The previous chapters have pointed to concrete, compeerist-oriented efforts centred on values that are fundamentally at odds with those of capital, offering contours of what a compeerist transition out of capitalism could look like within various sectors of the economy. In all of these explorations the need for an expansion, deepening, and synergizing of such actions on the prefigurative, institutional and, ultimately, government-based level, was emphasized. In other words, an economic trajectory out of capitalism can only succeed if all of the various initiatives noted in the prior chapters are not just intensified but pursued simultaneously, with each pulling more or less in the same direction. Yet this, for many, is seen as the hardest part.

As Peter Kropotkin (1975) astutely observed nearly 150 years ago, ‘New ideas germinate everywhere, seeking to force their way into the light, to find an application in life; everywhere they are opposed by the inertia of those whose interest it is to maintain the old order’. In this chapter we thus turn to the political mobilization needed to overcome this inertia by enabling the prefigurative lines of flights explored in the past chapters to intentionally consolidate and break free from the existing ‘old order’. However, it is important to note that compeerism does not offer a dogmatic answer as to what the exact outcome of such a mobilization would entail. Indeed, there are multiple forms that a compeerist-aligned organization of the political economy can take. In Chapter 10, therefore, we move on to consider just one possibility of what a fully evolved compeerist mode of production could look like, emphasizing, in particular, the organization and governance of production, consumption, investment, and environmental stewardship. But first we must address the question of getting there.

Building a compeerist movement

As explained at the outset of this book, the compeerist outlook is best understood as an amalgamation and sharpening of existing thought. Hence, while it embraces the P2P position that commons-centred, collaborative production has the potential to outcompete and ultimately replace our current mode of production, such a process is also seen, in line with most autonomous Marxists, as far from easy or straightforward given that capital currently infiltrates almost every aspect of our socio-economic reality.