As we look to build a free and democratic future for ourselves and our children and
grandchildren, it is useful to look back at where we have come from and to analyse the
political ideas and struggles that have brought us to where we are. As a contribution to
such analysis, Fin Dwyer exposes the story of the early years of Ireland?s independence
http://www.wsm.ie/c/torture-murder-exclusion-ireland-independence as being ??one of a dark
authoritarian regime based on repression, discrimination and censorship where the elite of
nationalist Ireland re-established control over a society that had teetered on the verge
of revolution for years?? This is the first of a two-part series which will be continued
in IAR6. ---- Workers? co-operatives have always been championed by sections of the left
and wider labour movement - from their advocacy by 19th century Welsh social reformer and
utopian socialist Robert Owens to Proudhon through to their existence in various state
capitalist countries today such as Cuba.
While workers? co-operatives can provide a small example of anarchist ideas based on
self-management, direct democracy and mutual aid in action, we should not be blinded by
their contradictions and should query their effectiveness as a strategy for real
revolutionary transformation.
Support for workers? co-operatives has always been a long standing feature of anarchism
both as theory and in revolutionary practice since its emergence within the workers?
movement. Anarchists have always stressed the importance of building and supporting
schools of struggle and education such as modern schools, ?social centres? and workers?
societies - a vibrant public sphere, a kind of counter-spectacle with its own values,
ideas, organisations and practices, or, in Gramscian terms, a counter-hegemonic project
challenging the dominant ideology of the ruling class. This would be seen as
complementing and in tandem with building a wider revolutionary movement that aims to
abolish capitalist exploitative relationships and domination.
In short co-operatives can be a ?germ of the future? and can provide a glimpse of what
type of social organisations anarchists favour. As Bakunin argued, ?the co-operative
system. . . carries within it the germ of the future economic order.?[1]
What are co-operatives?
There are many different types of co-operatives - from housing co-ops to credit unions and
a more business-based model such as the co-operative supermarket which has stores across
Ireland. In the North the sector has over ?2 million in assets and up to 350,000 members,
providing employment to perhaps 4,500 people. On a global level the sector employs nearly
1 billion people while 3 billion people secure their livelihood through them.
In theory co-operatives are based on one worker, one vote. In other words those who do the
work manage the workplace within which they do it (i.e. they are based on workers?
self-management in some form). In addition, they are an example of working class self-help
and self-activity. Instead of relying on others to provide work, co-operatives show that
production can be carried on without the existence of a class of masters employing a class
of order takers.
Numbers
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of producer co-operatives in most Western
countries in recent years. Italian co-operatives now number well over 20,000, many of them
large and having many support structures as well (which aids their development by reducing
their isolation and providing long term financial support lacking within the capitalist
market).
The Basque country is home to the world?s largest worker co-operative, the Mondragon
group, which is effectively a multi-national corporation employing more than 80,000 people
across 256 companies including a university and has expanded into 18 countries. The
company has bounced back from the recession producing a ?240 million profit last year and
to become an owner worker you have to invest ?20,000. While the senior manager?s pay is
capped at 9 times the salary of the lowest paid worker, the fact that the world?s largest
co-operative model has become fully integrated within the capitalist system becoming a
form of state sponsored self-managed exploitation highlights its limitations as a
sustainable revolutionary alternative.
Challenging capitalism?
As Joseph Kay a regular contributor to the popular libcom blog remarked ?Workers? co-ops
are often seen as hotbeds of radical, anti-capitalist thought. Images of hippies, earnest
vegetarians or executives in blue overalls could not, however, be further from reality.?
Indeed far from challenging capitalism, many workers? co-operatives are actually an
important sector of modern economies on the basis of promoting a more ?ethical
capitalism.? Workers? co-operatives may provide a catalyst for change and glimpse of what
is possible but their gradual and reformist nature must be resisted as not only futile but
an abstraction from the important battles that need to be waged in our workplaces and
communities . In the case of Israel, for example, the co-operative movement formed the
backbone of the early Zionist project of colonial expansionism and military occupation.
Yugoslavia under the leadership of Marshal Tito broke with Soviet style state capitalism
in 1949 introducing a more ?decentralised? version of ?workers? self-management? with the
state as the guarantor. Rather than providing real workers? control of production and
direct democracy, Tito?s reforms provided an illusion and smokescreen for his iron grip on
power. This contradiction was exposed in the 1970s following neo-liberal restructuring
resulting in mass unemployment, massive international debt, declining real wages, triple
digit inflation and ethnic conflict becoming rife.
