Letter: Beyond money (2025)

Letter to the Editors from the November 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

Beyond money

Dear Editors

I want to thank the Socialist Standard for the thoughtful and generous review of my book Unchained: Living Without Money in the September 2025 issue. It is both humbling and encouraging to see my work placed in conversation with such a long tradition of literature and activism envisioning a society beyond money.

Your review captured well the spirit in which the book was written: to help people imagine what it might look like to move from a system based on scarcity and profit to one rooted in cooperation, equity, and access. I especially appreciate your recognition of how Unchained seeks to address common objections — from ‘human nature’ to so-called ‘dirty work’ — in ways that reframe the conversation around what capitalism itself conditions us to believe.

At the same time, I want to briefly clarify the ‘non-political’ framing you note. My intent was not to dismiss the necessity of political action, but to emphasize the power of grassroots practice, imagination, and lived experiments in shifting consciousness. Free stores, time banks, mutual aid networks, and community projects may not abolish capitalism on their own, but they expand people’s horizons of possibility. They give form to what many assume is impossible and, in doing so, prepare the ground for larger systemic change.

I understand and respect the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s long-standing position that governments under capitalism cannot be instruments for emancipation. Where I differ is in leaving space for the possibility that policies such as universal housing or healthcare, while constrained, can normalize access-based thinking and open cracks through which movements grow. History is full of examples where small openings in the system gave people the courage and imagination to demand far more. I do not view these reforms as endpoints, but as catalysts.

What encourages me most is the clear common ground between us. Whether we emphasize revolutionary political action or grassroots contributionist models, the destination we envision is strikingly similar: a democratic world without money, bosses, or exploitation, where governance becomes the transparent administration of things and not the rule of people. I believe the diversity of approaches can be complementary rather than contradictory. Political strategy and cultural practice need not compete; together they can reinforce one another in the shared project of building a society based on need, not profit.

Thank you again for your generous reading. I hope Unchained can continue to serve as a small contribution to the broader movement the SPGB has long championed. The task before us is too urgent and too vast to allow our differences of approach to overshadow the deep unity of purpose that animates us both.

Justin Fairchild