Posted by Maxwell on August 18, 2008 at 15:44:50:
In Reply to: cooperativism posted by Scott Wallace on August 18, 2008 at 13:08:58:
Cooperativism
The American Cooperativist Party opposes the dictatorial economic regime of global finance capitalism. In contrast to the dictatorial mode of capitalist corporations and capitalist dominated political structures, national cooperativists support a new civilizational order that is based on core principles of solidarity and community, economic democracy and worker self management. In opposition to capitalism, national cooperativists struggle to end the dominant regime of capitalism and create a new cooperativist civilization or cooperative commonwealth.
Within the cooperative commonwealth the current rule of the elites of global capitalism will be ended to be replaced by cooperative systems of property in which the dominant forms of property will be concretely owned and managed by workers themselves. Workers will generally manage small business firms by means of direct democracy. Larger worker owned cooperatives will be managed by worker councils which will be directly elected by the firms' worker owners. Within the cooperative commonwealth some very important national industries will no doubt be nationalized. However even within nationalized firms the workers generally will make most of the economic decisions regarding the economic life of the nationalized firm. Cooperativist thought does recognize a role for small privately owned businesses, family farms, etc. However the dominating economic institutions within the cooperative commonwealth will the workers owned cooperative.