syndicat

I think even the more democratic form of central planning, such as advocated by DeLeon, will inevitably trample worker self-management (orders will go down from the planning center to workers) and will tend to generate a bureaucratic class. The alternative is the form of decentralized social planning known as "participatory planning." This involves planning at the base level by workers and communities/households/consumers, and then a process to "adjust" the plans so they will fit. The process has to be socially controlled throughout the revolutionary federation because economies are integrated affairs. The idea of a process of negotiation between producers and consumers was first proposed in the World War 1 era by the British guild socialists, but they didn't really have it fully worked out. The "participatory planning" proposed by Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel has a more thoroughly worked out version.

Your posts make me feel like an anarchist again. Keep up the good stuff

Hi Syndicat,
The current issue of the ISR (not available yet online or in bookstores...but it will be at our conference, hint hint) has an article on "contemporary anarchism". I flipped through it last night in our office, and it takes up class struggle anarchism. Anyway, we should both read it and really have it out on a debate thread.

<3