UPROOTING CAPITALISM
A 10-Month Virtual Study Group To Decode, Challenge, And Dream Beyond CapitalismFacilitated by Toi Smith
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when the next session begins enrollment in late 2025.
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Capitalism. A word we use often, but do we truly see the roots it has grown in our lives? How it shapes the soil of our relationships, the seeds of our self-perception, and the forest of the world around us? Without digging deeper, it becomes just a label. A label detached from the lived realities it feeds upon.
But here’s the truth:
Capitalism isn’t just a system or an idea; it’s an invasive species.
Its tangled roots of exploitation wind through every aspect of our lives:
Anchoring themselves in the choices we make.
Burrowing into the systems we depend on.
Feeding the stories we tell about what’s necessary, inevitable, or natural.
These roots don’t exist in isolation. They’re deeply entwined, supporting and reinforcing one another until they feel immovable like they’ve always been there. Like they're the truth.But how did this invasive system take hold? How did we come to be so okay with living with such extraction, such exploitation, and such violence? It doesn't have to be this way, but without unearthing capitalism's origins, it’s hard to imagine clearing space for anything new to grow.
Perhaps that’s why, as Mark Fisher said: “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.”But we do need to imagine the end of capitalism because it's killing us.
What if we took the time to trace the roots of capitalism to understand where they begin and how they spread? What would it take to pull them out, not simply to destroy, but to make space for new life? To cultivate relationships rooted not in extraction, but in care, mutuality, and flourishing?This is our calling:
To dig deep.
To unearth what’s been hidden.
To name it with clarity and courage.
To begin the hard but necessary work of change.Because if we can imagine the end of capitalism, we can imagine a fertile new beginning. And maybe...just maybe...that’s how we start building something better, together.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
This study group is a shared exploration — a deep dive into the system that shapes so much of our world and our lives. Over the course of 10-months, we’ll work through eight thought-provoking books, spending time together to understand, critique, and imagine alternatives to capitalism.
The BooksA People’s Guide To Capitalism: An Introduction To Marxist Economics
Written By Hadas TheirBlack Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism In The United States
Written By Charisse Burden-StellyAs Black As Resistance: Finding The Conditions For Liberation
Written By Zoe Zamundza and William AndersonCannibal Capitalism
Written By Nancy FraserCapitalism & Disability
Written By Marta RussellLost In Work: Escaping Capitalism
Written By Amelia HorganRadical Intimacy
Written By Sophie K. RosaHow To Be An Anti-Capitalist In The 21st Century
Written By Erik Olin Wright
These books will help us to understand the historical context and evolution of capitalism, help us to examine how capitalism influences our interpersonal relationships, societal structures, and the way we perceive ourselves and others, and help to equip us with the tools to actively engage in challenging and uprooting the capitalist paradigm.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
This 10-month study group is divided into three sections:
Foundations, Expanding Your Understanding, and Alternative Dreams, with time at the beginning and end to connect, ground ourselves, and reflect.This journey is designed to take us from understanding the foundations of capitalism to imagining and enacting change. We start with the “what” and “why,” move into the “how,” and finish with the “what’s next?”By grounding ourselves in foundational concepts, expanding our perspectives, and ending with actionable solutions, we’ll leave this journey equipped to challenge capitalism and envision a more just and beautiful world.
Opening Gathering: Grounding Our Journey
Late January 2025
Before we begin, we’ll gather to meet one another, connect, and set the tone for the months ahead. This is our chance to get to know each other and the space we’ll share, explore what we hope to gain from this study, and build the container for our collective journey. It’s not just about the books, it’s about the relationships and insights we create along the way.
Section One: Foundations
February 2025 - May 2025We'll dedicate the first four months to building a strong base for our study. These books are fundamental, helping us understand the inner workings of capitalism and its historical connections to race and repression. We're giving ourselves the time to fully absorb these key concepts before moving forward.
February & March: A People's Guide To Capitalism
This book is our foundation, a clear and accessible guide to how capitalism works. It breaks down big concepts like exploitation, class struggle, and inequality in ways that are easy to grasp, setting the stage for deeper exploration.April & May: Black Scare / Red Scare
Next, we turn to the U.S. context, exploring how anti-Blackness and anti-communism have been used to uphold capitalism. This book unpacks the intersections of race, repression, and economic systems, giving us a critical historical lens.
Section Two: Expanding Our Understanding
June 2025 - August 2025With a solid foundation, we'll broaden our perspective, focusing on resistance, intersectionality, and systemic impacts. This section helps us explore how capitalism intersects with race, care work, the environment, and disability, offering deeper critiques and pathways for resistance.
