We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, August 12, 2016

Cooperatives becoming bigger part of Cuba’s reforms

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder

The Cuban government and the Cuban people are trying to find a path forward to make socialist principles work while facing the overwhelming power of their nearby capitalist neighbor. Many people in Cuba and elsewhere see cooperatives as a means to a better life both economically and politically. Other people in Cuba see threats that cooperatives operating in a market environment pose for socialist egalitarian, participatory principles. And as I recall, such threats posed problems in the former Yugoslavia. Anyway, Dolack explores these important issues by examining what is happening in Cuba.

It is my view that as long as capitalism exists in any advanced country, socialist experiments will have very difficult struggles even surviving much less defeating their arch enemies among capitalist countries. Capitalism in any advanced form means, and has always meant, the exploitation of workers by a tiny class of capitalists. Only a worldwide revolution against the capitalist system can create conditions for a decent, sustainable human existence.