Archive for the 'Socialism' Category

Prosperity in Italy Spurred by One Region’s Coops

by Editors @ Monday, March 8th, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Organizing, Socialism

Poster: Italy's Federation of Consumer Coops

The Emilia-Romagna Coops:

A Market Without Capitalists

 

By Frances Moore Lappe
Alternet.com
A market economy and capitalism are synonymous --- or at least joined at the hip. That's what most Americans grow up assuming. But it is not necessarily so. Capitalism -- control by those supplying the capital in order to return wealth to shareholders -- is only one way to drive a market.


Granted, it is hard to imagine another possibility for how an economy could work in the abstract. It helps to have a real-life example.


And now I do.

In May I spent five days in Emilia Romagna, a region of four million people in northern central Italy. There, over the last 150 years, a network of consumer, farmer and worker-driven cooperatives has come to generate 30 percent to 40 percent of the region's GDP. Two of every three people in Emilia Romagna are members of co-ops.


The region, whose hub city is Bologna, is home to 8,000 co-ops, producing everything from ceramics to fashion to specialty cheese. Their industriousness is woven into networks based on what cooperative leaders like to call "reciprocity." All co-ops return 3 percent of profits to a national fund for cooperative development, and the movement supports centers providing help in finance, marketing, research and technical expertise.
The presumption is that by aiding each other, all gain. And they have. Per person income is 50 percent higher in Emilia Romagna than the national average.

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Who Is To Be Master? What Happens When Workers Occupy Factories

by Editors @ Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Socialism, Trade Unions

Photo: Flasko workers in Brazil

[Note from CarlD: Following are two articles on what debates break out when workers occupy or take ownership of factories. The first is from a single case in Brazil, the second from an earlier regionwide meeting on the topic in Venezuela. I think these are examples of the unity and tension in what Gramsci called 'wars of position' and 'wars on maneuver'. The solidarity economy concept is both supported and contested.]

Workers from Occupied

'Flasko' Factory Repond

to Brazil's President Lula

 

On 12/01/2010 President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said publicly in his weekly column "The President replies”, a question of journalism student (Camila Delmondes) on the struggle of the workers occupied the factory Flaskô.
The response given (which can be read http://imprensa.planalto.gov.br/download/Informe_da_Hora/PRR120110.doc) believe it is essential that the workers' management of Flaskô respond to Squid and the entire working class which was said the President. First of all, it is worth noting that since 12 June 2003 when we occupied the factory and resumed production to ensure our jobs, we await a response from the President. During these seven years almost non stop fighting for the maintenance of Flaskô open under the control of workers and always demanded that the federal government.

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Cooperative ‘Payment Solidarity’ Means a Prevailing Wage or Better

by Editors @ Sunday, February 28th, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Socialism

Payment Solidarity:

Looking Deeper at the

Mondragon Principles

 

By John McNamara

The Mondragon Co-operatives maintain the concept of wage solidarity. From the beginning, the ratio of the highest paid position (manager) and the lowest paid (new worker) was locked at 3:1. In the 80’s this changed and today there are some positions that earn a 6:1 ratio and one (the CEO of the International MCC) who receives 9:1. Even with the tripling of the upper end of the ratio, it is still a far cry from the 150 or even 300:1 ratios that modern stock corporations tend to employ.

What interests me about this principle (and I think that it should be in the Identity Statement as well), is that Mondragon expresses the co-operative value of solidarity. It puts solidarity into the operations of the co-operative.

