Posted by Scott Wallace on September 07, 2008 at 19:23:40:
In Reply to: Re: Creeping Cooperativism posted by Editors on August 28, 2008 at 11:31:39:
I agree with what you say. The cooperativism I am advocating is a class conscious one. I lived in Brazil for 13 years, and I was involved in this effort. We devoloped a piece of propaganda which we used to recruit people for our cooperative building efforts. I think you will agree that it takes into account your concerns.
Help Build A Better World
Poverty and misery don´t have to exist. We have the
technology, the
natural resources, and the productive labor necessary
to create an
abundance for everyone in this country and on this
planet. The
problem is that we workers are exploited by the rich
and powerful who
are the owners of what we produce. But there is a way
out, a
solution.
Certainly the rich and powerful are not going to
decide to do away
with exploitation, and create a better world for us.
Indeed, as
long as they stay in power, things will get worse for
working class
people. But all the power they have comes from us.
They have power
because until now we have been quiet and submissive,
and let them
ride on our backs. All we have to do is say, enough!
With a united
voice, and we can change all this. We can build a new
type of
society where no one is exploited, and the tools of
production are
put under democratic control and operated for the
benefit of all. In
order to do that, we have to organize.
There are three types of organizations we have to
build. We need to
build revolutionary cooperatives. These organizations
will be an example of a new way of
producing, where no one is exploited, where production
is controlled
democratically, where each one can give his opinion on
important
issues concerning production, and afterwords we vote
to choose our
path.
We have to create a movement of these cooperatives
that will bring a
vision of a more just and democratic society. The
revolutionary
cooperative movement will help build the social and
economic base for
the construction of new revolutionary unions, and a
revolutionary
political party. Together, these will finish the work
started by the
revolutionary cooperative movement.
These revolutionary unions will be a new type of
union, a democratic
tool which the workers can use to fight for a better
life as long as
capitalism exists. But more fundamentally, these
revolutionary
unions will fight for a revolutionary change in
society. They will
prepare us to take hold of and operate the means of
production
democratically, for the good of all. These unions,
organized along
industrial lines will unite the vast majority of
workers in the
country, including those who under capitalism find
themselves
unemployed.
Before the revolution, these unions will fight for the
rights of the
workers under capitalism, but after the revolution,
these unions will
become our government. It will be a government in
which everyone
participates directly, and we also elect
representatives from each
industry to local, regional, and national councils,
that will plan
and coordinate production at every level.
No representative in this government will have pay or
privileges
higher than that of an ordinary worker, and all
representatives are
subject to recall if a majority of those who elected
them should
decide that it is necessary.
In a class divided society, full of conflicts between
these competing
classes, as we have today, the task of the government
to resolve all
these conflicts, is one that is impossible to fullfil.
But in the
society of the future, free from the class struggle,
the "government
over the people will be substituted for an
administration of things",
the duty of the government of the furute has to do
with the
statistics of the wealth producible, and the labor
necessary to
produce it, and that any average set of workers can
accomplish
infinitely better than the corrupt capitalists that
sit in today´s
government.
We have to create a revolutionary political party that
at the same
time will spread these ideas throughout the country,
and establish
relations with workers movements in other countries.
This party has
to confront and challenge the capitalist class on the
political
field. It has to take control of the political state
for the purpose
of abolishing it, and then hand over all power to the
revolutionary
industrial unions, through which the working class
will run things
democratically.
The program we advocate represents a revolutionary
change. We would
like to make this change through peaceful, democratic,
and
constitutional means. We will procede in that manner
as far as we
can. To be realistic, history demonstrates that the
capitalist class
is extremely violent when it perceives that its power
is threatened.
But if we succeed in building revolutionary industrial
unions, we
will be able to defend ourselves. There is no power
greater than the
working class organized and united.
You are needed in this fight. It doesn´t matter if you
are young or
old, male or female, if you have a college degree, or
dropped out of
school. Every one is important, everyone has something
to
contribute. Join with us to build a revolutionary
cooperative
movement, a revolutionary industrial union movement,
and a
revolutionary political movement of the working class,
to end
poverty, misery, and exploitation, and build a society
of peace and
plenty that respects nature, where each one can
develop his
abilities, and live with dignity.
The editor asked what niches in the economy could be exploited for cooperative production. I would suggest microbreweries, certain types of agricultural production such as organic vegetable production, hydroponics, production of mushrooms, fish farming; tourism, machine shops, restaurants, to name a few.