Let us lay claim to our birthright liberty, love, and delight.
Sheila Rowbotham
Reclaim the Moon
Alice: ... would you tell me please which way we should go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
-Lewis Carroll
Alice in Wonderland
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my
life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for
the suffering of mankind.
-Bertrand Russell
Autobiography
|
Transition to Participatory Economics
How to move
toward a participatory economy is a very different question than how does a
well-established participatory economy work. Strategies for building a
participatory economy are part of overall strategies for social change. As
such, the transition to participatory economics includes how to mobilize
people's energy for social change, how to raise consciousness and commitment,
whether to pursue electoral, grassroots, or confrontational tactics, what
interim institutions to establish, what programs to pursue in other
dimensions of social life, and how to overcome various obstacles as they
arise. Answers obviously vary depending on the country, obstacles
encountered, etc. But even after we begin the "long march" toward
participatory economics, it is one thing to have a clear idea of what the
finished product should look like and quite another to know what to do in the
early stages when old values and habits prevail and skills and decision
making experience are unequally distributed.
What makes transition from one economic system to another difficult?
For one thing the "playing field" continually alters. Opponents
continually use new methods to block change. Not even the most thoroughly
prepared movement can foresee all the eventualities of struggle. Moreover,
efforts to change economic structures do not evolve independently of
influences from a society's political, kinship, and cultural spheres. Even
the best prepared movement for economic change will fail if it underestimates
or misunderstands the impact of political, cultural, and gender forces. It
follows, therefore, that economic activists must be flexible and promote the
agendas of activists struggling to change other spheres of social life in
compatible directions.
We take it as self-evident that there is little reason to address the
details of transition until there is at least broad agreement on
"transition to what." Still, goals should certainly inform strategy
so, to close, we point out a few general implications of participatory vision
for participatory strategy. We begin with four conclusions:
1. Markets, central planning, hierarchical production, and
hierarchical consumption all propel coordinator rather than participatory
aims.
2. Participatory production requires balanced work complexes and must
allow producers to understand the effects their
choices
have on others as well as themselves.
3. Participatory consumption must reflect sociality while preserving
privacy; it must allow consumers to understand the implications of their
choices for producers.
4. Participatory allocation must promote collective self management
and solidarity by providing both quantitative and qualitative information
about the consequences of economic choices.
But how do these conclusions bear on strategy or transitional program?
Strategic Principles
Contemporary economic struggle features three major classes pursuing
three opposed aims: (1) capitalists trying to maintain capitalism; (2)
coordinators vying to establish or maintain coordinator relations; and (3)
workers struggling to introduce participatory economics.
Of course, not all members of any class will actively participate, nor
will all those who do participate always support movements representing
their class interests. Defections are important, whether workers ignoring
their better interests and serving as police for capitalists, or coordinators
overcoming their elitism and putting their skills at the service of workers.
Nonetheless, these three opposed goals will dominate economic struggle and
alternatives.
But while
long-term programs deriving from each class vision are contradictory,
short-term goals will sometimes coincide. Likewise, each movement will
compete for the allegiance of many of the same actors, though on different
bases. It follows that an important component of participatory economic
strategy will be developing ways to utilize the energies and skills of
coordinators while never compromising the working-class character, culture,
and content of the movement for participatory economics.
Formation
Of Councils
A
participatory economic strategy must emphasize forming and strengthening
councils of workers and consumers. If economic change is to emphasize
collective self-management, these institutions must become primary vehicles
of the struggle for participatory aims. This would begin with grassroots
community movements that organize neighborhood consumer councils which
collaborate with neighborhood political, gender, and cultural struggles.
Progressive organizers in workplaces should organize workers' councils with
autonomous women's and minority caucuses. Obviously, these early councils
would only address some issues, depending on the circumstances organizers
face. But struggles in the workplace must win reforms that give workers ever
greater say over their worklife and increasing confidence, security, and
institutional strength for pursuing further participatory gains.
|