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Venezuela: Epicenter of Counter-Hegemonic Bloc

by Editors @ Monday, February 8th, 2010. Filed under Global Justice, Latin-American, Socialism

Interview with William I. Robinson:

The challenges facing 21st century socialism in Venezuela

``In Venezuela the biggest threat to the revolution does not come from the right-wing political opposition but from the so-called `endogenous' or `Chavista' right wing, in that chunks of the revolutionary bloc, including state elites and party officials, will develop a deeper stake in defending global capitalism over socialist transformation''' -- William I. Robinson

Interview with William I. Robinson, professor of sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, by Chronis Polychroniou, editor of the Greek daily newspaper Eleftherotypia

February 1, 2010 -- ZNet

Chronis Polychroniou: There are scare stories coming from Venezuela. The border is heating up, infiltration is taking place, a new Colombian military base near the border, US access to several new bases on Colombia and constant subversion. Is the regime concerned about a possible invasion? If yes, who is going to intervene?

William I. Robinson: The Venezuelan government is concerned about a possible US invasion and certainly an outright invasion cannot be ruled out. However I think the US is pursuing a more sophisticated strategy of intervention that we could call a war of attrition.

We have seen this strategy in other countries, such as in Nicaragua in the 1980s, or even Chile under Allende. It is what in CIA lexicon is known as destabilisation, and in the Pentagon's language is called political warfare -- which does not mean there is not a military component. This is a counterrevolutionary strategy that combines military threats and hostilities with psychological operations, disinformation campaigns, black propaganda, economic sabotage, diplomatic pressures, the mobilisation of political opposition forces inside the country, carrying out provocations and sparking violent confrontations in the cities, manipulation of disaffected sectors and the exploitation of legitimate grievances among the population.

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Reject the Old Patterns - China’s 21st Century Path

by Editors @ Sunday, February 7th, 2010. Filed under China, Global Justice, Socialism

Poster: Oppose hegemonism, uphold world peace - maintain a foreign policy of independence and own initiative, 1983

'Three Strategies'

to Tackle the

'Three Challenges'

 

By Zheng Bijian

It is far from easy for a country of 1.3 billion population to achieve peaceful rise. During the first half of the 21st century, in particular, China faces a period of both "golden opportunity for development" and "standing out contradictions". The latter, in the field of economic and social progress, can be boiled down to "three major challenges".

The first challenge comes from resources, particularly energies. China lags behind the world in terms of per capita hold of resources; meanwhile, due to a fast developing speed yet low technical level, China's manufacturing industry is among the most energy-consuming ones in the world. The huge consumption is intensified by a large-scale shift of manufacturing bases to China. As a result resources, including energies, have been in tight supply.

The second challenge is from ecological environment. A spoiled environment caused by serious pollution, worsened ecological conditions, huge consumption of resources, and low reclamation has become a bottleneck in the sustainable development of the Chinese economy.

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Needed: Self-Management and Workplace Democracy

by Editors @ Tuesday, January 26th, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Socialism

Participatory Management:

Looking Deeper at the

Mondragon Principles

 

By John McNamara

The next principle from Mondragon is that of Participatory Management. This seems like a no-brainer for worker co-operatives. What is the point of going through all the work of setting up a worker co-op if the workers don’t actually have a say in how the place is run? They would be better off in a unionized Employee Stock Ownership Program.

I’ll get more into this in a second. First, I want to share the language of the principle from Mondragon (translated, as they all are, of course):

“The Mondragon Cooperative Experience believes that the democratic character of the Cooperative is not limited to membership aspects, but that it also implies the progressive development of self-management and consequently of the participation of members in the sphere of business management which, in turn, requires:

a) The development of suitable mechanisms and channels for participation.

b) Freedom of information concerning the development of the basic management variables of the Cooperative.

c) The practice of methods of consultation and negotiation with worker-members and their social representatives in economic, organisational and labour decisions which concern or affect them.

d) The systematic application of social and professional training plans for members.

e) The establishment of internal promotion as the basic means of covering posts with greater professional responsibility.”

