95. Growing Anti-capitalist Economies Through Small Actions with Kate Strathmann
Summary
For business owners who want to transition away from the white supremacist structure of capitalism towards more equitable economic solutions, it can be difficult to know where to even begin. Erica is joined by multi-disciplinary business owner and self-described free spirit Kate Strathmann to discuss approachable actions that business owners can take in support of an anti-capitalist operating strategy - without destroying their profitability.
In this discussion:
Capitalism’s relationship to white supremacy
What is an anti-capitalist business?
Moving beyond private wealth generation
Anti-capitalist business models such as cooperatives, and profit-sharing
Expanding access
Fostering transparency
After The Episode
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Episode Notes
If capitalism is part of the “American way,” its history is inextricably linked to white supremacy. How, then, can business owners transition away from that inequitable system in support of an anti-capitalist model without destroying their profitability? If we intend for our systems to look differently tomorrow than they do today, we must examine the forces at play, then craft our strategy. Pause On The Play is here to support you in this mission.
Despite President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day insistence that “This is not America,” in reference to the bullshit insurgency crap that happened at the Capitol on January 6th, the riot brought up stark differences between what America is and what it is not. “I think it’s important to kind of be able to actually confront and really see what this is because you can’t do anything about something if you’re not even willing to acknowledge that it exists,” says Erica. For this discussion, she’s invited Kate Strathmann to assist her in exposing capitalism’s relationship with white supremacy and to foster a true dialogue that is more approachable around anti-capitalist enterprise.
Meet Kate Strathmann
As founder and director of Wanderwell, a Philadelphia-based consulting and bookkeeping practice with a radical lens and mission, Kate guides others in building sustainable businesses that thrive despite the current prevailing model of traditional capitalism. The word practice is essential to that work as it aligns with her identities as an artist and an activist which, she says, “informs my thinking of, like, possibility and, you know, how do we find different ways and sort of innovate and experiment with different ways of being and doing within the small economies of our, our own businesses and worlds.” Kate also teaches and leads workshops as part of what she calls an increasingly radical education wing.
Kate’s recognition of small economies resonates throughout the conversation. As businesswomen, Erica and India use their platforms, in part, to stimulate the economy. “I think that can be one of those ways that anti-capitalism and business can go hand-in-hand,” Erica says. So the question is how to cause large enough ripples so that the effects reverberate beyond your immediate cohort?
Disproportionate Dynamics
The economy is not a monolith, which makes it even more difficult to disentangle from capitalism - unless you’ve amassed enough wealth to entirely opt-out. The small economies mentioned before overlap with anticapitalist activities and all still operate to varying degrees alongside capitalism because, as Kate points out, they’re forced to do so. “I think it’s important to state that, like, there’s a lot of different layers to this and different pockets of resistance.”
To upend capitalism’s inequitable power dynamic, entrepreneurs interested in adopting an anti-capitalist ethos need to understand the system they want to correct. The primary point of capitalism is to create more capital. “It’s not needs-meeting,” says Kate. Capitalism commodifies basic human needs to develop new markets, a cycle that sets up new avenues for amassing more capital. It’s not by accident that the pandemic and resulting economic crisis have generated an increase in wealth amongst a small number of people - mostly people who were already billionaires That is not due to an additional amount of work on their part. Simply put, the market already weighted in their favor allocated more capital to them.
If Not To Make Money, Then What?
It’s a tricky question: How do small businesses with an anti-capitalist ethos thrive?
Kate says she, too, has spent time thinking more deeply about anti-capitalism in terms of economic exchange mechanisms, entities that do something besides build individual wealth - like support collective liberation. “How do we meet our collective needs? How do we all have enough? And that’s a very anti-individualist concept.”
As Erica points out, however, the threshold for enough is subjective, a sliding scale which toggles between one person’s idea of basic survival and another’s idea of enough to do what you choose. Capitalism works to scramble our internal system of discernment. “If we had enough, we’d stop buying shit,” says Kate. If that happens, capitalism can’t create more capital. Kate thinks collaborative development of critical discernment skills would help end the cycle of relentless accumulation.
Unpacking the idea prompts further inquiry around the redistribution of wealth. With considerable disparities in even basic wealth generation between white men and underserved BIPOC communities, Erica questions how anti-capitalism reconciles the inevitable conflicts that arise. How do people who’ve never had the access or freedom to build individual wealth get to a point where they can operate differently, sustainably?
“I think it’s, maybe, the differences around individual livelihoods versus wealth building,” Kate says, pointing out that there will always be anti-capitalists who are suspicious about money and equate having it to a moral failing. She’s not advocating that everyone suddenly become poor, however. Instead, Kate supports dismantling a system of inequality and privatization that simultaneously pushes an image of the white male billionaires as the pinnacle of business success while large swaths of folks are unable to make an adequate living. Again, she reiterates that this small group didn’t accumulate their wealth because they worked harder than everyone else or have better financial acumen. “That’s because of white supremacy and how it interacts with capitalism.”
