Bringing Argentina to Chicago: Republic employees seek worker-run cooperative

[cyu]

Excerpts from http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1487/1/

http://towardfreedom.com/home/images/stories/Nov08/tf-community-assembly-argentina.jpg

the Republic workers are currently seeking ways to re-open their factory and potentially operate it as a worker-run cooperative.

"This is a place that should've stayed open," Republic union organizer Leah Fried told reporter Meg White. "The goal is to reopen the plant and create employment," Fried said.

A foundation created by the Republic workers called the "Window of Opportunity Fund," made up in part from the donations received from around the US and the world to support the workers during the occupation, will be utilized to seek ways to restart the factory.

[bcbm]

It will be interesting to see how this pans out and I hope other workers in threatened industries (automotive comes to mind immediately) are taking notice.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

First, the company has already removed much of the expensive machinery.

Second, even if they are able to reopen it, it will be another cooperative under capitalism. That's nothing new or revolutionary. There is even a "worker owned" window factory in existence in Pennsylvania. It's called Thermo Twin (http://www.thermotwin.com/pages/history.html), and it's been around for years. It does all the regular business crap, including buying out other businesses.

I've been waiting my entire political life for an answer to the following question from proponents of "cooperatives" under capitalism: what is the difference between a "cooperative" deli run by 4 anarchist workers and a regular deli run by 4 petty-bourgeois cousins?

If a handful of workers here and there are able to carve out places for themselves as owners it can be great for them, but it doesn't harm capitalism one bit. It offers no way forward for the proletariat as a whole.

If the workers seized the factory, held on to it, resumed production, and worked to spread their example among the folks who make the supplies they use, deliver them (and deliver their finished products), warehouses that hold their products, other industries in the area, etc., that would be something else.

[bcbm]

You know from our ramble that I'm basically on the same page as you on a lot of this NHiA, but I still see this as a positive development given the state of our class here in the US. Sure it isn't revolutionary, but its opening up a new avenue that hasn't even been considered in decades and I think is a starting platform for moving forward a revolutionary program.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Yeah but that's my point. This isn't even anything new. Thermo Twin has been around for decades. That's only one (just pointed it out 'cause it's in the same industry).

[bobroberts]

Every step towards worker control is a step in the right direction.

[cyu]

If the workers seized the factory, held on to it, resumed production, and worked to spread their example among the folks who make the supplies they use, deliver them (and deliver their finished products), warehouses that hold their products, other industries in the area, etc., that would be something else.


Agreed.


I still see this as a positive development given the state of our class here in the US. Sure it isn't revolutionary, but its opening up a new avenue that hasn't even been considered in decades and I think is a starting platform for moving forward a revolutionary program.

...also agreed.


Every step towards worker control is a step in the right direction.

...and more agreement. I remember one of the Republic employees saying that going in, they had only expected to be arrested. They never expected the outpouring of support they got. The support gives them the courage to go beyond meek requests and sets an example for others to follow, that may become especially important in the months to come.

I'm hoping for a snowball effect ;)

[Pogue]

I am hoping for a snowball effect too, but I don't think it'll happen. This would need ot happen on a mass scale, during a revolution or a period of incredibly high class conciousness/solidarity, which we do not have at the moment.

[Guerrilla22]

I think it's a little late for that. They already voted to except a buyout (for which they each recieved 7,000 bucks) and walked out. They had a chance to seize control of the factory and unfortunately they didn't take it.

[bcbm]

I am hoping for a snowball effect too, but I don't think it'll happen. This would need ot happen on a mass scale, during a revolution or a period of incredibly high class conciousness/solidarity, which we do not have at the moment.

Nothing starts out massive... "It takes a single spark to ignite a prairie fire."

[cyu]

They already voted to except a buyout (for which they each recieved 7,000 bucks) and walked out.


The date of that article that said they wanted to reopen the plant was just 3 days ago - sure they took the money (if you gotta feed the kids, you do what you have to do), but that doesn't mean they don't want to keep going.


They had a chance to seize control of the factory and unfortunately they didn't take it.

I'm betting if the situation was one like what is happening in Greece right now, they probably would have. Things have to build. Courage also has to build. If they don't convince as many people as possible that workplace democracy is a good thing, then they'll just get arrested - and won't end up helping their families much.

Maybe there's a bully in the neighborhood. Everyone gives him their lunch money. One day, one kid gives him his money, but also gives him the finger and runs away. The next day, another kid just runs without giving him his lunch money. The day after that, a few kids throw their shoes at him and run away. The day after that, all the kids are throwing their shoes at him and running away. Finally, they switch to throwing rocks, and it is the bully that runs away.

The original kid that defied the bully may not have done anything truly amazing, but if everything turns out well, then he would be the next Rosa Parks. If everything turns out badly, then he would be forgotten instead.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Every step towards worker control is a step in the right direction.