Like Cuba, the Venezuelan government has also appropriated and expanded the co-operative
sector. Writing in the latest edition of the Spark (the magazine of ICTU Youth) Stephen
Nolan points out, ?In 1998 there were 800 cooperatives ?.in 2006 there were 100,000
involving 1.5 million citizens operating under either state, co-operative or mixed ownership.?
However, the reality between fact and fiction in terms of lip service to ?participatory?
democracy and incompatibility between the state and genuine self-management is revealed in
an article by Shawn Hattingh of the South African Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front: ?Far
from being havens that are nurturing worker self-management, state-owned enterprises in
Venezuela are marked by relations of domination, oppression and exploitation. The state
has even, at times, tried to undermine the ability of workers to challenge bad working
conditions and poor wages. It, consequently, matters little whether the state or a
capitalist owns a factory, workers still do not have power or direct democracy in the
workplace. ?Co-management? and other state schemes have often become a way for the state
to exploit workers even further, including pushing through aspects of lean production,
casualisation and outsourcing. Such relations and practices are not marginal matters. In a
society where there is a hierarchical and oppressive pattern in the relations of
production, genuine socialism does not and cannot exist. Oppressive relations of
production are a common denominator in all class based societies, including Venezuela.?[2]
Workers? democracy?
Workers? co-operatives depend on wider market forces to survive and grow and cannot exist
outside of capitalist social relations due to the pressures of market forces and
competition. Like private enterprises, co-operatives are also subject to the same
pressures such as layoffs, price rises and reduction in wages in the process reducing any
resemblance of ?workers? democracy.?
In examining the question of co-operatives, it is worth noting Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876)
who argued that:
?The various forms of co-operation are incontestably one of the most equitable and
rational ways of organizing the future system of production. But before it can realize its
aim of emancipating the labouring masses so that they will receive the full product of
their labour, the land and all forms of capital must be converted into collective
property. As long as this is not accomplished, the cooperatives will be overwhelmed by the
all-powerful competition of monopoly capital and vast landed property; ? and even in the
unlikely event that a small group of cooperatives should somehow surmount the competition,
their success would only beget a new class of prosperous co-operators in the midst of a
poverty-stricken mass of proletarians?.
Using his observation and study of the co-operative movement in post-apartheid South
Africa, Oliver Nathan, from the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front pointed out the dilemma
between the ideals of the co-operative and the market realities of the day, ?Most
co-operatives then have faced high levels of degeneration from their initial goals, those
of market success-paying their membership a living wage - and internal democracy. Worker
co-operatives in the post-apartheid dispensation should be understood to be survivalist in
that they are often only able to pay their members a marginal wage at irregular intervals,
due to their often marginal presence in the market. Members often have to find alternative
sources of employment or rely on family and community networks to support them.? [3]
The role of social centres
Although mutually exclusive, workers? co-operatives and social centres are often part of
the same political furniture sharing the same space and project. For example Na
Criosbheal? caf? in Belfast takes its inspiration from the popular Youth Houses in the
Basque country and grew out of Belfast youth assembly.
Aiming ?to politicise, educate, and self-empower the people of Belfast and Ireland so that
they are not held hostage by the arms of capitalism and right wing thought. The Co-Op
organises events which try to enhance culture, political thought, awareness and to raise
money for certain causes or other events. We see the space as social and open to all
comrades who would like to take advantage of it. We have had different political groups,
Unions and other organisations organise events and fundraisers. The space has held film
showings, AGM?s and language classes, we aim to improve these events and also to organise
a library and other educational aspects with a future view of having a functioning
outreach section of the Co-Operative.?[4]
While Na Criosbheal? provides a positive space to organise and agitate, it remains unclear
whether it can replicate the success and influence of the Basque and wider Iberian model.
Especially given the contrast in political and social circumstances in relation to the
lack of a social movement here and the confusion of ?progressive left-wing politics? with
everything from Leninism to Stalinism.
While it is essential to retain an internationalist perspective, the fetishment for every
?anti-imperialist? struggle under the sun should not be at the expense of building links
and solidarity with workers and communities here across the sectarian divide.
