A draft for a platform of immediate public policy demands. 1. Separation of speech and property in regards to elections in order to reduce special interests representation, and to restructure party funding structures in line with this new initiative. 2. Nationalize all financial institutions, and suboordinate them to the authority of a new central institution which will direct lending, and saving functions. 3. Introduce a progressive income tax where rate of taxation rises with income. 4. Mandate that all corporations exceeding a certain size implement Progressive Employee Stock Ownership plans. 5. Divert military spending to maintaining civil social programs. 6. Create a Department of Employment which will aid long-term unemployed in finding stable employment. 7. Socialize the healthcare industry, making top-notch medical treatment available to all citizens. 8. Finance alternative energy research projects. 9. Initiate a national infrastructure repair program. 10. Commission a Workers Protection Agency to oversee the treatment of workers, and to ensure that worker ownership programs are being implemented free of sabotage.
Where have you been reading this stuff? I say that #4 might be insufficient, especially if you look up the Meidner Plan. #6 should say more about Employer of Last Resort programs.
About the green technology thing i wrote about this here I agree with DNZ #4 that monopolies need to be nationalised and that policies such as you are advocating would be good to support for the rest of the economy maybe, and i wrote about what to do with the nationalised corporations here. About number 6: I would say that unemployed persons under a certain (30 maybe) should be given an education to increase the green technology skilled labor force. A jobs program would be done for changing the economy from a mobile oil economy to an electric economy.
I am having trouble finding a good source on the structure of the meidner plan. I was able to learn that it progressively handed more power to employees, but also that it ended up redistributing that power mostly to gov officials and union reps. If you have a link to a more concise definition I would appreciate it. As for the ESOP, I revised its structure, and described my revision in a previous thread on here. The way the "Progressive" ESOP works is that a trust is set up where all new shares of stock are stored, and every quarter or year, they are distributed equally amongst the employees. In addition to this, all non-employee stock holders, as well as excess share holders, must contribute a certain percentage of their shares every year to the trust. If you are suggesting that the PESOP will necessarily follow the path of the meidner plan, and result in the allocation if corporate ownership to workers reps, then I don't really see how this could happen, given the plan I described.
I will soon write a more detailed examination of capital and the Falling Rate of Profit of the production process.
Ok sounds good.
I'm revising my list of policy demands as well. The main issue is connecting the increased revenue to its direct use, and perhaps incorporating ideas from the second phase of my proposed program.
The puclic policy demands that I propose generally perform two related functions. The first function is to allocate the ownership of resources from the bourgieose to the proletariat directly (through increased ownership of companies) and indirectly (through the concentration of resources in the hands if the workers state). The second function is to efficiently use, and coordinate the use of the allocated resources in the interests of the working class. Demands concerning Resource Allocation 1. Introduction of a progressive income tax. 2. Reduce military spending. 3. Nationalize all financial institutions, and suboordinate them to a central government bank. 4. Mandate that all corporations implement an Employee Management Program. See link; http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?...#gmessage51682 5. Nationalize all Energy and Healthcare companies. Demands concerning Management of Resources 1. Subsidizing of all healthcare functions for the lower classes. 2. Investment into alternative energy industrial growth, and research 3. Investment into, and subsidization of ecologically friendly public transportation projects. 4. Investment into, and subsidization of green economic education. 5. Establishment of a Workers Protection Agency (WPA) to ensure that EMPs are carried out within all corporations without any harrasment/pressuring of workers.
You cannot forget that the majority of the transition to green energy economy is to build the necessary transfer infrastructure. This alone will be a project that requires payment of at least 10% of national yearly GDP.
I kinda grouped that into #3. I know a lot on the green economic measures was non-descript but I was just trying to set up a general overview.
The ESOP and PESOP are too individualistic. Have you considered "workers coops with state aid"?
Yes the ESOPs and PESOPs are too individualistic and don't really result in socialiszation. They are actually part of a two phase program I proposed in this thread; http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?...cussionid=6544 The premise I set forth was that once the workers come into majority control of their respective corporations that they could elect to join something I call "Trans-Industrial Cooperatives." They would essentially be massive, geographically organized mutual aid organizations, where exchange between member corporations would be conducted on the basis on satisfying the demands of the individual members of the cooperative (the social concerns.) The problem with this is that it is necessarily assumed that the workers will elect to join the Trans-Industrial cooperatives. This may not be the case following the increase in individual revenue following the implementation of the PESOPs. The obvious fix would be to mandate that all corporations join the TI's, but I am unsure about this.