(source: The Mondragon Cooperative Experience, by José María Ormaechea, 2000)

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Gramsci and the Need to Learn Strategy in Depth

by Editors @ Wednesday, January 20th, 2010. Filed under Organizing, Socialism

The Relevance of

Gramsci’s Theory

for Today

By Peter Latham

January 3, 2010 -- I first read Gramsci in English over 40 years ago. Moreover, my thesis on Theories of the Labour Movement—a Marxist critique of non-Marxist theories of industrial relations—used Gramsci’s concept of the “organic” working class intellectual to explain twentieth century rank and file movements in the British building industry.[1] This paper is based on the Gramsci section in my forthcoming book on The State and Local Government.[2]

Roger Simon—the co-author with Noreen Branson of The British State published in 1958 at the height of the Cold War when they used the pseudonyms James Harvey and Katherine Hood[3]—subsequently revised his approach to take into account what he saw as Gramsci’s modification of classical Marxism, including Leninism. The latter, according to Simon, saw power as concentrated in the state and under the exclusive control of the capitalist class (or part of it) and took the view that the construction of socialism could only begin after the working class took power—as did Harvey and Hood.[4] Conversely, for Simon, Gramsci’s concept of the integral state—“political society plus civil society, in other words, hegemony protected by the armour of coercion”[5]—implied that the working class could only achieve state power after it had won a substantial measure of hegemony in civil society.[6] Simon still rejected the social-democratic theory of state neutrality: but he also rejected Gramsci’s view that factory councils should replace parliamentary democracy.[7] Hence, as well as the democratisation of parliament, Simon advocated direct democracy in the local community and workplace plus broad alliances based on the left and other social movements.[8]

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Worker Coops and Their Requirements for Capital Within Limits

by Editors @ Tuesday, January 12th, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, High Road Economics, Socialism
 
Photo: Punching machine at MCC factory

The Instrumental and

Subordinate Nature of Capital:

Looking Deeper at the

Mondragon Principles

A series on the core principles of
the Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain

 

By John McNamara

“We do not aspire to economic development as an end, but as a means.”

–Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, spiritual founder of Mondragon

This Mondragon principle, in practice, operates more closely to the Identity Statement principle of Member Economic Participation. I included it in this side road of the over all series because I believe that Mondragon presents a nuance all too often lost in the co-operative movement and, in the 'silo-ed' environment of the US worker co-operative movement, we often tend to forget the role of capital in our organizations is significantly different from that of our industry and capitalist competitors.

The role of capital in a worker co-operative should be two-fold:

1) ensure the on-going operations of the co-operative

2) allow the co-operative to maintain the highest level of safety and quality of work-life.

Thus, this principle presents the balancing act of worker co-operatives. As the opening quote suggests, if we are just in it for the money, what are we really trying to accomplish? However, DJMA has also said, “Cooperativism without the structural capacity to attract and assimilate capital at the level of the requirements of industrial productivity is but a temporary solution, an invalid formula.”

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Jobs Campaigns, New Deal History, National Service and Socialist Values

by Editors @ Tuesday, December 29th, 2009. Filed under Economic Democracy, Economy, Labor Movement, Organizing, Socialism

A Left Role, Renewed Identity,

and How-To, in Campaigns for

National Service Jobs Programs

 

By John Case

Socialist-Economics Group

 

Does the current crisis justify an expanded role for government as an employer of last result?

Consider the following facts from EPI research:

Number unemployed: 15.4 million (up from 7.5 million in December 2007) Portion of official unemployed considered structural: 3.9 million Portion of unemployed who have been jobless more than six months: 38.3% Total jobs lost during the recession: 8.0 million Jobs needed to return to pre-recession unemployment rate: 10.9 million Number of job-seekers per job opening: 6.1 Unemployment rate: 10.0% Underemployment rate: 17.2%; Share of workers un- or underemployed: more than 1 in 6 States with double-digit unemployment in October, 2009: 15 White unemployment: 9.3%; African-American unemployment: 15.6%; Hispanic unemployment:12.7% Manufacturing jobs lost since the start of the recession: 2.1 million (15.5% of sector's jobs) Construction jobs lost in the recession: 1.6 million (20.8%, nearly one in five construction jobs) Mass layoffs (50 or more people by a single employer) in October 2009: 2,127; jobs lost:217,182 Under- and unemployed, marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers: 26.9 million

