From freecycling to volunteering, we’d like to hear about the things you do that go against the capitalist and consumerist grain

“Most of us would say, if asked, that we live in a capitalist society, but vast amounts of how we live our everyday lives - our interactions with and commitments to family lives, friendships, avocations, membership in social, spiritual and political organisations - are in essence non capitalist or even anticapitalist, full of things we do for free, out of love and on principle.”

The words are taken from Hope In The Dark, the massively influential book by the writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, and they go straight to the heart of something too often overlooked: the way that, in the midst of a culture too often reducible to shopping and spending, millions of people regularly do things that go against the capitalist and consumerist grain – volunteering, freecycling, making and growing their own stuff, sustaining large and small relationships that have nothing to do with money-making. In the digital era, moreover, these activities have another political element, albeit with a small ‘p’: emphasising human contact over screentime.

The positive flipside of the internet age, of course, is that such things are now comparatively easy to get going, and then publicise. So we want to know about practical examples of everyday things that represent non-capitalist living, and how to do them.

How to get in touch

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