Be Oakley: Manifesto, Profit for Survival: Discourses on Anti-Capitalist Publishing Practices

Manifesto, Profit for Survival: Discourses on Anti-Capitalist Publishing Practices is the 3rd edition of this ongoing publication series exploring anti-capitalism through a publishers perspective.

This new edition features a new essay Notes on Anti-Capitalist Solidarity: An Essay for the Working Class Artist expanding on our Manifesto, Profit for Survival essay. This new essay explores chapters including Class Solidarity in the Art World, Against Growth Towards Sustainability, Breaking with Capitalism: Identity Politics and Working Class Solidarity, Anti-Capitalist Pedagogy? Pedagogy for Low Wage Workers? and Anti Capitalist Art Practice? From the essay:

"Many working class and low income designers, artists, writers etc. are underpaid, overworked and constantly stuck in the loop of working one underpaid job after another. In this we must find strength, solidarity and pride in our positions as lower income people. Often, or at least in my experience, the art world was presented to me at a young age as glamorous, privileged and in close proximity with the upper class4. In moving towards an anti-capitalist art world it’s paramount for us to identify and find agency in our positions as low and middle class people. Those of us who are employed through our creative talents need to find solidarity with non-creative workers including factory workers, gig employees and other working class people. We must not think of our profession as any more important than other workers fighting for more equitable working conditions. We must replace wealth for ethics, glamor for pride, privileged access for transparency, as the aspirational goals of artists.”