the alarming erosion of shared resources due to austerity and neoliberal policies. He highlights how vital public assets, such as national utilities and social housing, have been sold off, leaving communities deprived of their rights to equitable access. This depletion of the commons is not just a modern issue; it can be traced back to historical struggles for shared wealth, as recognized in documents like the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest of 1217.
Standing takes readers on a journey through the historical context of common land and its significance in safeguarding public wealth. He argues that the systematic exploitation of shared resources has disproportionately benefited the wealthy elite, redirecting wealth away from the majority. The book presents a compelling synthesis of how our land, housing, health, and even air have been commodified, emphasizing the urgent need to reclaim these vital resources for the common good.
Plunder of the Commons is not just a critique; it offers a vision for a new form of commoning. Standing proposes actionable solutions to restore our rights to shared wealth and address the growing inequality that threatens societal stability. By advocating for a collective approach to our resources, he inspires a movement to protect and revitalize the commons for future generations.
Brilliant, insightful, terse, apposite, daring, and transformative. A must read to understand both the past and the future -- Danny Dorling, author of All That Is Solid
Guy Standing brings great historical knowledge, political insight, and passion to documenting the market enclosures of our common wealth: the great unacknowledged scourge of our time. Plunder of the Commons is both a troubling exposé and a practical-minded call to reclaim the commons for ourselves and posterity. Sitting politicians will ignore this stirring book at their peril. Incoming reformers will learn how we might transform our predatory system of economics and the complicit political culture. -- David Bollier, Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and author of Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons
In an era of intensifying privatisation, we're rapidly losing sight of the idea that there are things that can be shared communally without being owned by anybody, things that stand outside of the market system - for example rivers, forests, and other natural resources. Many of them have already been sold off to private interests, and most of the rest are being pursued. This incendiary book exposes this process and explores its corrosive effect on society and resource maintenance.
This clear and radical exposition is a call for the defence of the commons, and one of the most important books I've read in years.
In this majestic work, Guy Standing not only chronicles the historic plundering of our common wealth. More importantly, he shows how we can reclaim that wealth to address our most urgent contemporary problems: economic insecurity and ecological destruction. This is history, analysis and vision, all at their very best. -- Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0
Standing not only wants to remind us how much common land in Britain has been enclosed by the wealthy few. His vision of the commons is extremely capacious...his provocation could hardly be timelier -- Duncan Kelly * Financial Times *
ISBN: 9780141990620
Dimensions: 183mm x 112mm x 25mm
Weight: 250g
432 pages