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/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

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Not reporting is bourgeois


File: 1750902589711.jpeg (9.21 KB, 300x168, download.jpeg)

 

Yes I know worker coops aren't socialism because they still have markets and commodity production but could they at least break the power of the bourgeoisie since there would be no more capitalists at most there would be proletarians and petit bourgeoises

Given this isn't turning 100% of for profit businesses in a country into worker coops a good intermediate goal since it starves the bourgeoisie of their profits which they use to rule with politics?

>>2355512
>Yes I know worker coops aren't socialism because they still have markets and commodity production
By that logic, trve socialism has never existed

File: 1750905487205.jpg (339.46 KB, 1000x999, Engels Marx.jpg)

>To my mind, the so-called “socialist society” is not anything immutable. Like all other social formations, it should be conceived in a state of constant flux and change. Its crucial difference from the present order consists naturally in production organized on the basis of common ownership by the nation of all means of production. To begin this reorganization tomorrow, but performing it gradually, seems to me quite feasible. That our workers are capable of it is borne out by their many producer and consumer cooperatives which, whenever they're not deliberately ruined by the police, are equally well and far more honestly run than the bourgeois stock companies.

<Engels, Letter to Otto Von Boenigk In Breslau, August 21, 1890

>because they still have markets and commodity production
you answered yourself (no)

>break the power of the bourgeois
How is your co op gonna qualify you for a loan

>>2355598
Great post. I don’t hate MLs, but what’s the deal with all the gatekeeping concerning what true socialism is? Coops are a great bridge between Marxism and the general public, but these people won’t be happy unless the president sends all the bourgeoisie to gulags

>>2355640
Now if I remember correctly, China had a lot of cooperatives during the era of the GPCR, but by the 00s a lot of those had returned to private ownership out of a lack of dedication from the members. People stopped showing up except a handful who eventually took private control. So even public ownership can decay into private ownership. As always, eternal vigilance is required. There is no socialism button where socialism becomes permanent. Protection of the revolution is necessary. One thing I think people have trouble appreciating is that when you win you have to wield power. By wielding power you become the "establishment" that you previously hated and sought to present yourself as the opposite of. So you have to distinguish yourself from past establishments while still wielding power enough to keep society socialist from wannabe bourgeois counterrervolutionaries.
>>2355625
There are cooperative versions of banks called credit unions
>Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives owned by their members. When you join a credit union, you become a member-owner with voting rights and a say in how the organization is run. Credit unions operate under a cooperative structure where profits are returned to members through better rates, lower fees, and improved services. Each member has an equal vote in selecting the board of directors, regardless of how much money they have deposited. Credit unions may have membership restrictions based on geography, employer or association.

>>2355640
it's because you fuckers think abstractly rather than dialectically
>"are cooperatives good, in vaccuum, in themselves, metaphysically? the idea of a cooperative, is it good, in principle?"
instead of doing concrete analysis of a concrete situation and asking whether cooperatives are good as part of a comprehensive revolutionary strategy / socialist construction

the short answer to is [anything] good, is that anything done outside of concrete revolutionary strategy is bad, because everything done in isolation under capitalism is just participating in capitalism

>>2355512
If workers owning means of production in a coop and appropriating surplus they produce is not your end goal then what is?

In my worthless opinion, yes co-ops are obvious a good thing to push for. obviously the end goal isn't an efficient market, but it is also shown that worker stake can improve the operations of a business. disillusionment and disaffection are bad for the operations of an industry or country, or anything really. However, it does not really challenge market dynamics and there is always the risk of capital creeping back in (however I'm not convinced this can't occur just as easily within a broadly centrally planned system). Some co-ops also have issues in certain industries and may not be a best fit. However, I'm willing to take some small broad efficiency cuts since it would improve the fabric of society to have a worker democracy. I do not think the bourgeoisie will accept this of course, to me the real struggle is to implement a system that cannot simply be dismantled and degenerated via the accumulation of capital.

>>2355518
War communism

>>2356006
>however I'm not convinced this can't occur just as easily within a broadly centrally planned system
USSR you mean?

>>2355512

Sure, go ahead and start one up if you like. None of us here will stop you.

>>2356006
>to me the real struggle is to implement a system that cannot simply be dismantled and degenerated via the accumulation of capital.
Excellently put. I think cooperatives as a strategy can work especially through monopolization of cooperatives. Vertically and horizontally integrate worker-controlled industries so they can compete with big bourgeois owned industry.