June: As Black As Resistance
This book is bold, hopeful, and challenging. It shows how Black liberation can also be a rejection of capitalism and white supremacy. It’s not just about critique—it’s about imagining and building radical alternatives together.July: Cannibal Capitalism
Here, we zoom out to the global scale, exploring how capitalism consumes the social, ecological, and economic systems it depends on. It’s a striking critique of capitalism’s self-destructive tendencies.August: Capitalism & Disability
We’ll explore how capitalism marginalizes disabled people, treating them as less “profitable” or “productive.” This book reminds us that any critique of capitalism must be inclusive and intersectional.
Section Three: Alternative Dreams
September 2025 - November 2025We'll finish by turning our focus to solutions and visions for change. These final books help us imagine alternatives and provide actionable strategies for challenging capitalism in our personal lives and communities.
September: Lost In Work
Now we bring our study to a more personal level, exploring how capitalism shapes our daily lives, especially at work. Why does it feel like work takes over everything? And why does it often feel so meaningless? This book dives into the alienation and exploitation that many of us feel but struggle to articulate.October: Radical Intimacy
This book invites us to think about care and intimacy as acts of resistance to capitalism’s alienation. What would life look like if connection, not profit, was at the center?November: How To Be An Anti-Capitalist
Finally, we end with action. This book is a guide to practical strategies for challenging capitalism and imagining alternatives. It ties everything together and helps us think about the next steps beyond this journey.
Closing Gathering: Reflecting On Our Journey
Early December 2025
At the end of our 10-months together, we’ll gather one final time to reflect on everything we’ve learned. This closing session is a chance to share insights, celebrate growth, and think about how we’ll carry these lessons into our lives and communities. It’s a time to honor the journey and the connections we’ve built along the way.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
This study group is about more than just reading books—it’s about exploring ideas, reflecting on your life, connecting with others, and imagining something new. To help you along the way, we’ve created a range of resources and spaces that will support you throughout this journey.
Tools To Deepen Your UnderstandingThese are here to help you really engage with each book and unpack its ideas. Think of them as your guides for navigating the material.
Monthly Study Guides: Each guide will break down the key ideas, provide important context, and give you focus areas to help you get the most out of the book.Monthly Audio Lectures: These are like having a thoughtful conversation with someone who knows the book inside out. They’ll expand on its themes and give you fresh perspectives.
Tools To Connect To Your Lived ExperienceIt’s not enough to just understand the ideas—I want to help you see how they show up in your life and give you ways to take action.
Monthly Journal Prompts: These reflective questions will help you think about how the book’s ideas relate to your experiences, challenges, and the world around you.Defiance Practices: These are small, actionable steps to experiment with resisting capitalism in your everyday life. They’re about trying on new ways of being and doing.
Tools To Connect With OthersThis journey is also about building connections and learning from each other. We’ve created spaces to help you feel part of a community.
Monthly Salon Gatherings: At the end of each month, we’ll come together as a larger group to reflect, discuss, and explore the book. These gatherings are a space to share insights, hear diverse perspectives, and connect with the wider community.Connection Circles: If you opt into these, you’ll join a group of 5 other participants to walk this journey together. It’s a chance to share openly, support each other, and dive deeper into the material in an intimate setting.
Tools To Expand Your Imagination
And Ground YouI want to help you dream big, stay hopeful, and feel grounded as you explore these transformative ideas.
Guided Meditation: I Am More Than Capitalism – A guided meditation to remind you of your worth beyond what you produce or consume. Use any time you need to be grounded during our time together.Playlist: A carefully curated soundtrack to inspire you as you reflect, imagine, and explore.Workshops: During our time together, there will be two workshops offered to give you an opportunity to connect even further to the material. The workshops, The Weight of Capitalism: A Workshop for Grief and Possibility and Dreaming of a Post-Capitalist World are dedicated times to move the material from the head to the body.
How It All Comes Together
Every month, you’ll dive into the book with tools to help you understand the material and connect it to your life. Along the way, you’ll have opportunities to share your journey with your Connection Circle (if you decide to join) and at our Salon Gatherings. The workshops and supplementary tools will give you space to dream, reflect, and stay grounded as you explore these big ideas.This journey is about more than learning. It’s about connection, transformation, and building a better way forward together.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
Below are the dates and times of the Uprooting Capitalism journey.
Saturday, January 25th
3 pm est - 4 pm est
Opening Gathering: Grounding Our JourneySaturday, May 10th
3 pm est - 4:30 pm est
The Weight of Capitalism: A Workshop for Grief and Possibility
We often feel the weight of capitalism costs—on our lives, our communities, and the planet. Yet, our fast-paced culture leaves little room to acknowledge or process these losses. This workshop is a space to pause, grieve, and honor what has been taken by capitalism’s relentless systems of exploitation and inequity.Saturday, September 13th
3 pm est - 4:30 pm est
Dreaming of a Post-Capitalist World
The act of dreaming can be a radical and transformative practice. This workshop will invite you to step into a space of imagination and possibility, where we collectively envision what life could look like beyond capitalism.Saturday, December 13th
3 pm est - 4 pm est
Closing Gathering: Reflecting On Our Journey
The 1st of Each Month
On the first of each month, inside the Uprooting Capitalism portal the following will be available for participants.
