Confronting Injustice: Social Activism in the Age of Individualism

by Umair Muhammad

A new generation of activists working for economic and environmental justice, and against war and poverty, confronts critical questions. Why is the world so unjust and crisis-prone? What kind of world should we fight for? How can we win? In this panoramic yet accessible book, Umair Muhammad engages with these and other urgent debates. He argues that individual solutions like “buying green” are dead ends and that hope for the future lies in a radical expansion of democracy and the transformation of the economy from one based on profit to one that can meet human needs

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

Reviews

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the broad umbrella that is injustice, and the role that "democratic" capitalism plays in it. What I really liked about this book was that it included a way forward and what that would look like without putting a cherry on tip. It's short, but packed with information. A good start for anyone who wants to learn more about why the way things are the way they are and how to think about change.

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although its thick with facts and commentary this book suffers a little from being in the zeitgeist while also being a relatively small publication. Little in it was new—a synthesis of ideas, mostly, from Noam Chomsky, Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore—which made it feel, despite its brevity, like an attempt to ride the wave of popular opinion more than a useful contribution to the discussion.

The central elements of Confronting Injustice that struck me as novel and useful were Mr. Muhammad’s uncompromising critique of the notion that the market is either a) useful or b) desirable as a mechanism for confronting and solving problems; and his scathing broadsides against charity as a means of righting social wrongs. Both points were robust and well-argued, and both were blazed through in Muhammad’s excitement to get to what he really wanted to talk about: rehashing Chomskian perspectives on modern socioeconomic relations.

Saying something new isn’t necessarily the measure of a text, but the broad genre of books about the systemic ills of the world is almost unique in that its authors rarely put forward an actionable programme for change. Given that they can’t argue we should be doing this, the only utility of such books is to clearly and usefully articulate the problems we need to solve, contributing to a body of robust knowledge that will—hopefully—allow some future person to have a brilliant, well-informed, world-changing idea.

Given that very nearly the only purpose of this genre is to articulate the central systemic problem of global liberal capitalism as clearly and coherently as possible, and that such an articulation only needs to happen once, books such as Mr. Muhammad’s which do little to add anything new to the conversation are quite profoundly unhelpful.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) easy to follow and approachable primer on collective action