Visions of a New World  In the fall of 1988, I had the
opportunity to tour Northern Ireland, meeting with the leaders
of Sinn Féin. One of the areas to which I was introduced were
worker cooperatives that had been established by Sinn Féin or
its allies. I arrogantly asked Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams
what these cooperatives had to do with the liberation of Ireland
from the British. Adams, very patiently, explained to me that,
while these cooperatives would not liberate Ireland, at the same
time the nationalist population was impoverished and needed a
way to survive. With my tail between my legs I acknowledged the
profundity of his point.  One of the strengths of What Then Must
We Do? is that, much like Sinn Féin in the late 1980s, it is
responding to an immediate challenge among the population. It is
suggesting that there are things that can and must be done right
now particularly within sectors of the population that have been
largely written off by either the state or by private capital.
The “dead cities