Americans with no health insurance in 2008: 46.3 million Annual Social Security benefit for average retiree: $13,922; Share of older Americans receiving all their income from Social Security: more than 1 out of 4 Number of children in poverty in 2008: 14.1 million (over one-third) Drop in real median income from 2007 to 2008: 3.6% (largest one-year drop since 1967) Growth rate of nominal, hourly wages of production workers over the last three months:1.7% Additional people covered by Medicaid/SCHIP in 2008: 3 million

Not since the Great Depression has structural unemployment been so intense or sustained. Despite faster and smarter liquidity and fiscal efforts by government than occurred then, employment decline has merely decelerated 24 months into what is now dubbed 'The Great Recession'. It is not yet near enough to avert 5-10 years of unemployment rates above 6% (the level at which the 'Great Recession' started). The foundation of New Deal anti-depression actions, and one of the most successful and long lasting in its effects, was directly putting men to work in public works projects that became associated with several national service programs. The economist Hyman Minsky coined the term 'Employer of Last Resort' to describe government full employment efforts, which were part of his economic prescription, discussed more below, for countering capitalism's inherent vulnerability to financial instability.

This article explores the appropriateness, precedents and how-to's of national service programs (the chief US version of employer of last resort). in responding to the current crisis. The moral and social virtues of putting the unemployed to work in the creation of useful and meaningful public goods, instead of subjecting them to sustained idleness, should be self-evident.

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Yankee Doodle Ecologist: Tom Friedman and the Green Revolution

by Editors @ Tuesday, December 15th, 2009. Filed under Economy, Environment, High Road Economics, Socialism

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

by Thomas Friedman.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

$27.95. Pp. 438.

 

By Jerry Harris

SolidarityEconomy.Net

Thomas Friedman is always the head cheerleader for the next big thing. At first it was globalization and now it’s the green revolution. Friedman’s instincts are good, it’s just his analysis and politics are lacking. There are certainly valuable and interesting insights in his work, but his adolescent enthusiasm for capitalism often turns his critique to shallow propaganda.

The book’s title, Hot, Flat, and Crowded is a good indicator as to how Friedman understands environmental problems. Underline that word crowded because the book takes us on a Malthusian ride through the Third World. It’s overpopulation, not capitalism and its need for every expanding accumulation that is destroying the world’s environment.

Friedman marches us through China, India, Brazil and Nigeria offering a myopic view that only occasional refers to the developed countries and their use of energy and resources. When it comes to energy markets transnationals such as Exxon and Shell disappear as does any discussion of imperialism and its history in the Middle East. Instead Friedman targets “petrodictorships” and “Sheikhs…with bags of cash” indoctrinating madrassa students to “breed like rabbits” and “swarm” over the Islamic world. (p. 88)

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Word to the Wise: China Launches New Green Industries

by Editors @ Thursday, December 10th, 2009. Filed under China, Environment, Socialism

Chinese Leader Calls

for Development of

Environmental Industry

From Xinhua

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang Tuesday called for advancement of environmental protection industry to strengthen a stable, coordinated and sustainable economic development.


Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (C) visits the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 8, 2009. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)

The environmental protection industry concerned aspects such as infrastructure building, equipment manufacturing and services and it should be considered as a strategic emerging industry, Li said during an inspection tour in the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences and China National Environmental Monitoring Center.
He said as the Copenhagen conference was held currently to address the climate change, "the development of green, low carbon and recycling economy has become a global trend."

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Steelworkers Aim at Job Creation with Worker-Owned Factories

by Editors @ Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009. Filed under Economic Democracy, Organizing, Socialism, Trade Unions

Photo: High-tech Machine Tools from MCC

‘One Worker, One Vote:'

US Steelworkers to Experiment

with Factory Ownership,

Mondragon Style


By Carl Davidson
SolidarityEconomy.net


Oct. 27, 2009--The United Steel Workers Union, North America's largest industrial trade union, announced a new collaboration with the world's largest worker-owned cooperative, Mondragon International, based in the Basque region of Spain.