>>2356018
Tankies will seethe, but it’s the truth

>>2355512
Okay, why tf you telling us?
Is this zoomer humour? I don't get it.

>worker coops aren't socialism
Socialism is any process that goes against capitalism, instead of "the rich get richer", its "the people gain more control over capital rather than porky".

Coops are like unions, they're only the gold standard because we lack the collective social consciousness and organization to build better systems

>>2356420
<Coops are like unions, they're only the gold standard because we lack the collective social consciousness and organization to build better systems
ok then youre in favor?

No they couldn't. They are too small to compete. They cant take advantage of scaling or tax cheating etc


>>2355512
>Yes I know worker coops aren't socialism because they still have markets and commodity production
No they aren't socialism because they have no foundation of actually challenging capitalist rule and establishing a socialist society through proletarian revolution

> could they at least break the power of the bourgeoisie since there would be no more capitalists at most there would be proletarians and petit bourgeoises

No they could not because they have zero practical mechanisms or interest to do so

It would be a good move to push for when a company goes bankrupt to have the government convert it into a publicly owned co-operative. It would help demonstrate how the capitalists aren't the important factor in a functioning society.

>Yes I know worker coops aren't socialism because they still have markets and commodity production
like the soviet union and china?

>>2357780
>publicly-owned cooperative
we already have publicly-owned companies like amazon.

>starved of profits
how do you have a business without profits? you are being contradictory. the reason capitalism doesnt promote coops is because they are generally inefficient models for social production. you are even admitting to this in some way; that a strategy to defeat capitalism is to do capitalism badly.

>>2357782
No, that's publicly traded on the stock market is what you are thinking of by "public". Big difference. We do have this concept already there being consumer co-operatives and community co-operatives for example but there isn't a legal system that forces private companies to become something else. A good starter is it is seized for criminal activity by the owner or they go bankrupt. Though of course not every business should just be kept as the same thing, it could be instead replaced with something entirely different.

>>2357784
>publicly-traded, not publicly-owned
whats the difference? any member of society can own a share in our biggest corporations.
>consumer co-operatives and community co-operatives for example but there isn't a legal system that forces private companies to become something else
ownership implies a relationship of privation. whats the difference between a "co-op" and a company with equally distributed shares?
>it could be instead replaced with something entirely different.
such as? the raison d'etre of a company is to make money.

>>2357786
> any member of society can own a share in our biggest corporations.
I mean the profits would go to the public sector / government provided social infrastructure or directly paid to people, while a publicly traded company they would go to the shareholders with the largest shares taking the largest profits. My focus wasn't profits though but who makes decisions production and services if they are actually needed or otherwise desired.
> whats the difference between a "co-op" and a company with equally distributed shares?
So employee stock ownership vs worker co-op? Employee stock ownership companies iirc operate same way as a normal private company owned by a capitalist or capitalists but the stock ownership is like an automatic bonus when the company does well. It's just used as a perk to draw in people to work at such places. A worker co-operative the ownership is with the workers and they either make decisions through direct voting or they elect lead positions to run things. The line gets blurrier for employee stock ownership if they also partake in workplace democracy but usually they are still privately owned by some individual or the largest stock owners but I could be wrong. As for community co-ops these tend to be things like electric companies but I they have elections but on the financial side I am less clear how they work. I have no clue how consumer co-ops are ran because I am not familiar with any.
> the raison d'etre of a company is to make money.
It is kind of semantics here. Obviously in a capitalist system it would need to produce money or everyone working in a co-op would not have money the capitalist society they live in demands. What I meant was the people who worked there or the community could decide what they do from then on. This could mean changing what is produced to something else entirely since if a business failed because it was a non profitable goal rather than just poorly managed or a rug pull then they would obviously do something else or meet the same fate.

>>2357804
>I mean the profits would go to the public sector / government
so you want state capitalism like china?
>My focus wasn't profits though but who makes decisions production and services if they are actually needed or otherwise desired.
the market is a democracy voted on by consumers
>A worker co-operative the ownership is with the workers and they either make decisions through direct voting or they elect lead positions to run things.
thats why the way boards of directors work too. they are elected by the shareholders to manage companies.
>What I meant was the people who worked there or the community could decide what they do from then on.
a company ideally makes money by providing goods and services to communities. the work performed by business is in its very self-interest, attested for by something like the profit motive.
>This could mean changing what is produced to something else entirely
dont capitalists do this already? a capitalist doesnt want to go broke. the only risk for the public is that people lose their jobs.

