Beyond Capitalism: Art, Performance & Politics

A presentation by Jim Costanzo (a/k/a the Aaron Burr Society)

In 2008 artist and activist Jim Costanzo began appearing on Wall Street as the Aaron Burr Society, drawing upon a little-known figure from America’s past as a way of critiquing and offering alternatives to the current dysfunctional capitalist system. In this talk illustrated with slides and video, Costanzo will analyze some of the artistic and political interventions he has undertaken, highlighting the Free Money Movement, launched on April Fool’s Day 2009.

The ABS distributed 100 one-dollar bills on Wall Street stamped with “Free Money” on one side and “Slave of New York” on the other. The Federal Reserve Bank was authorized to bail out Wall Street Banks with tax dollars from the 99% that was given as Free Money after the 2008 crash. Government deregulation and the subsequent corporate fraud caused the crash and resulted in people losing their jobs and homes.

In 2013 the Society added another stamp: “Common Good/Commonwealth”. According to the ABS, there are now two choices: either we have Free Money for the Common Good of the 99% paid for by the nation’s Commonwealth, or we can continue to be Slaves of Wall Street with unending bailouts for the 1%. Today the Common Good would include environmental sustainability based on economic and social justice.

Jim Costanzo continues to work with Occupy Wall Street working groups Strike Debt and Making Worlds based on the Commons. He has participated on panels organized by the Union for Radical Political Economics and the Eastern Sociology Society, and was a presenter at the Public Banking Institute conference “Funding the New Economy.” He recently helped organize and participated in panels for Free University’s “Decolonize Climate Justice” initiative.

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