• Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Worker cooperatives already exist. I recommend reading or listening to Richard Wolff about what differentiates socialism and capitalism from each other.

    Social Democracy is State-regulated Private Capitalism. The same contradictions between the Capital owners and workers still exist, leading to the same problems. This is why we also see a rise in Fascism in Western Europe.

    Securing social democratic reforms of the sort won in the 1930s (such as taxation of corporations and the rich to support mass social services and jobs) requires much more than mere state regulation of private capitalism. The forces behind private capitalism mobilized to retake full control of the state in ways designed to preclude any repeat of New Deal or social democratic responses to crises.

    Richard D. Wolff | Socialism Means Abolishing the Distinction Between Bosses and Employees

    • ghen@sh.itjust.works
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      12 days ago

      Worker cooperatives can’t run an entire country. They can barely run a single business, but only if the business is small.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        That’s not true. It’s simply a democratic structure. All workers share in ownership instead of a private few. Profits are not horded, they are reinvested into either more compensation for the workers or into the business. If you think Democracy can’t run a country I disagree.

        • ghen@sh.itjust.works
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          12 days ago

          I’m familiar with the concept, you don’t need to explain it. I’m just saying it can’t work in the real world yet

          • Vivian (they/them)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            12 days ago

            It does work though?

            For example Duralex, a famous French glass tableware/kitchenware manufacturer, started transitioning to a worker cooperative in July of this year. This is a company that has like 25 million euros in revenue per year (2023), so I don’t think we can consider it “small”.

            This was approved by the Commercial Court of Orléans fyi and I don’t think they’d have done that if it “can’t work in the real world”.

            • ghen@sh.itjust.works
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              12 days ago

              As I said before, it can work for small businesses but not for countries. Country governance was the original topic of this thread.