Kate adds that she’s not the right person to get into the tensions that exist between Black capitalism and some ideas around anti-capitalism and cooperation. But there is some tension around the question of, “Are you still trying to just climb the ladder that ultimately, like, the white men billionaires are at the top of, or is there a different project going on that’s, like, about everybody being lifted up?”
Erica picks up the thread, calling out capitalism’s rules of engagement (aka white supremacy) for ultimately dictating how success must look. She suggests looking at: What is the space that you are operating in?
As part of fostering an anti-capitalist mindset, Erica says that acknowledging these standards is enough at the beginning of the journey. Allowing that realization to breathe eventually leads to opportunities where actions can extend outward. “I am not some person that's like, Oh, the building is burning. Let's run in it! It's like, wait before you go in and try to MacGyver this. Like, let's wait and acknowledge what's happening and actually begin to dismantle it from a conscious and aware place of, you know, why is this coming up? Is this mine? Is this what's given to me? Do I still believe in this?”
Otherwise, if you demolish something just to say that you demolished it, it's like pulling a weed out of the ground that just keeps coming back because the roots are still there. Kate agrees. She urges people to think of anti-capitalist business development as the practice of seeing and understanding the operating systems that keep the status quo churning. That’s a beneficial tactic for entrepreneurs who wish to make the most holistic choices for their businesses. “We're all kind of like trying to figure it out all the time. Like, we're all learning. Nobody teaches a lot of this shit in school.”
She admits it’s a frustrating process when a majority of the books and marketing programs available are designed to help maximize wealth as an owner. Kate sympathizes with business owners who’ve come up against contradictory positions on their journey to construct the ideal anti-capitalist plan. “There's no perfect allyship in this,” she reminds folks, “but I think one of the first steps is just really trying to understand, like, what are the economics that I'm sitting in?”
Anti-Capitalism As Holistic Business Strategy
So what, exactly, are the sustainable alternatives to capitalism? One model gaining ground nationwide is the cooperative. As Kate explains, a co-op fills the needs of the community in which it operates. The model rewards folks - workers and members - who benefit from its existence. Philadelphia, she says, has a rich community of cooperatives and cooperative development, including the Philadelphia Cooperative Alliance. “They’re rooting their work explicitly in sort of a history of Black cooperation and economic resistance and, like, explicitly using that as a way to wealth-build, collectively.”
Even the spirit of co-ops, however, is not immune to white supremacy. While Black communities have long employed the model to generate wealth beyond capitalism’s abuses, popular lore hands all the credit to white hippies. While they are a part of the movement, they didn’t create it.
Too often, entrepreneurs base their ability to participate in anti-capitalism on that strategy alone. When distilled into an all-or-nothing proposition, it becomes easy for business owners to opt-out of anti-capitalism because a co-op wouldn’t fit into their industry vertical or approach. Wanderwell, as Kate explains, isn’t a co-op either but it still operates with a strong anti-capitalist mentality. “There's a lot of operating systems that we use that come from the co-op community that I've learned from co-op movements,” she says.
Kate’s currently working on a profit-sharing scheme for her team members and strongly encourages like-minded owners to consider the same. The plan allows her to retain company ownership while also redistributing profits. A profit-sharing plan is a solid place to start as it enables entrepreneurs to participate in anti-capitalist activities without breaking their entire business to do so.
Capital Accessibility
Kate’s lately pushed back on some of her own advice, especially concerning accessibility. Traditional financial accessibility, for instance, includes sliding scale models, awards, and scholarships. However, in the “woke wave” of the last year, some of those long-standing incentives no longer feel equitable to Kate. She doesn’t object to using your business to redistribute wealth amongst the community.
“Businesses generate more income than individuals by design, or they should,” she says. However, “there is something that I've seen a lot where folks are sort of presenting these, you know, like, pay-it-forward or redistribution mechanisms but they're kind of, like, putting it on the shoulders of their customers or their clients.” Introducing a model wherein some people pay for the commodity or information and some people don't can feel dishonest. It leaves Kate wondering what vital part of the internal culture or activity the business is hiding from her. “You don't need to lower your prices, or it really doesn't make sense for you to offer, like, a cheap version of this just to make it accessible.”
Erica expands on the theme of accessibility. She’s also seen some business owners making decisions regarding price or having discussions about shifting wealth steeped in biased assumptions about a consumer’s willingness to pay for a product at a higher or lower rate. “I'm, like, so you just assume that everybody has the money and just doesn't want to give it to you because of some imaginary reason, or you just assume that they're all poor, right?” Both hypotheses do a disservice to the customer and business owner.
Kate has similar concerns around awards and scholarships programs devised by well-meaning white ladies with lofty goals of increasing diversity. “BIPOC people are not universally poor or, like, that's not the reason people aren't coming to your business necessarily,” she says. Additionally, there’s an overt hierarchy to these plans that removes the recipient’s agency. “There's some like weird power shit happening there.” Overlooking or ignoring these dynamics is another instance of white supremacy and capitalism working together to limit entry.
System Transparency
The discussion circles back to various anti-capitalist business strategies. Erica leads off by questioning how Wikipedia’s tactic of steady requests for donations by users fits into the anti-capitalist ethos - if it does at all. Kate explains that “Wikipedia is, like, a gift economy, because the whole thing is open-source and distributed. And it's only run on gifts, like, there's no business model back there.”
