Andrew Fisher from the Left Economics Advisory Panel, who recently spoke at our uncaptive minds forum on nationalisation and workers’ management, speaks on BBC news about Northern Rock, the newly nationalised concern which is nonetheless repossessing three times as many homes as other banks.
Tag: nationalisation
Tom D has written this report of our ‘uncaptive minds‘ forum on ‘the debates on workers’ control’ held on Monday 29th September.
What does it mean for workers to control the institutions that determine the content of their lives? What does it mean for us to control organisations of struggle, factories, workplaces, production, consumption – and, ultimately, all society? This question matters, because it is posed ever more intensely, the higher the pitch of the class struggle, until it becomes the final question of politics. The answer is the difference between victory and defeat, communism and bureaucracy. Continue reading “tom d’s report of workers’ control meeting”
Andrew Fisher from the Left Economics Advisory Panel spoke at our ‘uncaptive minds’ forum on ‘The Debates on Workers’ Control’ last night, and has posted the following report on the LEAP website:
Last night, I spoke at a discussion forum organised by the Commune entitled ‘The Debates on Workers’ Control’. The debate is part of a series of discussion forums on class struggles in the 1970s.
The debate was wide-ranging, considering different models of workers’ control – from participation on boards to co-operative control under nationalisation, the role and limitations of trade unions, and the old chestnut of reformism vs. revolution. Around 20 people attended the debate.
You can download a copy of the presentation I gave, and please give any feedback in the comments section. It is a much extended version of the preface to the new LEAP pamphlet, Building the new Common Sense – social ownership for the 21st century.
You can buy Building the new common sense online for just £3 or by sending a cheque payable to ‘Another World is Possible’ to LEAP, PO Box 2378, London, E5 9QU.
We have produced a pamphlet on the subject of workers’ control and management, counterposing working-class power exercised from below to nationalisations by the bourgeois state.
The pamphlet, costing £1, includes the following articles:
Review of the LEAP pamphlet on social ownership for the 21st century
The struggle for self-management (by Solidarity)
An exchange between Solidarity and the Institute for Workers’ Control
The ambiguities of workers’ control (by Solidarity)
The Harrogate debates: the 1977 debate between the then secretary of state for energy Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill and Peter Heathfield from the NUM on workers’ control. Includes summaries of contributions from the floor.
As indicated above, we have posted some of the contents on this website already, but we have not yet uploaded the Harrogate debates piece, which represents about half the pamphlet’s length.
If you would like a copy of the 26 page pamphlet, email uncaptiveminds@googlemail.com or write to us at The Commune, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London EC1V 4PY.
Building the new common sense: Social ownership for the 21st century, Ed. Andrew Fisher
Reviewed by Chris Kane
The publication of Social ownership for the 21st century by the Labour Representation Committee on behalf of the Left Economics Advisory Panel is a significant development. For the first time in nearly three decades an important section of the labour movement is at last developing a discussion on the questions of forms of social ownership, workers’ control and workers’ self-management. The Tragedy of the historical moment is that at a time when the inadequacy of capitalist society is so glaringly apparent, there is a lack of confidence in the viability of an alternative society fit for humanity. Amidst all the declarations that ‘another world is possible’ the traditional left has failed to conceptualise what that other world means. Without developing an idea of what we want to replace capitalism with, the struggle of the labour movement is trapped in a spiral of fighting to ameliorate the conditions of life within capitalism. In that regard this series of seven articles is a breath of fresh air in the arid plains of English socialism. Continue reading “social ownership for the 21st century”
Comrades may be interested in a look at some of the following articles, which relate to the subject of our 29th September ‘uncaptive minds’ forum on ‘the debates over workers’ control’ in the 1970s workers’ movement.
Self-management in the struggle for socialism (by Raptis, aka Pablo)
The ambiguities of “workers’ control” (Solidarity)
The struggle for self-management: an open letter to IS comrades (Solidarity)
What is Workers’ Control? (Solidarity exchange with Institute for Workers’ Control)
This piece is from a slightly earlier period but is still of interest:
today we added two new items to the ‘ideas‘ section of the website, both pamphlets produced in the late 1950s by the independent labour party but which have long been out of print.
socialism and workers’ councils (1957) and nationalisation: a socialist analysis (1958) both counterpose industrial democracy to nationalisation by the bourgeois state, and pose the question of how the working class can rule both economically and politically.