Study guide
Audio lecture
Journal prompts
Defiance practicesLast Saturday of Each Month
On the last Saturday, from 3 pm est - 4 pm est we'll gather for our monthly salon gathering. This is a time to share insights, hear diverse perspectives, and connect with the wider community.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
Why Say Yes to Uprooting Capitalism?
Because you feel it.The unease, the questions, the sense that something about the way the world works isn’t right. Maybe you’ve wondered why inequality feels so normal or why it seems so hard to imagine a different way of living. Maybe you’ve wanted to do something, but you weren’t sure where to start.This study group is a place to start.Say yes because you want clarity.
You’ve heard the word “capitalism” a hundred times, but you want to understand what it really means in your life—how it shapes the way you think, the choices you make, and the relationships you rely on.Say yes because you want to challenge what’s not working.
You’re tired of feeling stuck in systems that exploit and deplete, and you want to be part of something different. This group is about breaking free from the “this is just how it is” mindset and daring to imagine something better.Say yes because you don’t want to do this alone.
The work of uprooting is hard, but you don’t have to do it by yourself. This is a space to connect with people who share your questions, your frustrations, and your hope for a different future.Say yes because you want to dream bigger.
It’s not just about dismantling what’s broken—it’s about creating something beautiful in its place. Together, we’ll explore what it means to build systems rooted in care, mutuality, and regeneration.Say yes because you’re ready to act with courage.
To uproot means to dig deep, to expose what’s hidden, and to make space for something new to grow. It’s not easy work, but it’s work worth doing—work that starts with the simple but powerful act of saying yes.
If you’ve ever felt that pull—the desire to question, to imagine, to create—this group is for you.Say yes to clarity, to connection, to transformation. Say yes to imagining and building a better way, together.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
About Me: Why Uprooting Capitalism?
Hi, I’m Toi Smith, and I’m so glad you’re here.Uprooting Capitalism was born out of my own journey of questioning the systems that shape our lives. For years, I felt like something wasn’t right. Like the rules we live by weren’t serving us, but trapping us. The more I explored, the more I realized that capitalism isn’t just a system; it’s woven into our choices, relationships, and even the stories we tell about what’s possible.I started this study group because I believe in the power of collective learning and imagination. I’ve seen how capitalism creates relationships rooted in exploitation and depletion, and I’ve also seen the strength of communities coming together to envision something different. For me, this work isn’t just intellectual...it’s deeply personal.
As a Black woman and a single mother, I’ve lived both the harm of these systems and the hope that comes from challenging them. My work has always been about creating spaces where people can question, connect, and grow.This study group isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating space to ask big questions: What are the roots of capitalism in our lives? How has it shaped the way we see ourselves, each other, and the world? What could it look like to live in systems rooted in care and connection rather than extraction?To me, to uproot means to disrupt what feels immovable, to dig beneath the surface and expose what lies hidden. It’s about removing not just what we can see, but the deeper structures that sustain it, making space for something new to grow. Uprooting capitalism is an act of courage, care, and transformation. Work that we can only do together.
This study group is for anyone who’s ever felt that pull, the desire to challenge the status quo, to dream bigger, and to take the first steps toward something better. It’s a place to dig deep, unearth what’s hidden, and imagine what’s possible.I don’t have all the answers, but I’m here with curiosity, passion, and a commitment to learning alongside you. Together, we can uproot what’s not working and nurture what could be.I’m so excited to be on this journey with you. Let’s get to work. 🌱
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
I offer Uprooting Capitalism on a sliding scale to make it accessible to as many people as possible. I know that capitalism is an unequal system that impacts everyone’s access to money differently. This approach to pricing is my way of honoring those differences and creating a space that welcomes a diverse group of participants. When choosing your payment option, I invite you to base it on your actual financial resources rather than how you feel about money.“At the end of the day, the sliding scale thrives on trust. Trust is a pretty amazing thing. I trust you to be honest in your assessment of your economic reality.”
-Alexis J. Cunningfolk
SPECIAL RATES
Early Enrollment Rate
$65010-Payments of $65
This early enrollment rate is available
through Friday, December 20th.
Alumni Rate
$45010-Payments of $45
This alumni rate is available to anyone who
participated in Uprooting Capitalism in 2024.