On the other hand the Just Books Collective have more of an established presence in
Belfast stretching back to the opening of the original shop in Winetavern Street (located
deliberately between the bottom of the Falls and Shankill), by the Belfast Anarchist
Collective, in June 1978 without any state subsidy. While the shop closed in 1994 it
still continues to provide stalls at events and in the future aims to establish a working
class resource and solidarity centre including a centre for community and labour
education. Now a worker co-operative run on a self-managed basis it is currently piloting
a labour and education project - Just Learning - in communities across Belfast believing
it is important to promote alternatives based on mutual aid, class politics, self-help and
co-operation.
The social centre concept has taken root most successfully in Italy, beginning in the
1970s. Large factories and even abandoned military barracks have been ?appropriated? for
use as social centres. There are today dozens of social centres in Italy and worryingly
several fascist social centres have emerged such as Casa Pound.
Social centres have taken different political and cultural dimensions including both
squatted and rented, and are located in most European cities and all corners of the globe.
I have visited social centres in Barcelona, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Basque
Country to name a few providing me with a degree of knowledge and experience.
In Ireland, apart from the Warzone centre and Na Criosbheal? in Belfast there is the
Seomra Spraoi autonomous social space in Dublin which hosts WSM offices and Solidarity
Books in Cork.
Basque Country
After the death of Franco in the late 1970s, there was an explosion in social radicalism
and youth rebellion in the Basque country. Squats, free radios and youth assemblies
resulted in the formation of Youth Houses (Gaztetxeak) and provided an expression of this
struggle for change through building a Basque political culture combining an
anti-authoritarian radicalism with values of self-organisation and self-management.
According to Eoin O?Broin who has written extensively on Basque youth movements, ?Despite
great energy on the part of the state to crush this movement, twenty years on it survives,
stronger and more sophisticated than ever.?[5]
The emergence of social centres in the late 1970s can be linked to the political/social
circumstances of the era and the potential for revolutionary change. Social centres can
be rooted to an even earlier period of workers? and union clubs which spread across Europe
at the turn of the 20th century providing a pivotal role and function within the emerging
militant workers? movement.
The formation of ateneu (athenaeum) in Barcelona during this period added to the growing
grassroots social infrastructure, comprising the influential anarchist union of the CNT
(National Federation of Labour), newspapers, cultural associations and social clubs
moulding a working class culture built on mutual aid and direct action in just one example
of this process. These popular cultural and social centres increased in number to 75 by
1914 and provided a genuine need for workers in their locality in terms of social
agitation. Each ateneu offered a range of services and leisure including talks, library
and education; providing tuition in writing and grammar schools, conveying a culture of
action and mobilisation rather than reliance on local authorities.
Conclusion
To some extent today?s social centres mark a departure from this radical labour tradition
in terms of their composition, locality and outlook. These new social centres often come
across as insular ?activist ghettos?, divorced from the concrete needs and experiences of
the class, becoming divorced from the essence of social centres which should be about
providing an open and accessible space and a forum for education and agitation.
While Ireland is yet to develop the same dynamic and level of a co-operative movement as
their counterparts in the rest of the world, it is important that we reflect and analyse
this avenue before we embark along this path. Workers? co-operatives do play a useful
function in highlighting the possibility of workers? co-operation without bosses,
providing a forum for debate and a temporary relief from unemployment but this does not
mean we should be blind to their ultimate futility in challenging the capitalist system.
The building of a workers? co-operative movement cannot be a substitute for a
revolutionary strategy based on collective working class action and the ultimate
expropriation of the power and wealth of the capitalist class.
Where we realise our own class power, we can finally take control of our lives, our
communities and workplaces free from exploitation, alienation and oppression, based on the
principles of libertarian communism. We cannot self-manage capitalism in our own
interests as it is automatically weighted against workers. The only way we can really live
without exploitation and bosses is not by internalising them but by abolishing capitalism
and its protector the state. In the North and across Ireland this means working within the
workers? movement and community struggles, building an infrastructure of social centres,
cultural associations and propaganda outlets arming ourselves with the rich traditions of
class struggle anarchism; with a revolutionary class struggle libertarian movement that
will bury the politics of the past and build the politics of the living.
[1] The Philosophy of Bakunin, p. 385
[2] http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22640
[3] http://libcom.org/library/worker-co-operatives-markets-south-african-state
http://libcom.org/library/worker-co-operatives-markets-south-african-state
[4] http://www.wsm.ie/c/belfast-interview-croisbhealai-workers-co-operative
http://www.wsm.ie/c/belfast-interview-croisbhealai-workers-co-operative
[5] Matxinada: Basque Nationalism & Radical Basque Youth Movements
Bron : A-infos-en@ainfos.ca