Nationalisation

[Social Democratic]

Whats your veiw on it, how should it be managed? Anarcho-syndicalist workers controel or complete state controel, I like a co-opritive worker/govt managment but whats you veiw?

[SonofRage]

I think essential things like power, healthcare, etc should be nationalized. Everything else should be left alone but should be regulated and no more of this bullshit like what's going on with Microsoft.

[Kehoe]

Nationalization of all mineral,electric,internet and telephone services,as well as banking,insurance,education and health care.All major industry to be nationalized with private light industry and small business operating within sanctioned guidelines.Wealthy industrialists,corporate heads and financial mogols to be stripped of holdings down to a scale rate affixed by economic planners.Government salaries throughout nation,state and municipal levels to be greatly reduced,and disbanding of trade unions.Consolidation of state and party apparatus.The creation of a standardized wage and labor committees composed of workers in each sector of production to oversee management and employee relations.There mustnt be a drastic change between the economic base and the superstructure,in that the fields of economics,politics,labor management,and basic social interactions must function according to a precise planned model,for every device employed as a means of separation among men must be destroyed.The interests of the state and its people must be identical,and only a vanguard leadership of well-informed and highly-skilled revoluionary thinkers know best the interpretation of socialist theory and are thus eguipped for this task.There must exist local councils and committees for the defense of the revolution and to act as instruments of control and supervision as well as forums of dialogue,but above all creating communicative channels from bottom to top and serving as safety valves by which to monitor possible outbreaks of discontent in the form of counter-revolutionaries.It is the idea of"existient socialism"between politics,ethics,and economics in the birth of the new society,the creation of a new people,new values,and totally new relations.The foundation of a new state,whose economic organization and political development will serve as an example to other nations,for socialism cannot long survive without the ever-present spirit of internationalism.Communism is the product of conscious thought,whereas socialism can only be the product of physical effort and activity.I would like to think that there is a well-spring of socialist thinkers among the populace who possess immense talent in the field of economic equalitarianism and who,if given the opportunity could establish a truly just society once the revolutionary tree is in bloom and thus hastens the day.

[redstar2000]

Comrade Kehoe, while some of the measures you propose would arouse little controversy, it seems to me that your overall perspective is, well, troublesome.

You appear to remain in the grip of Leninism (which variant is immaterial); the myth that a "vanguard of well-informed and highly-skilled" leaders can simply DO IT FOR US...can create a viable socialist order by COMMAND.

Think for a second: do YOU want to be COMMANDED to do anything...even "for your own good"? And if you don't, do you imagine ANY reasonably normal human being does???

In practice, of course, we often accept "reasonable" authority. We don't argue with the pilot of our commercial jet; we at least give very serious consideration to our doctor's advice; etc. When your "tech guru" (if you have one) suggests a solution to your computing problems, you try it.

But, the Harvard Business School to the contrary notwithstanding, there is no such thing as a special talent for COMMAND. At best, "professional management" consists of a few bits of psychological slight-of-hand...comparable to a magician's card tricks. Once you know how it's done, it's easy to see through.

When that fails--as it does fairly quickly--all you have left is guns: you're stuck enforcing your authority by violence or the threat of violence AGAINST the working class. (cf. Petrograd, 1921)

And, of course, once you DO start down that road, even if your dictatorship is relatively humane, corruption emerges and begins to spread; everyone becomes cynical and disillusioned; and the end result is the restoration of capitalism.

We've already been through this, comrade Kehoe, why do you want us to do it again?

And what would it take to convince you that if the working class can't do it, then it can't be done???