The Hidden History of Capitalism

Since the earliest development of states, groups of people who didn't fit in either escaped or were exiled. They often established self-governed communities. As nation states and capitalism developed, and particularly as new regions were incorporated into the emerging capitalist world-system, the problem was not simply how to escape these states but how to escape capitalist relations.

Well-known historical examples of escape include Russian Cossacks, pirates, and escaped slaves. Contemporary examples of territorial escape include the Zapatistas in Mexico, land occupations, and even political prisoners. Structural escape has been identified in urban communities in the heart of Jamaica, in the shack-dwelling areas of African cities, and on the outskirts of large South American cities. Numerous studies exist of each of these examples but no one has brought them together in a single analysis.

Join CIIS faculty Andrej Grubacic to uncover the splendid and relatively unknown history of pirates, Cossacks, runaway slaves, and Occupy Wall Street activists and their impact on the past and future of the capitalist civilization.

This event is part of the BIG IDEAS at CIIS Series.