The Alternative to Capitalism Nobody Talks About | Eleanor Finley & Camila Vergara

War, austerity, and a political class that offers no way out. What does an actual alternative look like — one that's already being built? Dr. Camila Vergara sits down with Eleanor Finley, author of Practicing Social Ecology (Pluto Press), to trace how democratic, ecological alternatives to capitalism move from theory into practice — from the commons of New England to the municipalities of Burlington, Vermont, to the feminist communes of Rojava in northern Syria. Drawing on Murray Bookchin's intellectual legacy — rooted in Marx, anarchism, indigenous philosophy, and Hannah Arendt — this conversation maps what it takes to build real political power from the ground up: cooperative production, direct democracy assemblies, libertarian municipalism, and the internal transformation required to sustain a movement. In this episode: • What social ecology is and where it comes from • The Burlington Greens, Bernie Sanders, and the limits of electoral politics • How the Rojava revolution built democratic confederalism under siege • Why women's liberation is central to any serious socialist project • The "revolutionary personality" — patience, hope as discipline, conflict resolution • What activists in the US can learn from movements abroad Eleanor Finley is a political ecologist and activist. Practicing Social Ecology is out now from Pluto Press. 📚 Practicing Social Ecology (Pluto Press): https://www.plutobooks.com/product/pr... 📚 Systemic Corruption (Princeton University Press) https://press.princeton.edu/books/har... 🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩ ❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate 🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrP... ▶ Connect with FREE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForum Substack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/ X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforu... Instagram:   / freefreeforum   TikTok:   / freefreeforum   Facebook:   / freefreeforum   00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:39 What Is Social Ecology? 00:05:28 Murray Bookchin: Origins and Intellectual Roots 00:11:26 Theory Into Practice: Social Ecology as Praxis 00:12:24 Agroecology and the Back-to-the-Land Movement 00:17:57 Beyond the Garden: The Political Sphere 00:19:14 Libertarian Municipalism Explained 00:22:35 The Burlington Greens and the Limits of Electoral Politics 00:26:33 Rojava: How the Revolution Began 00:27:57 Democratic Confederalism: Building Counter-Power 00:33:32 Women at the Center of Revolution 00:35:51 Production for Need, Not Profit 00:37:22 Changing Ourselves to Change the World 00:38:22 The Revolutionary Personality 00:39:22 Hope as a Political Commitment 00:40:54 Responsibility, Conflict Resolution, and the Left 00:45:16 Closing Reflections #SocialEcology #DirectDemocracy #Rojava #MurrayBookchin #EleanorFinley #CamilaVergara #PoliticalEconomy #DemocraticConfederalism #FreeFreeForum