Dear friends

News from the UK 'think' tanks prompts me to write the following.

By the beginning of the 19th century (at least), working people in
Europe had twigged that the two principles (ha!) of capitalism were i)
the ownership of the means of production and ii) their use for profit
(ie the five mechanisms of capitalism being 1) theft - ownership - of,
and from, the commonweal, 2) rent, 3) interest, 4) dividends - shared
out private profits on the ownership of know ledge - and 5) unequal pay
for work - including no pay for work and pay for no work). Hence the
acronyms - get RID of capitalism - capitalism Rest In Peace (Rent,
Interest, Dividends/Profits).

That led to a three part strategy for democratic socialism - a)
resistance at the workplace (trade unionism), b) electoral reform so
that worker representatives could dismantle the legislative framework
that 'legitimated' capitalism, and, finally, c) the creation in real
time of alternative democratic, equalitarian economic structures -
co-operatives.

By the beginning of 20th century in Britain, at least, these three parts
were well underway, and the subversion was underway, too.

Co-operatives had been converted into capitalism for the little man,
trade unions became bureau-ocratized negotiators with capitalism, and
the parties of democratic socialism were co-opted into parties of social
democracy - espousing managed capitalism and the 'welfare' state - gas
and water 'socialism'.

The organs of propaganda were likewise co-opted by liberal capitalists -
the Fabian Society etc now being a mouthpiece for Blairite 'social
democracy'.

The point is that the financial mechanisms that were used by the earlier
generations of working class, socialist activists (dues-paying
membership-based organisations) became colonized by money-wealthier
liberals, who used their money to divert the structures from their
initial aim - of replacing capitalism - to the blah of present-day
compliance-through-wan-negotiation with it.

One set of rays of sunshine in all this are Acorn - US -
http://acorn.org/ - canada -  www.*canada*.*acorn*.org/ and the
Industrial Areas Organizing Foundation see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Areas_Foundation and the
Community Organising in London
http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/files/Organiser%20with%20Lottery%20Logo1.htm 

and mine back.

Hope this helps

xo

john

******************

Adam P. Coutts wrote:

> We asked 100 writers and thinkers to answer the following question: 
> Left and right defined the 20th century. What's next? The pessimism of 
> their responses is striking: almost nobody expects the world to get 
> better in the coming decades, and many think it will get worse.
>
> http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=8339
>
>

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