rararoadrunner
5th October 2010, 18:29
As more and more workers worldwide embrace the concept of their own empowerment, they increasingly look to a successful model: the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, founded in the Basque Country in the wake of the devastation of the Spanish Civil War as a means for the Basque people to lift themselves out of poverty, MCC Mondragon has since become a beacon of hope for workers worldwide seeking to emulate their success.
This model is not without its problems, however: the main contradiction is the $US9000-$US18000 membership fee which stands between members and nonmember employees, creating a class distinction between them.
This contradiction is alleviated somewhat by the cooperatives’ “Social Council:” a space within which unions can be organized, not just to represent the members, but all employees.
Hence, if the Mondragon model as adopted by, for example, the Venezuelan Community Councils and Communes, there would still be a pressing need for militant unions to organize workers there, in order to combat the contradiction between cooperative members and non-member employees.
Socialist governments, however, can provide support that the Mondragon cooperatives did not have from the Spain of Franco: it was this lack of support that forced the Mondragon cooperatives to charge the membership fee in the first place as a way to self-finance, bringing the contradiction between members and nonmember employees into being.
Therefore, the protagonistic partnership between the Socialist government of Venezuela and the cooperatives of Venezuelan workers can actually move beyond the Mondragon model, as state financing of these cooperatives eliminates the need to recreate the contradiction between members and nonmember employees that arose in the Mondragon cooperatives.
Even workers in such cooperatives, however, will need militant unions in order to ensure that their development doesn’t sacrifice the gains workers made under capitalism: the idea is to advance beyond capitalism, not fall behind it.
Hence, while workers worldwide, including in Venezuela, can learn much from the Mondragon cooperatives, part of this learning is critique: workers in Venezuela are in a position to advance beyond the Mondragon model via state-supported cooperatives in which there is no distinction between employees and members; their success or failure will teach vital lessons worldwide…including to the workers of MCC Mondragon!
This model is not without its problems, however: the main contradiction is the $US9000-$US18000 membership fee which stands between members and nonmember employees, creating a class distinction between them.
This contradiction is alleviated somewhat by the cooperatives’ “Social Council:” a space within which unions can be organized, not just to represent the members, but all employees.
Hence, if the Mondragon model as adopted by, for example, the Venezuelan Community Councils and Communes, there would still be a pressing need for militant unions to organize workers there, in order to combat the contradiction between cooperative members and non-member employees.
Socialist governments, however, can provide support that the Mondragon cooperatives did not have from the Spain of Franco: it was this lack of support that forced the Mondragon cooperatives to charge the membership fee in the first place as a way to self-finance, bringing the contradiction between members and nonmember employees into being.
Therefore, the protagonistic partnership between the Socialist government of Venezuela and the cooperatives of Venezuelan workers can actually move beyond the Mondragon model, as state financing of these cooperatives eliminates the need to recreate the contradiction between members and nonmember employees that arose in the Mondragon cooperatives.
Even workers in such cooperatives, however, will need militant unions in order to ensure that their development doesn’t sacrifice the gains workers made under capitalism: the idea is to advance beyond capitalism, not fall behind it.
Hence, while workers worldwide, including in Venezuela, can learn much from the Mondragon cooperatives, part of this learning is critique: workers in Venezuela are in a position to advance beyond the Mondragon model via state-supported cooperatives in which there is no distinction between employees and members; their success or failure will teach vital lessons worldwide…including to the workers of MCC Mondragon!