>>2355512
Workers actually owning and controlling the means of production is anti-communist.

What exactly is a consumer cooperative? I know how producer cooperatives work but what exactly does consumer cooperative mean?

Mods ban OP for posting a soyjak

>>2357760
<No they could not because they have zero practical mechanisms or interest to do so
ok imagine spacex is turned to a workers coop. Does elon musk still keep getting the money? no, because he no longer owns it

>>2357965
you cant ban imagines of irl people for "looking like a soyjak"

>>2356420
>Socialism is any process that goes against capitalism
mmmm no I think you're confusing socialism, a mode of production between capitalism and communism, with anti-capitalist movements, which come in various flavors, including reactionary flavors.

File: 1751038883812.mp4 (16.26 MB, 576x1024, snark_cuckerberg.mp4)

>>2358006
trve….

File: 1751039759247.png (1.06 MB, 956x1132, ClipboardImage.png)


>>2358033
Is this a sarcastic jab at OP? If not, I don’t understand the issue with the above image. We can’t go from capitalism to straight up communism, so what’s wrong with democratizing the firm/workforce?

>>2358055
it turns people into treatlerites, you wouldn't want to be a treatlerite, would you? so embrace poverty. and maybe the JDPON will spare you execution

>>2358033
icp STILL cant meme, atleast they watermark their shit now.

File: 1751042351447.png (170.52 KB, 396x630, MANI PI KULE LIPU.png)

>>2358055
Read the book
>>2358078
Critics still as illiterate

>>2358063
Half a trvthnvke

>>2358086
what book?

>>2358140
MANI PI

>>2358091
which half

>>2358155
Lon seme?

>>2358172
Mi sona ala.

>>2358063
>you wouldn't want to be a treatlerite, would you
Yes I would be a "treatlerite" (or whatever silly meme insult MLs come up with) because austerity policies are retarded. Why would people become marxists if it didn’t improve their quality of life?

The main issue of cooperatives is that they failed to abolish capitalism. Better than the current status, but insufficient

>>2358527
>The main issue of cooperatives is that they failed to abolish capitalism
MLs are in the same boat

Well yeah, the USSR was a worker's cooperative.

File: 1751080117423.jpg (257.58 KB, 1437x2000, mls.jpg)

>break the power of the bourgeoisie
yeah bro property owners become wholesome chungus if they say they are socialists or whatever

>>2358527
>>2358840
>failed to abolish capitalism
it cant period, thats not how capital works

>>2355518
>By that logic, trve socialism has never existed

Correct.
I'm still waiting for any so-called "socialist" to abolish markets, commodity production, and wage labour.

>>2355518
>im a huge fucking retard who doesnt understand what a mode of production is

>>2358870
Guess banning one of the central caracteristics of capitalism which is private ownership of the means of production isn't relevant right ?.

>>2358888
What the hell are you talking about? Did I ever say that?
Do you think nationalisation is the entirety of what socialism entails? Do you think state capitalism isn't a thing that happens?

>>2358895
>What the hell are you talking about? Did I ever say that?
no you just ignored this little point of the analysis of capital from marx, ignoring the Gosplan was a tackle in the path of dissolution of markets, the existance of private property and appropriation of socially produced wealth into private hands are deleted for not being connivent with your desired conclusion.
>Do you think nationalisation is the entirety of what socialism entails?
meaningless as nationalisations on capitalist countries won't be integrated into the state aparatus and production on national levels like they did in Socialist, or whatever you want to call them, states.
>Do you think state capitalism isn't a thing that happens?
an complete meme and an empty comparasion, any capitalist nation with massive state backed propriety like Iraq and Saudi Arabia in no way breaks from private property, there is no dirigents and most of them have Public-Private coop plus stock markets no different than a capitalist system, many interacting with their local richmans interests as state capitalist nations still act as private property defenders and are just as quick as doing waves of legal privatisations to appease the ruling class, none of this in anyway comparable to Actual governments that called themselves socialist.

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>>2358914
>state capitalism
>a complete meme
is that why Lenin spoke about it so much?

