Posted by Dave Searles on January 21, 2008 at 06:24:47:
In Reply to: Lets talk about Economic Democracy. posted by Rich Raimonde on January 20, 2008 at 21:35:29:
Hi Rich,
All good questions. For myself I look at the relationship of the worker to the entire means of production.
Is it a collective producing material goods primarily to meet the needs and desires of those who actually do the work, or is it a system where workers have to exchange their labor power (along with their control of the industries) for a wage.
That's where I start from.
I restrict my thoughts to looking that relationship pretty much becuase terms like "democracy" "economic democracy" and even socialism are difficult places to start an analysis because they may mean so many things to different people.
In any of the situations that you have described it would be helpful to ask, are the means of production in the hands of the workers? Are the products of labor primarily directly distributed to the workers relative to the labor expended by each person and are the workers in charge of the what, how and how much of production or is the product of labor put up for sale at market? (Production for profit)
In any of the situations referred to, is there one of them in particular where the basic relationship of the worker to the means of production has changed? Unfortunately, but admittedly, much of current events is a blur to me so I can't answer more specifically than this.