Below are my notes from a talk I recently went to at Sussex University by Derek Wall, Principal Speaker of the Green Party, on 'Real Alternatives to Capitalism'. The talk was very thought provoking although I do wish he had expanded on the politics and power of introducing some of the alternatives he suggested (for example, how the hell do you get from an 'exchange value' system to a 'use value' system?)
Before you read it, please note that Derek expands on the points he made in the talk in his blog post on Real Alternatives to Capitalism as well as in his book BABYLON AND BEYOND: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements
Derek has started to put his Bablyon and Beyond book online here. As he states on his new Babylon and Beyond blog:
"Over successive days I am going to blog from my book Babylon and Beyond, So you can read and comment on my ideas for free. Thanks for the person at the Brighton real alternatives to capitalism meeting, who said 'why don't you put it on the web'."
That person was me! I cheekily asked him at the end of his talk why he didn't put his book online for all to read if he was so interested in commons regimes and opposition to enclosure! I'm glad that he has decided to put it online - I'll be reading it chapter by chapter as he does as well as getting a copy of one of his other books which looks interesting:
Green History: Reader in Environmental Literature, Philosophy and Politics
I also asked him at the end of his talk about the potential for workers' co-operatives to be a partial alternative to capitalism and how to mainstream them in the UK economy (unlike in the UK, they play a very significant part in the Spanish economy. The most famous ones are the the Mondragon co-operatives. For the fascinating history of their development have a look here). As I pointed out in my recent paper on workers' co-ops in the UK:
"The advocacy of workplace democracy, in particular with the fullest expression of worker self-management, such as within workers' co-operatives, is rooted within three intellectual or political traditions: that literature addressing the problem of alienation in the workplace and its alleviation, especially in regard to Marxist thought; that which is concerned with the encouragement of participatory democracy; and that which has searched for radical but popular-democratic strategies for the overthrow of capitalism, for example, several strains of anarchist thought."
and
"As noted by theorists and practitioners alike, the importance of capital should be subordinated to labour in workers' co-operatives. Indeed, Adams et al. see workers' cooperatives as "labor-ist" rather than "capital-ist":
"Labor is the hiring factor, therefore the voting and property rights are assigned to the people who do the work and not to capital, even though the worker-members supply capital through membership fees and retained earnings...Any profit or loss after normal operating expenses is assigned to members on the basis of their labor contribution." (Adams et al 1993: 29)
"Workers' co-operatives have often been seen as an alternative or "third way" to the domination of labour by either capital or the state (see Annex 2 for a comparison). Indeed, the present or modern form of worker co-operative was originally sparked by "critical reaction to industrial capitalism and the excesses of the industrial revolution." (Adams et al 1993: 11) The formation of some workers co-operatives, such as those by the Knights of Labour in 19th century America, were designed to "cope with the evils of unbridled capitalism and the insecurities of wage labor" (Adams et al 1993: 16).
"In short, workers' co-operatives are organised to serve the needs of worker-owners by generating benefits (which may or may not be profits) for the worker owners rather than returns to (often external) investors with capital. This worker-driven orientation makes them fundamentally different from other corporations. Additional cooperative structural characteristics and guiding principles further distinguish them from other business models. For example, worker-owners may not believe that profit maximisation is the best, or only, goal for their co-operative or they may follow the Rochdale Principles."
Derek replied to my question by saying that the problem with workers' co-operatives is that they can potentially be assimilated into - or taken over by - the capitalist economy they operate within (much like with the first ever co-operative in Rochdale). He also said that there are only islands of co-operativism in a sea of capitalism and that broader systemic changes need to be made.
I was a little disappointed with his answer as I think that workers' co-operatives could play an important part in any form of sustainable future.
Before I get really sidetracked and further expand on this point, below are my notes of the talk. Enjoy!
Derek first briefly outlined some of the problems with capitalism:
- There is a built-in growth imperative to capitalism. Capitalism depends on peoples consumption and production expanding exponentially. This is obviously unsustainable. You can't have an economy that grows forever in a world of finite resources.
- Enclosure - Capitalism encloses or enfences products/land/etc that was once free for all and then tries to makes us buy it back. e.g. enclosure of the land in the UK. Another example would be the selling of mineral water in plastic bottles even though we have one of the cleanest water systems in the world.
- The exploitation of labour in many countries that capitalism depends upon e.g. Chinese sweatshops
- How capitalism absorbs everything - it takes over every area of our lives e.g. what we eat for breakfast, public spaces are covered with advertisements, etc
He then went on to talk about 4 alternatives to capitalism:
1) We should be concerned with 'use values' rather than 'exchange values' - If you have goods which fall apart easily then people will have to buy more of them. This is good for growth and the economy as more is produced and consumed. Derek said that we need goods which are built to last (or which focus on 'use value') instead of goods which are built to break so that we have to buy them again ('exchange value'). He also pointed out that we need "prosperity without wrecking the planet" and therefore need to think more about how people can have access to goods without throwing out more and more. He suggested that libraries, not just of books, but of goods and tools, should be made widespread so that people can have access to things which they need without costing the earth. For example, instead of everyone in an area having their own drill, there could be a library which has one drill and lends it out to residents when they need it. This would save large amounts of resources.
2) We should engage in opposition to enclosure at all times and try to focus on giving people access to resources - Derek mentioned the examples of free software and Firefox as alternatives to the example set by pharmaceutical companies and their enclosure of intellectual property for profit which is often at the expense of peoples lives. Free software and patent pools are examples of sharing and working together instead of the privatisation and enclosure of intellectual property that pharmaceutical companies often pursue.
3) Creativity - The economy often assumes that only goods which you can buy and sell are valuable but most areas of economic life exist without money e.g. domestic labour. Some of the most important tasks in our economy are not done for money. We must recognise this and build upon it.
4) Property rights - We must expand or reclaim our commons regimes. Derek explained how we need alternatives notions of property rights. He said that we should defend and deepen notions of the commons in response to the enclosure of land, labour, genes, etc. Much like the library example mentioned above, he also mentioned car sharing as one of many potential commons regimes.
For examples of positive working commons regimes which are able to overcome Garrett Hardin's "tragedy of the commons", he recommended the work of Elinor Ostrum, such as:
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
For an introduction to the ideas of common-pool resources/regimes check out:
The website onthecommons.org
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-pool_resource
He also mentioned Karl Polanyi and his work on localising markets (Polanyi is a forefather of economic democracy). Find more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Polanyi
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_democracy
To finish, Derek recommended two things for further reading:
1) The book Whose Common Future? by The Ecologist
2) An article entitled The Ecology of Destruction by John Bellamy Foster
After writing this, I emailed Derek to ask if he thought I had missed anything out from his talk. He sent me the following email:
Dear Ed,
this wonderful, thank you,
I can always think of things to add but it would not be right as I keep thinking of new things.
you may be interested in the wiki economics link on my new blog. Benkler is important and a good way in for people who don't like Marx or a corrective for the mass of readers of Marx who think simply in terms of central planning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons-based_peer_production
best wishes,
Derek
Posted in Capitalism | Citizenship | Co-operatives | Day to Day Life | Democracy | Education | Environment | Free Culture | Inequality | Politics | Stories | Work ed's blog | 817 reads
Submitted by ed on Tue, 2007-05-29 23:35.