>>2355512
>aren't socialism
they are quite good close to socialism. The USSR had that, by a lot, besides the state owned companies.
>Given this isn't turning 100% of for profit businesses in a country into worker coops a good intermediate goal since it starves the bourgeoisie of their profits which they use to rule with politics?
yes, and no. one of the problem of cooperatives is that they can be easily turned into capitalist means of production without oversight. if the cooperative owners decide that any new worker incorporated is not going to be part of the cooperative ownership, the cooperative starts to do the same as a capitalist entity, then no. if they stay true to keeping any new worker as a part of the cooperative ownership, then yes. to avoid an entrapment the cooperatives must give a period of an intensive ideological training, and be tested to each new acquired worker, avoiding with this, that you have fifth columns voting to abandon the cooperative principle.
in practicality, cooperatives aren't too effective if the states isn't proactively working with them, i.ex. forcing the dissolution of each cooperative when any of them strand away of the principles of cooperatives.
there you go.

>>2358999
>in practicality, cooperatives aren't too effective if the states isn't proactively working with them, i.ex. forcing the dissolution of each cooperative when any of them strand away of the principles of cooperatives.
Well states already proactively support and endorse capitalistic businesses so that's not an inherent weakness of coops

>>2358010
Marx never said socialism is a lesser form of communism. Literally never.

They're no good on their own and will break up without a larger movement backing them up so to speak, as has happened with coops around the world. And they won't bring down capitalism. But if they are associated with say a party they provide funding, resources that support strike kitchens etc. and also attract members. So they are useful still.

>>2359369
Coops are more reliable statistically than a private business. So I don’t know what you are talking about with regards that they “break up”. You’re right that they’re not as active as they should be in politics.


>>2357786
>whats the difference? any member of society can own a share in our biggest corporations.
publicly owned = the public owns it
publicly traded = anyone can buy a share

>>2359389
You don’t think I’ve read this particular manuscript a million times? Nowhere is Marx here saying that socialism is a lesser form of communism. He is talking about communism existing in transitional states. Communism, not communism and socialism as distinct modes of production or transition. Marx and Engels eventually started using socialism to describe themselves simply because socialism was more convenient and more popular to describe as part of the working class movement. Communism and socialism only became distinct political movements in the 20th century during the rise of social democracies.

>>2355512
When will you faggots learn that socialism is when labor vouchers. Nothing to do with ownership of property.

>>2359405
Thank you Doc Cock

>>2359405
good luck getting everyone fired up to fight and die for labor vouchers

>>2359405
i prefer rationing coupons

>>2359420
Me too if its me raioning your shiity coupons.

>>2358876
Not an argument. Cry harder, tankie

I do not think that in a mode of production where the law of value prevails, a cooperative structure can outcompete the firm.

>>2359403
You are wrong. You must read it again from the eye of materialist, not the pseud. Crude Communism is distinct from Communism. Crude Communism is socialism.

>>2359405
thats fine but if a unionized capitalist corp is better than a non union one then isnt a coop a step up from that

>>2355992
For one that they are producing for profit to begin with, with the logic of the market, complete with anarchy of production that comes with it, a trillion brands of the same product, waste for the sake of consumer choice and profit, and the necessity of this system to be outcompeted internationally and nationally, if you seek to fairly (according to your internal abitration) compensate each worker, you will have no chance to compete against the alien and inhuman force that is capital. Your question is still quite valid, to paraphrase you
>If this is not 'From each according to their ability [..]' then what is ?
It is not because it seeks "the best conditions" under which to fullfil the antithesis of it, as I mentioned above, it will never allow the producer to fish, herd, sew, etc without being a fisherman etc etc, it is a perpetuity of the same system, same way of life, etc. Your earnest question and goal as a communist should not be "how can we get workers the best wage", but "how can we transcend and overcome production for profit (and thus necessarily for wages) alltogether?
>>2356420
I believe this to be a valid sentiment and position to hold too, however there are many things that go against capitalism that in turn are not quite conducive to build up something new, for example refusing to sell your labour power at all, logically does go against capitalism. "The people" as a generality does not make sense; the working class as a subset of "The people" may share with "The people" an interest to overcome capitalism, but may do so for entirely different reasons. This will seem like pedantry but I feel like it is an important distinction nonetheless. Then why is it that you want workers to be enslaved to capital at better conditions still?
>>2358055
The issue is that it is not fair, seeing that production as a wholly-social aggregate being a cooperative process that transcends enterprise, factory floor, transport, etc for the members of one sector to pocket surplus themselves, all surplus should go towards the social whole so productive capability can be increased, work time reduced, etc. "Democratizing" implies the need for Democracy, which is generally understood as a means to abitrate opposing interest (often within a class, yes); but you see: what opposing interests does in this case the individual gold miner and society at large have ? It is precisely what I laid out above, he has an interest to pocket surplus, for legitimate reasons, as does society have to want to pocket and reinvest it, this interest is individually contradictive but socially already a resolved one in this scenario, and does because of that not require abitration.
>>2358524
Also entirely a valid question and sentiment, and I assure you that a rational planned circular economy with its surplus going towards the betterment of the present productive forces will almost always lead to a better quality of life almost immediately, as only that can actually historically approach the overcoming of the law of value to begin with, albeit the elimination of waste and productive anarchy will come with loss of luxuries like on-demand food delivery for instance, this is the crux of the "treatler" meme.
>>2358527
Yes, it inherently can not, it is a different form of capitalism, even if preferable to the workers under it.
>>2358870
I feel like you are just parroting what your friends on twitter are telling you. Spouting things that may be true is still nonsense spouting and ultimately schizophrenic.
>>2358888
To be the devils advocate, doing so only hinders the efficient flow of commodity production and puts a wrench in the machinery that operates under the same logic as a western firm would, a competition it necessarily will also lose eventually.

