Anarchist Accounting

Anders Sandström is a trained accountant with a degree from Uppsala University. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, where he works as the treasurer at Sveriges Arbetares Arbetslöshetskassa (SAAK), an unemployment office historically connected to the Swedish syndicalist trade union, Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC). Before his sabbatical and political turnaround in 2000, Anders worked as an audit junior at the international audit firm KPMG and later as Head of Accounting and Group Financial Controller in different companies. In 2010 Anders co-founded Parecon Sverige, an advocacy group for participatory economy, which is an economic system developed as a viable alternative to capitalism.

• Introduction 1: Participatory Economics 2: Accounting in a Participatory Economy 3: Consumers and Consumption 4: Worker Councils and Production 5: Investment and Long term Development 6: The Society Account Conclusion Appendix 1: Accounting Primer Appendix 2: Investment in a Capitalist Market Economy

"Many people might assume that accounting is a capitalist tool, but it can be made radically democratic. We need to build businesses and societies that are fairer and greener, and this beautiful book explains how we might use anarchist practices to get there." — Professor Martin Parker, Lead for the Bristol Inclusive Economy initiative, Department of Management, Bristol University, UK."Anarchist Accounting? Is this some kind of joke? In his provocative book Anders Sandströmexplains that it is no joke, but something anarchists need to take seriously if they want to advance their cause.Anarchism preaches that when freed from perverse institutional incentives which make acting in the social interest contrary to one’s personal self-interest, most people will choose to act in solidarity with others. What Sandströmadds to this traditional anarchist "wisdom" is the observation that in order to do so people need the information necessary to determine what behavior on their part would actually advance the social interest. Sandström, a life-long professional accountant turned anarchist, applies accounting principles to a post-capitalist economic "model" known as a participatory economy to demonstrate how to give people the information they need to act in solidarity with one another.Anarchist Accounting is a must read for anyone interested in making libertarian socialism more than a "faith based" initiative." — Robin Hahnel, Professor Emeritus, The American University, Washington DC, Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Portland State University, Portland Oregon, Co-Director, Economics for Equity and the Environment and author of Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation.