Richard Wolff February 2016 monthly update. This one is important!

[passiveporcupine]

I'm going to post some of what he says here about England's labor party and socialism, as he addresses this specifically, because it could affect Bernie and his platform on democratic socialism.

I am not transcribing him word for word, as he is a little too wordy for that...so please understand this is just to get the meaning across of what he is saying. I did transcribe most of it, but I am jumping and skipping, and sometimes even paraphrasing in my own words. If you really want to know what he says, you should probably watch the video. This does come at the end of the video. It starts at about 1:19:58.

For those who don't want to watch, this is what he says:

Last thing. A very important wind has changed in England. The labor party made a statement toward the end of January. He outlines a change in the strategy of British labor party. Here's what they said:

In the past we, as a socialist party, we were in favor of the government playing a much larger role in the economy. (the government running the railroads, universities, national health service) but we are changing our policy. When it comes to the wider economy, labor should look elsewhere, not to the government for solutions, and instead, we should draw on the tradition of supporting worker's cooperatives.

We are now going to use the power of the government, but to give socialism a new meaning, a new task, a new definition. Socialism is about changing the organization of enterprises...factories, offices, stores. from the top-down capitalist system of a few people at the top...the owners, the major shareholders, the board of directors, telling everybody else what to do...We are going to primarily support giving employees in companies which are about to be sold off, or companies about to be floated on the stock exchange, workers are going to get the first option to purchase the company, and the government is going to help them do it, and the government is going to finance them to do it. The government is going to make the loan to the workers to take over. If an entrepreneur starts a business and then gets old and the company is about to be passed on, it cannot be bought by another company. It cannot be made into a joint stock company that rich people buy and own. The first option to buy will be given to the workers.

It's a regularization of a transformation from a capitalist top-down hierarchical economic system in each enterprise to a system of worker cooperatives. this is an amazing change, and only because this is not understood, is this buried in the media that don't understand what it means that a major political party in a major country in the world would make that commitment, that entails changing socialism and what their target policy is, is astounding.

And it leaves a challenge, and the challenge is put at the feet of Bernie Sanders, because Bernie Sanders is still championing the old socialism. The socialism of the government coming in (and taking over some enterprises).

Bernie's policy platform does say we should support co-ops. He doesn't give it the play that Britain does, at least not yet...but these are more than straws in the wind.

Socialism doesn't stay the same any more than anything else does. Socialism is changing. Socialists learned from past mistakes that if you have the government running everything you run a risk that that government becomes too powerful. The answer is that you make sure that the power rooted above all in the economy is grounded in the mass of people, and the best way to do that is to make the enterprise owned and operated by the people who work there. Not some tiny group that can make the government serve it...but the mass of people. It will give socialists an enormous political advantage because what people who don't like socialism don't like, is the old socialism where the government controls the enterprises.

You're not going to be a drone any more. You're on the board of directors. Everybody who works here is a democratic participant in making all the decisions. It's going to change your life...develop your character, your personality, your capabilities. Working is going to be an interesting thing, not a drudgery you have to go through to get the money you need to live. It's actually going to be something you look forward to doing, because it's a development of yourself as a human being.

That should always have been socialism's dream that is now being realized in a concrete way.

I've suggested something similar to this here on DU...I think this is great, and I'm going to make sure Bernie's campaign gets this message.

[PatrickforO]

1. YES! YES! YES! YES!

That is SO good! Most people, including socialists, are quite willing to work their butts off. This brilliant group is now going to give workers incentive to do so and get beyond meaningless wage slavery. Wow.

There's an essay you all should read. It is called Regenerative Capitalism, and speaks of just this type of thing. Many, many thought leaders are going in this direction.

[Downwinder]

4. Caveat: Look at what happened to UAL's ESOP.

[passiveporcupine]

2. I cannot find an e-mail address to his campaign headquarters to send this to.

I did send it to the help e-mail address for volunteer staff, but that may not get it where it needs to go. If anyone has a direct e-mail address because you work with his campaign, please PM me.

Thanks

[TIME TO PANIC]

3. This is one of the best updates I've seen.

I wish the Democratic party would go in the same direction the Labour party seems to be going, but they've always been more socialist in the U.K.

[passiveporcupine]

6. Was I supposed to spell labor with a U?

[TIME TO PANIC]

8. They're trying to confuse us Yanks.

[passiveporcupine]

9. mission accomplished!

[passiveporcupine]

5. I worked for a small start-up division of GTE in Colorado

I think I was the 49th employee to join the start-up. It was eventually bought out by management, when GTE decided to shut it down (GTE sold off or closed all their manufacturing in the US). Management did not give the rest of us an option to buy in, although many of us wanted to. About six years after they bought it, they took an offer from another, larger company back east, and they sold it to them. The company was moved back east (sans employees). The company had somewhere between 300 and 500 employees then. Some were temps, so I am not sure of the actual numbers.

I had already left the company and moved back home to Oregon, so it didn't affect me, but everyone else that had worked at that company (some as long as me...a good 15 years) ended up losing their jobs.

If we had a policy like this...to allow employees first option to buy, wlth loans from the government to help them do it, they could have saved their jobs and maybe even all become well off, as the original management became millionaires when they sold it. It was a very prosperous company with a good product line (telephony).

I'm glad I wasn't there to see it's dissolution. That would have been so hard to watch.

[PatrickforO]

10. We could have saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.

[Warpy]

7. I wish I could recommend this more than once.

He's missing the flip side of the coin, that the Republicans, angry but none too smart, are rebelling against their own party machinery by backing Trump. I don't think they've got all that much liking for the man, they just know the party power brokers are corrupt as hell and they've had enough.

The frogs have finally noticed the water's about to boil in both parties.

[Enthusiast]

12. +1

[Enthusiast]

11. Kicked and recommended!

[dreamnightwind]

13. This is great, somewhat inaccurate though

Bernie has been in favor of this, and saying so, for quite some time.

And it leaves a challenge, and the challenge is put at the feet of Bernie Sanders, because Bernie Sanders is still championing the old socialism. The socialism of the government coming in (and taking over some enterprises).

That's just not accurate. Even his healthcare solution doesn't have doctors working for the government, it just uses the government rather than private insurers to fund the plan.

I've heard him speak aboout how he supports worker-owned coops a number of times.

He isnt making this a campaign plank, at least I haven't seen it in his stump speeches. Perhaps he is staying away from things he feels would give him the largest red-baiting exposure? I don't know.

Anyway the whole concept is excellent, and we have a candidate, Bernie, who believes in it. Thank you for bringing attention to it, it is a growing movement and looks to me to be a better business model going forward.

[passiveporcupine]

14. I agree with you

Wolff has Bernie wrong on this, but the problem is that Bernie is using the label of democratic socialist, and if you look it up on wiki or anywhere, the definition ends up in government control of institutions. And that is what scares people off. Even though Bernie has never talked about that or said he wanted that.

I know Bernie is really a New Dealer type of socialist, and supports worker's cooperatives, and I think he needs to accept this challenge from Wolff and make this new "socialism" of worker owned cooperatives one of his planks (and especially the restrictions and government assistance to make/help it happen). I think it will resound with a lot of people.

[dreamnightwind]

15. It would certainly help advance the idea of worker-owned cooperatives

whether it's good strategy or not.