Archive for July, 2009

Building Organizations with Unity Resting on Diversity

by Editors @ Sunday, July 19th, 2009. Filed under Marxism, Organizing, Socialism

 

 Respect Differences

and Be Flexible in

Regards to Activism

 

 

By Marta Harnecker

Translated by Federico Fuentes

for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

 

[This is the ninth in a series of regular articles.]

1. Among the left, there continues to be a difficulty to work together while respecting differences. In the past, the tendency of political organizations, especially parties that self-declare themselves as parties of the working class, was always towards homogenizing the social base within which they carried out political work. If this attitude was once justified due to the past identity and homogeneity of the working class, today it is anachronistic when confronted with a working class that is quite differentiated, and with the emergence of a diversity of new social actors. Today, we increasingly have to deal with a unity based on diversity, on respect for ethnic and cultural differences, for gender and for the sense of belonging of specific collectives.

2. It is necessary to try channelling commitments to activism by starting with the actual potential of each sector, and even of each person, that is willing to commit itself to the struggle, without seeking to homogenize these actors. It is important to have a special sensibility towards finding all those points of agreement that can allow for the emergence of a common platform of struggle.

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Women’s Coop Occupies Factory, Starts Production

by Editors @ Saturday, July 18th, 2009. Filed under Economic Democracy, High Road Economics, Organizing, Women


Stitching a Future Together:

Women and the Solidarity

Economy in Uruguay

 

By Luis Alberto Carro

Inter-Press Service

ROSARIO, Uruguay, July 5 2009 (IPS) - The group of women cross this Uruguayan town every morning, some on bike and some on foot, on their way to CODEMUR, a women’s cooperative that resurrected a garment factory abandoned by its owners. The women, all between the ages of 40 and 60, are former employees of the once vibrant textile firm Sirfil y Drymar. After the companies closed the local plant without paying the employees the back wages and holiday and severance pay they were owed, some of the women created CODEMUR (Rosario Women’s Cooperative).

After the factory workers were laid off in 2007, the owners began to cart off the merchandise, fabrics and other materials. So the women decided to occupy the plant, and informed the Labour Ministry that they would attempt to get it running again, following in the footsteps of other worker-run factories.

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Lessons from Struggle: Setting the Direction for Change

by Editors @ Saturday, July 11th, 2009. Filed under Marxism, Organizing, Socialism

 

  The Left Must

Try to Set the

Agenda for Struggle

 

By Marta Harnecker

Translated by Federico Fuentes

for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[This is the eighth in a series of regular articles.]

1. In the previous article, we stated that a large section of the party left has found it very difficult to work with social movements and develop ties with the new social forces in recent decades. This has been due to several factors.

2. While the right wing has demonstrated great political initiative, the left tends to be on the defensive. While the former uses its control of the institutions of the state and the mass media, as well as its economic influence, to impose its new model, subservient to financial capital and monopolies, that has precipitated privatizations, labor deregulation and all the other aspects of the neoliberal economic program, to increase social fragmentation and foment anti-partyism, the party left, on the other hand, has almost exclusively limited its political work to the use of current institutionality, subordinating itself to the rules of the game imposed by the enemy, and hardly ever taking them by surprise. The level of absurdity is such that the calendar of struggle of the left is set by the right.

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Surviving Crises: Cooperative Enterprises Weather the Market Economy

by Editors @ Monday, July 6th, 2009. Filed under Economic Democracy, Organizing, Socialism

Photo: Spain’s Eroski grocery stores are Mondragón’s largest cooperative.

Spain’s Eroski grocery stores are Mondragón’s largest cooperative. Photo courtesy www.eroski.esMondragón Coops:

Worker-Operatives

Decide How to

Ride Out a Downturn

By Georgia Kelly and Shaula Massena

The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC), the largest consortium of worker-owned companies, has developed a different way of doing business—a way that puts workers, not shareholders, first.

Here’s how it played out when one of the Mondragón cooperatives fell on hard times. The worker/owners and the managers met to review their options. After three days of meetings, the worker/owners agreed that 20 percent of the workforce would leave their jobs for a year, during which they would continue to receive 80 percent of their pay and, if they wished, free training for other work. This group would be chosen by lottery, and if the company was still in trouble a year later, the first group would return to work and a second would take a year off.

The result? The solution worked and the company thrives to this day.

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Ideas for Struggle: Authenticity as a Requirement for Mobilization

by Editors @ Wednesday, July 1st, 2009. Filed under Marxism, Organizing, Politics & Elections, Socialism

 

  Reasons for Popular Skepticism

on Politics and Politicians

By Marta Harnecker

translated by Federico Fuentes

for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[This is the seventh in a series of regular articles.]

1. In one of my previous articles, I stated that in order to wage an effective struggle against neoliberalism, it is necessary to unite all those suffering its consequences, and to achieve this objective we must start with the left itself, which in our countries tends to be very dispersed. But, there are many obstacles that impede this task. The first step to overcoming them is to be aware of them and be prepared to face them.

2. One of these obstacles is the growing popular skepticism regarding politics and politicians.

3. This has to do, among other things, with the great constraints that exist today in our democratic systems, which are very different to those that existed prior to the military dictatorships.

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