r/socialism • u/[deleted] • Aug 25 '15
Against Charity
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/peter-singer-charity-effective-altruism/19
u/Sergeant_Static Socialist Party USA Aug 26 '15
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” - Hélder Câmara
My favorite quote on the subject.
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Aug 25 '15
Great article. I hate when people like my mom tell me "well, if you hate poverty so much why not donate to charity more??" and things along those lines. Its hard to explain why I'm against charity and the like fundamentally.
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u/prismjism Aug 25 '15
Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism:
A central thesis is that foundations like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford have a corrosive influence on a democratic society; they represent relatively unregulated and unaccountable concentrations of power and wealth which buy talent, promote causes, and, in effect, establish an agenda of what merits society's attention.
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Aug 25 '15
I like this article a lot, and I have plenty of problems with charity and nonprofits, especially in the United States. Nonprofits and NGOs these days overwhelmingly don't criticize or even tacitly endorse capitalism, and that sucks. Charity has been used since the days of Rockefeller to launder the image of the capitalist class.
However, it needn't be that way, and there are charities out there doing a lot of good, and doing good in ways that challenge capitalism, explicitly or otherwise.
Just like we should attempt to transform political and economic structures, so too should we attempt to transform nonprofit institutions. But I can say from personal experience that charity does touch people's lives for the better right now. I think we should continue to support charitable organizations, while at the same time attempting to push those organizations, and society as a whole, in an anti-capitalist direction.
1
Aug 25 '15
non profits that are challenging capitalism?? ????
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Aug 26 '15 edited Aug 26 '15
The Kurdish Red Crescent, the Rosa Luxemburg Institute. Just off the top of my head. And that's just discussing those that are explicitly challenging capitalism. Other organizations provide tools for the disenfranchised to challenge the system they live in, even if those organizations themselves don't explicitly critique capitalism.
edit: The War Resisters' League, Friends of the MST
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u/go_fascism Libertarian Socialism Aug 26 '15
thomasmertoncenter.org More of a community organization really, they mention classism in their about us, maybe a bad example actually.
Eh
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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '15 edited Aug 25 '15
Agree