Vangaurd-Franchise-ism?

[Red13]

This idea may currently be widespread; however, I've heard little tell of it (revleft is the first leftist website I've actually ever found\visited before (life prior was very insipid), hence would be why i've never heard tell of it yet), and there may already be a thread pertaining to this, I've scrolled through however, and found none so far; so please forgive me if I'm not only beating, but riding a dead horse to "Repetitive Township".


I've gotten a spark of inspiration from the Co-operative movement,

The basis, of which many of you know, is that when Workers ban together, they can run, maintain, and mutually devide the benifit of their collective production by co-paying for the materials to establish a business based on Co-Operation.

This however, does not make any attempts at ending the gigantic inequalities driven into the bulk of the ecconomy through corporatism.

The basic Idea of what I am proposing is this: Vangaurds ( what i mean by "Vangaurd" is simply an Agent of Change who seeks change to the system before personal profit, not those seeking fair profit from a small mutualistic system) take on the steps of Radicalizing, not the political system of the world; nor the people who would thereby rise against the ecconomic\political machine, as both attempts at change are (at least in this Communist's perspective) either extremely slow to bring about or entirely impossible.

Instead, Radicallizing the Ecconomic System directly, coming together and pooling their resources to establish business ventures (or more practically, purchase already existing\stable businesses Ie. a franchise) and opperate them with the intent to use the profit from the ventures to, first and formost, pay AT VERY LEAST a living wage to all employees (with the intent sans likely practicality to pay more), and then, as the main drive behind this idea, further purchase more businesses to use as stepping stones to take whole industries out of the hands of the Capitalists.

The end goal would be, of course, to mutualize the businesses to run along a worker-constitutional(to protect mutual opportunity from the more conniving workers who might try to take power for the wrong reasons)\worker-democratic system where the fruits of production (money, or direct products) will be devided based upon performance and production rather than position, number of shares, and heirarchial rank.

I don't doubt that this will leave room for mass-corruption or infighting based upon entire syndicates of workers wanting for more controll over ecconomic factors against other syndicates, but this could be adressed after such a radicalization took place.


Thoughts?


On a side note:
Relating to Political\Populist Radicallization, it is also my full belief that until the news (entertainment\television) industry in the US is bought-out (I really hate using that term) and likely divided by libertarian minded (not neccesarilly "Ecconomically-Right-Libertarian\Anarchist" or "Left-Anarchist\Communist\Leftist" but not aligned with the two political Collossi in the US nor "Neo-con" or "Neo-lib" Policy) major national election will ever be won on US soil for either Right-Libertarians or Leftists.




Edit: Please forgive any Spelling\Grammar errors.

[Ovi]

I think for a revolution to be successful society must already by preparing (whether they know it or not) for after the revolution. Things like, the majority of businesses being self managed by workers and the like. I also think socialism can be achieved through market means, worker managed businesses putting capitalist owned businesses out of business, ect. Basically, I advocate a mutualist system to be the transitional period between capitalism and communism.


Putting capitalist owned businesses out of business? You mean by advertising and promoting consumerism? Destroying the environment to be competitive since that's cheaper than protecting it?

I don't think we can really compete with the capitalist system and keep our leftist belief.

[Raúl Duke]

For a second I thought this thread will be about the idea of franchising the Leninist Vanguard across cities and perhaps even across nations so instead of "one big proletarian [Leninist] vanguard" leading the "working class of [xyz nation or the world]" there would be many.

Perhaps this is done already but I heard of organizations that are national that seemingly respond mostly to one central leadership or in fact one chairman (i.e. RCP's Bob, as an example).

[Red13]

I don't think we can really compete with the capitalist system and keep our leftist belief.


Good point, I randomly find myself thinking like a capitalist a lot whilst persuing this and it scares me.

However, I'm not actually talking about getting into bed with the capitalist system, only trying to illicit some of their ecconomical power away from them through purely legal means.

I certainly do not promote the advertizement of consumerism or environmental destruction, I just simply think that these two things can be more easily done away with if those against them are in the position to do so, instead of on the outside cursing the moneybags responsible.

In order to "compete" with Capitalist businesses, and still maintain leftist thought, all a Leftist "businessperson" would have to do would be to simply not sacrifice his\her values for profit, that is remove the old opperating procedures, and work along a purely revolutionary course. As we are all speaking on this board in opposition to this system, i believe we are the kind of people who are aptly capable of this.

[Red13]

For a second I thought this thread will be about the idea of franchising the Leninist Vanguard across cities and perhaps even across nations so instead of "one big proletarian [Leninist] vanguard" leading the "working class of [xyz nation or the world]" there would be many.

Perhaps this is done already but I heard of organizations that are national that seemingly respond mostly to one central leadership or in fact one chairman (i.e. RCP's Bob, as an example).


That is an excellent idea on the political front, and a big improvement over the centralization rampent in most failed\failing left wing organizations.

Beaurocracy is a luxury that a capitalist system can afford, and that we cannot.

[VILemon]

Good point, I randomly find myself thinking like a capitalist a lot whilst persuing this and it scares me.

However, I'm not actually talking about getting into bed with the capitalist system, only trying to illicit some of their ecconomical power away from them through purely legal means.

I certainly do not promote the advertizement of consumerism or environmental destruction, I just simply think that these two things can be more easily done away with if those against them are in the position to do so, instead of on the outside cursing the moneybags responsible.

In order to "compete" with Capitalist businesses, and still maintain leftist thought, all a Leftist "businessperson" would have to do would be to simply not sacrifice his\her values for profit, that is remove the old opperating procedures, and work along a purely revolutionary course. As we are all speaking on this board in opposition to this system, i believe we are the kind of people who are aptly capable of this.

Not to mention Marx as an authority, but I've always been persuaded by his argument that any attempt to run a business without "sacrificing one's values for profit" is headed for going-out-of-business under capitalism. After all, who is going to want to invest in your enterprise (even socialists) if they think that you aren't likely to be able to sustain the business on profits...all investment would just be falling into a hole and the "reproduction" of your business (in the same sense as Marx's worker) wouldn't be sustainable. And if your "socialist" business is getting anything done it's going to need to have resources and to be able to count on having resources in the future. If you don't make a profit (under capitalism) then you would need an endless supply of charitable donors.

Just a thought,,,

[Ovi]

Good point, I randomly find myself thinking like a capitalist a lot whilst persuing this and it scares me.

However, I'm not actually talking about getting into bed with the capitalist system, only trying to illicit some of their ecconomical power away from them through purely legal means.

I certainly do not promote the advertizement of consumerism or environmental destruction, I just simply think that these two things can be more easily done away with if those against them are in the position to do so, instead of on the outside cursing the moneybags responsible.

In order to "compete" with Capitalist businesses, and still maintain leftist thought, all a Leftist "businessperson" would have to do would be to simply not sacrifice his\her values for profit, that is remove the old opperating procedures, and work along a purely revolutionary course. As we are all speaking on this board in opposition to this system, i believe we are the kind of people who are aptly capable of this.
Being part of the same market system means playing by the same rules. It means creating products that last as little as possible so that others will be bought (but shouldn't fail to soon so that the consumers don't loose faith), using cheap materials that damage the environment during production/in use/after disposal simply because they are cheap, not caring about the environment since that costs, promoting your products thus promote consuming more instead of the usual anti-consumerist leftist belief. Plus they still have advantages such as sweatshops in underdeveloped countries that produces more cheaply than we could...