The way [change] is going to come, if it’s going to come, is slowly over the course of generations through a gradual shifting of class consciousness. This shift, to Marcuse, is only going to happen if the citizens as individuals look in the mirror, become self-aware of their participation in the way that things are, and make a resolution to an extreme type of radical [understanding] against the current system that represses people.

[Marcuse] calls this resolution he thinks we all have to make the Great Refusal, or as he puts it briefly “the protest against that which is.” Doug Kellner describes it like this, “Marcuse constantly advocated the ‘Great Refusal’ as the proper political response to any form of irrational repression, and indeed this seems to be at least the starting point for political activism in the contemporary era:

- refusal of all forms of oppression and domination,

- relentless criticism of all policies that impact negatively on working people and progressive social programs, and

- militant opposition to any and all acts of aggression against third-world countries.

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But even if you read this and you're on board, we're still stuck in capitalism and limited by it. You and I, and everyone around us, has grown up indoctrinated to be a worker and a consumer who spends their time either working or recovering from work just to work again. In order to Refuse capitalism, we as anti-capitalists have to not only promote class consciousness, we must offer real, alternative solutions to the problems capitalism solves today.

People in a capitalist society are trained to believe that basically every problem requires a product they need to buy in order to solve that problem. We Refuse capitalism every time we buy a product made by a worker-owned co-op. Use the free market to walk away, step by step, from a capitalist economy and towards a worker's economy. We Refuse capitalism by rejecting its solutions and promoting solutions made by the worker's economy.

You can start by replacing a single product or service you need with one produced by a worker-owned co-op. As your means allow, maybe you can later buy a whole category of goods, like produce, from worker-owned sources. If you need a job, consider worker co-ops first in your search; seek them out.

This is not the final step but only the beginning of an economic revolution, one that will fuel the political revolution. Treat every dollar contributed to the worker's economy as a revolutionary act.