Is purchasing a factory a step towards worker control?

Again, "I've been waiting my entire political life for an answer to the following question from proponents of 'cooperatives' under capitalism: what is the difference between a "cooperative" deli run by 4 anarchist workers and a regular deli run by 4 petty-bourgeois cousins?"

[bcbm]

What's the difference between a closed factory with workers seeking other employment or workers considering possibilities that don't involve bosses and show increased consciousness?

[Die Neue Zeit]

Is purchasing a factory a step towards worker control?

Again, "I've been waiting my entire political life for an answer to the following question from proponents of 'cooperatives' under capitalism: what is the difference between a "cooperative" deli run by 4 anarchist workers and a regular deli run by 4 petty-bourgeois cousins?"

http://www.revleft.com/vb/pre-cooperative-worker-t88629/index.html


Yes, there is encouragement (but not actual establishment by the bourgeois-capitalist state) and “state aid,” but with the necessity to get past the excessive “orthodox Marxist” phobia of cooperativism and equal reliance on the state structure

[Guerrilla22]

The date of that article that said they wanted to reopen the plant was just 3 days ago - sure they took the money (if you gotta feed the kids, you do what you have to do), but that doesn't mean they don't want to keep going.

Yeah I realize this and I certianly understand that bills are not going to pay themselves but I think this is a great example of what's wrong with the way liberal union leadership approaches issues like this one. Instead of building momentum from an action, the union leaders negociate a settlement in which the workers are bought off for nominal fee and told that this is the best you're going to get, accept it.

The workers then get to go out and search for a new job, in which they'll be subjexted to the same type of treatment by some some owner, who values them so much as they are able to turn a decent profit. Either that or try to live off unemployment and welfare.

[Seven Stars]

This one factory alone won't change anything, but, what if it is only the start and workers all over start to do this? It could be start of something big, or it could be nothing, only time will tell.

"In the light of this principle of industrial unionism every fresh shop or factory organized under its banner is a fort wrenched from the control of the capitalist class and manned with the soldiers of the revolution to be held by them for the workers.
On the day that the political and economic forces of Labour finally break with capitalist society and proclaim the Workers’ Republic, these shops and factories so manned by industrial unionists will be taken charge of by the workers there employed, and force and effectiveness be thus given to that proclamation. Then and thus the new society will spring into existence, ready equipped to perform all the useful functions of its predecessor." - James Connolly

[cyu]

The workers then get to go out and search for a new job


There may be some people there who are advising this and there may be some who are pushing for reopening the plant. Obviously I would support the latter.



what is the difference between a "cooperative" deli run by 4 anarchist workers and a regular deli run by 4 petty-bourgeois cousins?


Should there be a difference? Both cases are certainly better than the exploitive company in which the boss just sits around and the employees do all the work.



Is purchasing a factory a step towards worker control?


It is one way toward worker control (at least in the sense that the employees in question will have control after they buy the company), but I would say it's not so great when you look at the big picture. Since you're handing over money to the capitalist, it's just going to make him more powerful and more able to exploit others. The more logical tactic is to assume control and ignore the capitalist altogether - but you would have to build a movement first so that the employees doing this aren't assaulted by one group or another.

Sometimes the movement will almost build itself - for example, if there's an economic meltdown, workplace takeovers may start to seem like the only logical thing to do to most people.

[ckaihatsu]

[W]orkers considering possibilities that don't involve bosses and show increased consciousness



(if you gotta feed the kids, you do what you have to do)



If they don't convince as many people as possible that workplace democracy is a good thing, then they'll just get arrested - and won't end up helping their families much.


Maybe this is the biggest impediment -- the inherent friction that results from the individualized, nuclear-family structure of the reproduction of labor, against the worker-grouping nature of the workplace.

Really there should be worker-based, worker-controlled structures within society to support domestic living, ones that parallel the workplace composition of labor. We know that the point of production -- particularly for industrial production -- is the source of working-class strength. Yet we continue to hyper-individuate our domestic living arrangements in ways that are materially wasteful (redundant goods and services for each individual household), and which cut against the shape of labor organizing in the more-collective workplace context.

I can't promise that a massive commune of workers and their families that parallels the workplace employee list will be *the* solution to the ever-present crisis facing the proletariat, but I would have to say that it *would*, necessarily, be a positive step forward -- think of it as economies of scale for the proletariat's overhead.


Chris





--


--
___

RevLeft.com -- Home of the Revolutionary Left
www.revleft.com/vb/member.php?u=16162

Photoillustrations, Political Diagrams by Chris Kaihatsu
community.webshots.com/user/ckaihatsu/

3D Design Communications - Let Your Design Do Your Footwork
ckaihatsu.elance.com

MySpace:
myspace.com/ckaihatsu

CouchSurfing:
tinyurl.com/yoh74u


-- Of all the Marxists in a roomful of people, I'm the Wilde-ist. --