That answer leads the duo to discuss further issues of transparency within the framework of anti-capitalism. “I felt like there's been a lot of conversations about online businesses and the sort of, like, mystery of what's actually happening behind the scenes,” Kate says. Mysteries around who’s genuinely benefitting from a business’s anti-capitalist activity.
That’s where a traditional audit trail coupled with transparency across multiple platforms comes in. Proyecto Tamal in Philadelphia provides an excellent case study in supportive mutual aid. The project, started by a furloughed local chef to combat rampant job loss within the Latino community due to COVID-19, redistributes 100% of its proceeds to its guest chefs. Restaurant workers, most of whom remain hidden from the general dining public due to their documentation status, are systemically blocked from receiving government aid or unemployment benefits due to their immigration status.
Proyecto Tamal’s weekly sales have generated a grassroots economic support mechanism while operating in full view of capitalism’s traditional system. Follow the tamale availability online, go to the announced location to purchase and enjoy. Founder Ana Caballero documents everything via Instagram - including cash in (sales) and out (receipt for ingredients). “Part of that is, like, to build trust with the folks that she's working with.” The level of transparency under which Proyecto Tamal operates fosters trust and puts financial aid directly into the pockets of the workers who need it most.
The stories behind the recipes create support and word of mouth.“A lot of these recipes and the cultural pieces are stolen from these cultures,” Erica says, “and so there's this representation and reverence there. So I feel like that in itself is a big piece and then it’s -- it is building that trust, and I think that's so important because so many people -- there is this feeling of like, I don't know that I want everyone in my books kind of thing.”
Erica also uses a credit card vs debit card analogy to demonstrate further the significance of Proyecto Tamal’s level of transparency. “A debit card -- you have to put money on it, like, you have to put something in to get something out. The credit card -- it's just given freely. And it's assumed that you're good for this.”
White supremacy compromises that trust, granting some folks automatic favor without requiring them to prove their good standing or intent. Suspicion by those who don’t benefit from the dynamic is routinely disregarded. Still, Erica can point to numerous reasons why folks might not extend trust simply because someone has asked for it.
So, Where To Begin?
If the task of disentangling from anti-capitalism feels insurmountable, Kate understands. The energy needed to continue operating within the status quo is less than what’s required to step outside of it; that’s how white supremacy designed capitalism to work. “A lot of us, especially in the chaos the last year, like, are just trying to keep our damn businesses going and I'm so here for that,” Kate says.
Movement-building doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing pursuit. There are different roles and actions that each of us can take depending on our talents, interests, and social location.. Ask yourself what your business is currently set up to do or not do. “You know, the first thing I’ll say is, like, there's no, like, seven-point plan to that equitable-ize your business worksheet,” Kate says.
She does offer a few prompts to get you started:
Where can your business best be in service to the collective?
What ecosystem are you part of?
What do you have? What do you need?
“Just start -- start there,” she says, adding, “small, small actions build.” While Kate’s workshops feature a long list of different actions and tactics that businesses can take, “if you did all of those, you would break your fucking business real quick,” she says. Instead, she advises people to focus on consistent acts of repair, places where they can redistribute wealth or engage in community and personal self-care. She also advocates for periods of rest as well as vacations.“Not being caught in, like, over-productive cycles…those are also anti-capitalist ways of being for sure.”
Closing Thoughts
Starting today, seeing how we can do some things differently and build that awareness -- that’s a huge part of the work of moving away from white supremacist structures. The beauty is there is support for you to be able to navigate these steps in a way that you can be emotionally, whole, get access to the types of people that know some of the things that you're not sure of yet, and make the type of impact that you are seeking. So let’s continue to talk about anti-capitalism. This is how we remove stigma and create real change and connection.
Guest Contact & Bio
Wanderwell Consulting & Bookkeeping
Kate Strathmann is a multi-disciplinary business owner and rebellious spirit. She is the owner and director of Wanderwell, a consulting and bookkeeping practice that grows thriving small businesses while investigating new models for being in business. Wanderwell integrates financial expertise with an empathic, vision-forward approach, and leads with the belief that businesses can help create a more just world that centers people, community, and the environment.
Quoted
KATE STRATHMANN
The primary point of capitalism is to create more capital, which is important to understand, like, it's not needs-meeting.
If we had enough, we’d stop buying shit.
There's large swaths of folks that are not making an adequate living in our country because the economic system is built on inequality and privatization…
BIPOC people are not universally poor or, like, that's not the reason people aren't coming to your business necessarily.
ERICA COURDAE
You can't do anything about something if you're not even willing to acknowledge that it exists.
I think sometimes, it can be way too easy to opt out by hearing this and saying, Oh, this is a completely different structure; I don't know how to have this for, for my business or a business that I would want to be a part of so I'm just going to opt out.
I feel like the minute you just go in and you just demolish something to say that you demolished it, it's like, you know, pulling a flower up out of the ground… rather, let’s go with a weed.
Mentioned In This Episode
Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance
Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon