| English 101 TVI, NM (1992) | ||
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Socialistic Capitalist  The Berlin Wall was down, the USSR in disarray, and the Cold War was over. Communism--the offspring of the great German ideologist, Carl Marx--had failed and Eastern Europe was freed from the Iron Fist of the Soviet Union. Capitalism, and all its ills, had won and the world was saved, but was it. Did all of Marx's ideas fail? To hold on to old prejudices, to close our minds to workable ideas, ideas that could make this a better world for all, makes a mockery of what the west stood for all during the Cold War. Why not integrate the two ideologies into one? Why not make a free capitalistic society augmented by a social structure so all citizens, have their basic rights as human beings fulfilled? A fantasy or the completion of a dream long held by man, Utopia? Can we as a society claim that we are the best when our own citizens are denied the basic rights of human beings--food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education? Can we as a society deny ideas that would fulfill those rights and not waste even a single human mind? The enemy is dead. Now is the time to look, with an open mind, at Marx's ideas and learn. Now is the time to look at industrial cooperatives, free education for all, socialized medicine, food banks, clothing, and shelter for the needy. All these can work in a free capitalistic society by augmenting not dominating it. This is not a revolution but an evolution, an evolution of ideas. Let us use the gift God gave us to raise us above the animal that we are, reason. A new world is dawning.
The year is 1992 and Capitalism has won all of Europe, stopping, essentially, Communism in the west. Karl Marx and his ideology have failed and with that, a conflict of ideas that has blinded the western world is over. However, the world is still blinded. All the ills of the Capitalist system are still with us, giving rise to the problems that spawned Communism to begin with. Now is the time to be unblinded, look at Marx's ideas, and see if any can work. One such idea is the cooperative system.
The heart of Communism is the cooperative or communal system. Where the State is the people and the people own all property equally, thus the state owns everything. This became unworkable as an economic system and facilitated the downfall of the Soviet Union.
The cooperative system itself is older than communism and is used through out the world. It originated with the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England around 1844. Many rural farm areas have formed cooperatives for the sale of their goods and purchasing of their supplies. The Capper - Volstead Act of 1922 guaranteed the right of farmers to form and operate cooperatives.
An industrial cooperative is not a state owned company but a privet owned capitalist entity, operating on an open market. There are a few experiments, such as Avis, that are trying such systems now but they are not fully integrating, capitalism, democracy, and the communal system. Such a system would help cure the ills of exploited workers and inefficient management. The brainpower of all the work force could be utilized and the differences between the rich and the poor, in the system, would be lessened. A capitalistic entity, run cooperatively and democratically, not an impossible dream, but a possible reality. A possible reality that the west has blinded itself to for to long. A possibility that could be the dawning of a new age where all men and women can be prosperous and free, in control of their own destiny.
On the outside, such a system would look like any normal corporation or company, but on the inside, it would be much different. As a cooperative all profits and ownership would be shared equally with all employees. No one man or group of men would have power over the company or the lives of its employees.
As a democratically run franchise each employee would have a vote in how the company was run, voting on wages, management, and direction of the company. Higher positions in the corporation wound be elected and have terms of office. A charter or constitution could be adopted to serve as a guide in all corporate life. The need for unions would be abolished and possible mismanagement minimized. Ownership as well as responsibility would be shared with all. A social structure of health and medical benefits could be implemented. Education and retirement plans could evolve, all under the control of the workers.
This sounds like communism. It is not! This is not a state ran enterprise, no law need to change for this to occur, no fighting in congress or government. It is augmenting the capitalist system not dominating it, hopefully curing some of its ills and making this a freer, better society.
Can we do this? Yes! We can do this, not by revolution--Communism's way--but by evolution--nature's way. It needs only the cooperation of people willing to put aside their hatreds of the past and, with an open mind, look at an idea that was shunned for being labeled Marxist. Would it work, would it survive in our society? Only time and the willingness of the people will tell.
Bruce R. O`Banion copyright 1992 |
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| English 101 TVI, NM (1992) | ||