News of the announcement spread rapidly throughout the communities of global justice activists, trade union militants, economic democracy and socialist organizers, green entrepreneurs and cooperative practitioners of all sorts. More than a few raised an eyebrow, but the overwhelming response was, "Terrific! How can we help?"
The vision behind the agreement is job creation, but with a new twist. Since government efforts were being stifled by the greed of financial speculators and private capital was more interested in cheap labor abroad, unions will take matters into their own hands, find willing partners, and create jobs themselves, but in sustainable businesses owned by the workers.

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People’s Plebiscites as a Method of Struggle

by Editors @ Tuesday, August 25th, 2009. Filed under Marxism, Organizing, Socialism

  Popular Consultations: Space for

the Convergence of Different Forces

The Case of Uruguay's  Frente Amplio.

By Marta Harnecker

Translated by Federico Fuentes

for Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal

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

1. I have previously argued the case for the need to create a large social bloc against neoliberalism that can unite all those affected by the system. To achieve this, it is fundamental that we create spaces that allow for the convergence of specific anti-neoliberal struggles where, safeguarding the specific characteristics of each political or social actor, common tasks can be taken up that aid in strengthening the struggle.

2. In this respect, I think that popular consultations or plebiscites are very interesting spaces. These can allow us to mobilize behind a single concrete task of convincing -- undertaking door-to-door popular education -- a large number of people and youth who are beginning to awaken to politics, who want to contribute to a better world, who very often don’t know how to do it, and who are not willing to be active in the traditional way, because many of them reject politics and politicians.

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Reportback: 5th Eastern Conference On Workplace Democracy

by Editors @ Sunday, August 9th, 2009. Filed under Economic Democracy, Labor Movement, Socialism

 

  Worker and Community

Coops Gather in Rust Belt

Pittsburgh to Build Solidarity

 

By Carl Davidson

SolidarityEconomy.Net

Nearly 200 cooperative economy advocates gathered at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA over the July 30-Aug.2 weekend. They took stock of themselves, learned from each other, and, in the midst of economic crisis, celebrated new growth and interest in their cause.

It was the 5th Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD), itself an affiliate of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Worker cooperatives are in turn only one sector of a much wider array of consumer, housing, producer, credit union and utility cooperatives spread across the country. Organizers and representatives of all of these also took part in the conference, and they came from 21 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada.

“Democracy Works: Workers Cooperatives, Labor Solidarity and Sustainability” was the overall theme. The event was co-hosted by the Pittsburgh Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center and the Small Planet Institute, along with dozens of participating organizations.

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Lessons from Struggle - Contend in All Spheres with the Logic of Solidarity

by Editors @ Wednesday, August 5th, 2009. Filed under Marxism, Organizing, Socialism

 

 A Strategy for

Building Unity

 

 

By Marta Harnecker

translated by Federico Fuentes

for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

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

 

1. I have previously referred to the necessity of building unity among all left forces and actors in order to be able to group a broad anti-neoliberal bloc around them. Nevertheless, I do not think that this objective can be achieved in a voluntarist manner, creating coordinating bodies from above that end up as simple sums of acronyms.

2. I believe that this unity can emerge through concrete struggles for common objectives. And that is why I think that we can help create better conditions for this unity if we put into practice a new strategy of anti-capitalist struggle.

3. We are talking about a strategy that takes into consideration the important social, political, economic and cultural transformations that have occurred across the world in the last period. One that understands that the new forms of capitalist domination go far beyond the economic and state sphere and have infiltrated into all the interstices of society, fundamentally through the mass media which has indiscriminately invaded the homes of all social sectors, and in doing so changed the conditions of struggle.

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