>>2359471
Worker owned cooperatives on a national scale would completely replace porkies especiqlly with nationalized financial system. This is a threat to their power so of course they will be against it and use fascism as last response tactic.

>>2359442
>crude communism
Fucking kek

>>2359399
>the "public" (government) owns it.
so state capitalism, right.

>>2359379
As I understand they got eaten inside out in their respective countries when communist movements were breaking down?

>>2361961
If I remember correctly Yugoslavian coops were never really free to do business without state control. I t was some weird frankenstein mix of planned economy with worker ownership but actually not really worker ownership

>>2358004
>Imagine some hypothetical scenario that has never happened organically in the real world
Yeah ok, but why would I do that?

>>2358004
>spacex
NTA but bad example since spacex is basically privatised NASA

>>2362107
>>2362182
because people are saying coops wouldnt fix anything but they would. Make the profits go to workers instead of capitalist. Or at least petit bourgeois instead of big bourgeois for freelancers

>>2355512
Unless your building a alliance of several workers owned co-ops then it's useless.
Best it can do is basically become a eco friendly alternative to main stream shops but then it's just petite burgeoise and if you make it explicity socialist/communist/marxist then it would end up as Stirner's milk shop.
So the answer is no

>>2359487
Credit unions combined with worker cooperatives are a powerful combination. Unfortunately there is no politician aside from Richard Wolff who ran on this idea. The biggest problem is the lack of politicization of worker coops and credit unions and the reason kind of makes sense if you understand the historical fighters for coops and people’s banks like Proudhon, who didn’t want to rock the boat of their political system and decided to not participate and their hopes was that cooperatives would just magically take over the whole nation. Marx knew how stupid this shit was, the only way to change shit is to participate in the political system to put pressure and politicize the very act of cooperatives and credit unions are strictly a working class political policies aiming for nationalization, not nationalization in the legal sense but making cooperatives necessary for any business entering the economic world. A law for example that is used that requires any business looking to get a low interest loan only allowing cooperatives to get low or zero interest loans and private businesses being forced to pay premiums. Imagine for example a person looking to start a private business and the only way they can get a loan is by paying a 20 percent premium on interest, no and sometimes higher. In opposition would be cooperatives getting 1 or 2 or 3 percent interest on loans in their new business. This preferential treatment would have a massive politicizing effect on cooperatives and credit unions making them the political alternative to private business and private banks.

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>>2362494
> who didn’t want to rock the boat of their political system
Damn libs been betraying the revolution since the begining… now i see why Trotsky was right about Machkno

>>2355512
I sort of see worker co-operatives as a means of defending against HR/the managerial strata which emerges from finance capital, unemployment and labor arbitrage/the buying and selling of labor. In some ways I think worker co-operatives are better than trade unions which only really defend against productive capital and not the banks.

>>2362804
Anyhow I think there ought to be a better way of defending against the managerial strata and getting shitcanned than worker co-operatives. IMO labor unions don't really address the development of a managerial strata or the reserve pool of labor. I think there ought to be an organized way to fight against labor arbitrage directly. Not talking about labor monopsony (borders/colonies mostly IMO) which is usually what comes up when people talk about labor arbitrage.

>>2362804
good point

>>2355512
Worker coops are a net good and anyone who doesn't think so has their head up their ass

>>2373065
>t. a liberal christian

>>2373069
What’s the matter, bud? Afraid of something that works for the workers?

>>2373071
Go back to your CSAM party thread


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