Workers coops "with state aid," the Paris Commune, and Bolivia

  1. Die Neue Zeit
    Die Neue Zeit
    There has been a very interesting development in Bolivia this past month: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-est...olivia/5354700

    On October 7, President Evo Morales issued a government decree that allows workers to establish “social enterprises” in businesses that are bankrupt, winding up, or unjustifiably closed or abandoned.

    These enterprises, while private, will be operated by the workers and qualify for government assistance.
    "The state will contribute to the action of the workers." (Supreme Decree 1754)

    Remarked Evo Morales, "Now, if they threaten you in that way, the firm may as well go bankrupt or close, because you will become the owners. They will be new social enterprises."

    This parallels what the Paris Commune did regarding workplace occupations (the "state aid" being the buyout compensation to employers), and echoes Ferdinand Lassalle and Louis Blanc's calls for "cooperatives with state aid," a political contrast to non-political "self-help."