States, Markets, and the Rest of Us | Grace Blakeley

It wasn’t always like this.

Just decades ago, working people had power to leverage governments, ensuring our politicians weren’t just capitulating to markets — they were also working to keep people happy who had the power to shut the economy down. Then our unions disappeared.

Since then, the markets and states have worked in tandem to secure power and wealth, stripping everyday people from their communities, a sense of purpose, and their source of power: collectivism. Part of how they’ve done this, argues political economist Grace Blakeley, is create the illusion of markets and states being at odds with one another, of existing separately rather than being both sides of the same coin. She joins me to explain how we came to think of the economy as an abstract entity, why politicians throw working people under the bus the minute they come to power, and how people can organise to resist the erosion of their lives and livelihoods by reinvigorating local economies.

To learn more, you can read Grace’s most recent book, Vulture Capitalism. You can also read her regular analyses on Substack, and support her latest venture, the What Can We Do newsletter which platforms British communities who are organising pockets of resistance against neoliberal capitalism.

Planet: Critical is 100% independent and community-powered. If you value it, and have the means, become a paid subscriber today.