Skip to content

Month: January 2018

Published on

What Co-operative Socialism Isn't

On another page, a comrade and friend asked: Thanks, John. I think not many of us in Momentum will disagree with any of that. Some of us, though, might wonder what the difference is between Co-operative Socialism, and Socialism? I'm certainly confused.

I replied: Thx Dave! Well, the largely-understood definition of socialism is, in the US, whatever went on in Russia, Eastern Europe, etc, and North Korea, now.  In these countries socialism is seen (or explained) as centralised State control and direction.

None of those Authoritarian, top-down schemes are what true socialism is. True socialism is horizontalist and noncoercive. Which is what I/we hope that the plan for Co-operative Socialism aims to achieve.  I/we therefore hope that Momentum will join Labour Action for Peace, Bromley Co-op Party and Occupy London in adopting and promoting the plan for Co-operative Socialism . . . Starting with a local Momentum group . . . !

Published on

What Co-operative Socialism is:  My friend, Jyoti Pradhan, asks me to explain what Co-operative Socialism is. Here's my attempt: Well, it's quite straightforward: inequality of incomes is bad for everyone (see www.equalitytrust.org).
So Co-operative Socialism replaces these inequality-creating mechanisms!
--------
Capitalism increases inequality (the board game of 'Monopoly' was designed to show this). But Monopoly uses only two of the five mechanisms that capitalism uses. Those in Monopoly are Theft of economic resources and Rent (the thieves call Theft ' Ownership': in this case, Theft of Land and of 'frozen land', buildings).
---------
The other three mechanisms that capitalism uses are: Interest (from the Theft of the Law, by making usury /interest-charging legal); Profit (from the Theft of knowledge/ data/ information), and; Unequal Pay for work (from the Theft of Position: paid-work 'jobs' that pay higher-than-average incomes and pensions and which protect the uber-theives who have stolen Land, the Law and Knowledge/ data/ information. The acronym TRIP-UP helps to remember this (Theft, Rent, Interest, Profit, Unequal-Pay).
-------
CO-OPERATIVE SOCIALISM simply replaces these five mechanisms, as follows:
1) Co-operative Careship: rather than Theft ('Ownership') of economic resources
2) Fully-repairing 'leases'/time-limited, non-transferable contracts for Co-operative Careship: rather than rent
3) Interest-free, not-for-profit money/banking/finance systems, rather than debt+usury banking as at present
4) Appropriate Co-operatives as wealth-creating units, rather than for-profit capitalist firms and charities
5) Socially-determined income spread: based on a guaranteed 'Living Income For Everyone' (LIFE) as a base income for all and, if paid work is done, payment only up to a socially-determined maximum multiplier of the LIFE payment.
6) And necessary 'responsible neighbour' international economic arrangements.
---------
All this is in the plan and Reader on Co-operative Socialism in the papers' section at www.interestfreemoney.org  As to how this might come about: education, politics, kegislation, annual audit and celebration! All by Tuesday! Hope this helps!