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On 12/19/2014 04:12 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:
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No no no no no.
This is so politically dishonest, or at best naive.
At the end she says localities should go ahead and plan even if the
national government doesn't share resources with them. In plain English
(paraphrasing): Never mind that in the examples I give - Brazil, Venezuela
and Kerala -- the bourgeoisie still controls the commanding heights, we can
still have loads of fun in our neighborhoods!
And no mention of workplace councils.
And the usual tiresome avoidance of the early Soviet history and theory on
this question.
By *Marta Harnecker*
Full article http://links.org.au/node/4208
Granted it's only a synthesis of ideas that are more fully developed in
a book I am currently working on, but as it is it's far too vague on
the practical application (needs more concrete examples) to be
interesting. Too much in the most autonomous manner possible, as much
as possible kind of talk, which just begs the more concrete question of
what she thinks *is* possible.
One could respond that that depends on the circumstances, which of
course can vary tremendously. But in that case as much as possible is
just a nice principle.
How much stuff is it possible to take care of in localities of a few
hundred people? Surely 'a lot', but how does this compare to the amount
of stuff that cannot feasibly be organised except in a centralised way –
say, on the level of a state, or even a federation of states? (Like
industrial production processes.) Either in terms of money price, or in
labour hours, doesn't matter, as long as it gives some idea of
proportion. I don't really know what the proportions would be, so it
would have been nice if the article would have had some estimates on
that in it.
I don't think people have to sit in a meeting deciding on something in
that very meeting, so that it can be said they have participated. I
wouldn't be interested in that. As it is, I sit in trade union branch
meetings 2-3 hours every three weeks, it's boring as hell, i.e. it's
like most organisation board work I've taken part in over the years. If
someone suggests to make a revolution so that there can be even more of
it, I don't think I'll be joining. Anything that hints of parecon style
constant meeting hell participation really puts me off. I'd be ok with
workplace meetings to organise local work to implement the
national/federational plan (decided on in a national/etc. vote), taking
part in a main budget headings style vote over mobile telephone etc.,
instead of sitting out a bunch of cranks in real meetings,
participating.
As to a system of territorial units of administration that have
autonomy to administer themselves, I don't think this is self-evidently
a better aim than limiting local autonomy to ensure all citizens' equality.
In Finland for example you can see this situation being twisted now one,
now the other way, whatever suits the needs of the moment. The state
collects money from the municipalities, and distributes it from the
richer municipalities to the poorer. But municipalities have autonomy,
so the state cannot earmark the money it gives to them, this is for
schools, this is for health care etc.; the municipal councils spend the
money as they wish, so some municipalities might put more money into
schools than others. This is the municipal democracy! municipal
democracy! side of the argument, which you can always choose if it
suits you.
But this will lead to children in different municipalities being in an
unequal position. The state could demand that all children across all
municipalities should have certain level schools and insist that
municipalities must spend a certain amount of money per child in schools
(or some other such principle). This is clearly against the idea of
municipal autonomy, but at the same time it's the equality of all the
citizens! equality of all the citizens! side of the argument, which you
can also always choose, if it suits you.
It seems like a problem that genuinely has no solution, except on the
level of as autonomously as possible style generalities.
Let's hope the book will flesh out some concrete details.
--
jjonas @ nic.fi
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