(must email me to get enrollment form)
Option 1
Community Rate
$75010-Payments of $75
This rate is for you if covering your basic needs can be a little tricky. Sometimes, you have to make tough decisions about which bills to skip, but ultimately, they get paid. Most of your expendable income goes toward dependents or essentials, and you often feel strapped, making hard choices about money more often than not. This is a good fit for single-income households or those with lower incomes.This rate acknowledges that while there is stability, additional support makes participation possible.
Option 2
Standard Rate
$95010-Payments of $95
This rate represents the true cost of what it takes to develop and facilitate Uprooting Capitalism.This rate is for you if covering your basic needs isn’t tricky. Your bills get paid every month, and you might have a little expendable income. You may not have a lot in savings, but you have a steady income or the ability to generate income when needed. While you’re comfortable, you might still keep an eye on spending.This rate represents the baseline for those with a comfortable and steady financial situation.
Option 3
Redistribution Rate
$150010-Payments of $150
This rate is for you if covering your basic needs is effortless and you have plenty of expendable income. Your bills are always paid on time, you have significant savings or investments, and you don’t have to think twice about personal or professional spending. You may have resources beyond your immediate needs and can easily contribute to causes or initiatives that matter to you.This rate reflects a commitment to sustaining the work and supporting those with fewer resources.
*Basic Needs include food, housing, health care, and transportation.
**Expendable Income might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, go to the movies or a concert, buy new clothes, books, and similar items each month, etc.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
What is the time commitment if I decide to participate?
This is a study group, so you will be reading...for a whole 10-months. You'll get the most out of Uprooting Capitalism if you commit to staying on track with the reading. That being said, the books we're exploring aren't terribly long, averaging about 200 pages. This means you'll need to read, on average, about 10 pages a day.Do I have to attend the monthly live gatherings or workshops to fully benefit from this offering?
The live gatherings are a space where you’ll be able to interrogate the learnings and go deeper because of the different perspectives and questions being presented by fellow participants. So yes, of course, you can participate without attending the live gatherings, but your experience will be so much richer if you're able to attend at least a few.Do I need to purchase the books?
Yes, you will need to purchase each book or reserve copies from
your library. Or do a Google search and see if you can find a free version.Are any of the live gatherings (workshops or salon gatherings) recorded?
To honor the privacy of everyone participating and allow for deeply honest conversations, none of the live sessions are recorded. Also, there's just magic that happens from live events (even if they're virtual) that can't be duplicated or felt from recordings.How is the content delivered each month?
All content is delivered in our program portal, which you’ll get access to when you sign up.How is this offering accessible for people with disabilities?
All audio lectures will be transcribed and shared along with the recordings, and the live gatherings will include closed captioning. That said, I will try to honor additional accommodation needs to the best of my ability.How many people are taking part in Uprooting Capitalism?
There are 75 spots available for Uprooting Capitalism. This doesn’t mean that all spots will be sold. During the live sessions, you can expect about half of those enrolled to show up.The cost is still prohibitive for me. Do you offer any scholarships?
No scholarships are offered for Uprooting Capitalism. I use tiered to create access for as many people as I can while also trying to meet my financial needs as the facilitator. I encourage you, if cost is a barrier, to gather a few beloveds and hold your own study/discussion group on the books we’ll be exploring. This work is important, and you can do it with those close to you.What is the refund/cancellation policy?
Uprooting Capitalism is a 10-month program, not a month-to-month exploration, even though participants can pay in 10-monthly installments. Therefore, enrolling means you are 100% responsible for the entire program cost regardless of how much or how long you participate after the cancellation period expires.If, after enrolling, you decide that Uprooting Capitalism
is not for you, you have through the end of the day on Sunday, January, 26th 2024, to cancel your enrollment. Upon cancellation, you will be refunded.I ask that you make your decision thoughtfully because after the cancellation period expires there are no refunds. Please remember that you are engaging and buying from a human, not a corporation, which means I can't and don't offer an unsustainable refund policy that doesn't honor the time, energy, and resources used to create Uprooting Capitalism.
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
Uprooting Capitalism is a 10-month study group to decode, challenge, and
dream beyond capitalism.Beginning January 2025
Facilitated by Toi SmithYou'll make your first payment now, and the remaining nine payments will be automatically deducted on the 1st of each month beginning on February 1st.If you'd like to pay in full, you can do so here. And if you're Uprooting Capitalism alumni who'd like to enroll at the alumni rate of $45 per month ($450 total), please email me at [email protected]
UPROOTING CAPITALISM
I'm So Excited You Said Yes!
You've officially enrolled in Unprooting Capitalism and I'm so happy to go on this journey with you in 2025.A welcome email with important information is headed to your inbox right now, so be on the lookout. If you don't see the email, please double-check your spam folder.If you have any questions or if you don't receive the email, please reach out here: [email protected]