Humanizing the Economy

! Humanizing the Economy Co-operatives in the Age of Capital John Restakis September, 2016 !2 Table of Contents Introduction 1. The Grand Delusion p. 23 2. The Materialization of Dreams p. 57 3. Co-operation Italian Style p. 104 4. Socializing Capitalism – The Emilian Model p. 134 5. Social Co-ops and Social Care p. 156 6. Japan – The Consumer Evolution p. 201 7. Calcutta - The Daughters of Kali p. 235 8. Sri Lanka - Fair trade and the Empire of Tea p. 278 9. Argentina: Occupy, Resist, Produce p. 323 10. The Greek Oracle p. 365 11. Community in Crisis p. 414 12. Humanizing the Economy p. 449 Foreward When I commenced writing this book in November 2008, the financial crisis that was to wreak global havoc had just exploded and a young senator from Illinois had just been elected America’s first black president. It seemed a turning point. The spectacular failure of the free market ideas that had dominated public policy for a generation seemed at last to have run their course. It seemed a time of reckoning. Surely the catastrophic costs of these policies would call down the reforms needed to curtail the criminal excesses of a system that had brought the global economy to the brink of ruin. The yearning for change that had propelled the election of a charismatic and still youthful president seemed a propitious omen for the pursuit of a vigorous and pro- gressive agenda that would finally address the grave faults of an economic and political system that had lost all legitimacy. Those who had defrauded the American people would be held accountable. There would be jail time. Or so we thought. Only the most cynical observer would have believed that in fact, nothing would change. That not a single criminal banker would be brought to jus- tice, that no effective legislation to protect the public interest would be enacted, that the very ideas and ruinous policies that had fatally weakened the US economy would continue as entrenched ideology in the UK and continental Europe. A lot has happened in eight years. Internationally, the chaos of the Middle East has morphed into bizarre, shape shifting patterns of violence intermingled with signs of !4 light and hope. We watched as The Arab Spring swept through the Arab lands and we witnessed its brutal and bloody repression. There came the destruction of Libya, the savage civil war in Syria, the implosion of Iraq, the end of democracy in Egypt, the rise of ISIL. Meanwhile, the Occupy Movement mobilized millions and forced a public debate on the the issues of class and inequality in a way not seen in decades. The accumulating effects of the post Thatcher/Reagan era were coming into sharp, compelling focus. Everywhere it seems, polarization has increased and the lines di- viding the welfare of the many from the comforts and privileges of the few have become more stark. With increasing clarity, people everywhere are seeing how the promises and propaganda of the neoliberal order are failing them. The overriding question seems to have become, in what direction and to whose benefit will this rising tide of popular discontent be channelled? The Debt Crisis in Europe has brought all this into sharp relief. The rise of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain reflect a gathering stream of reformist political mobi- lization. This is reflected also in the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK. But it has also been matched by Brexit and a hardening of right wing reaction both in the UK and throughout Europe. Neo-fascist parties are in the ascendant and reaching levels of support not seen since the ‘30s. In the United States, Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the presidency channeled the demand for change along New Deal lines of progres- sive reform – just as Donald Trump is channelling it into virulent forms of right wing reaction. !5 At this writing, UKIP’s Nigel Lafarge, the pre-eminent voice of rising fascism in the UK, is making public appearances at the side of Donald Trump to lend his support to a Trump presidency. For anyone not paying attention, it is the clearest sign of how right wing reaction in Europe is only the continental face of a global phenomenon. The two movements – reformist on the left, reactionary on the right – are the divided face of popular anger in our age of discontent. Where is the co-operative movement, and more broadly speaking the movement for economic democracy, situated within this quickly evolving landscape? The answer today seems not so different than what I had proposed within the pages of this work six years ago. The need for a cogent alternative to the political economy of capital is as clear today as it was then. But the urgency of a new vision and the ability to mo- bilize a broad political project behind it has increased. What has also become clear is that the co-operative movement on its own is very far from being able to formulate such a vision and to provide the kind of leadership needed to carry it to a wider audience. To the degree that co-operatives have caught the attention of the public, it has been on account of some very high profile scandals that have done grave damage to their public image. The de mutualization of The Co- operative Bank and the near collapse of the Co-operative Group – two pillars of the movement in the UK – were the biggest co-op stories in Europe. These events were not incidental – they signalled a malaise at the heart of the mainstream co-op movement. They highlighted the degree to which co-operatives can be corrupted when !6 their membership is unable to play a meaningful role in their governance, when their scale becomes too large or their structures too corporate to allow for democratic con- trol and oversight. But they especially show how the co-op idea is fatally under- mined when their management and leadership have been seduced by success, con- sumed by hubris, and compromised by the values, aspirations, and greed of their capitalist competitors. The scandals cast an unwelcome, and ultimately unfair, light on co-operatives. The flaws that were exposed were certainly real. But they were also a classic instance of how mainstream media delight in exposing co-operative failures while ignoring the far more substantial evidence of co-operative successes. It is also true that the behav- iours that were lambasted in the press as scandalous in co-ops are typical in capitalist firms. But the failure of the Co-operative Bank also brought to the foreground the widening gulf between the institutional co-op movement and the vast numbers of grass roots co-ops that operate in a different universe than that of the large, power- ful, and successful co-ops of the mainstream movement. Chief among these differences is the degree to which co-ops view their role as in- struments for political change. The co-op movement everywhere is deeply divided on this question. Because of this, it is also very reluctant to have the serious, open debate that is necessary to confront this issue head on. It is often other, hybrid forms of co-operative, that are playing a leading role in forging a new understanding, new models, and new methodologies for bringing to life the revolutionary ideals that an- !7 imated the co-op movement at its beginnings. Chief among these is the emerging commons movement. The last eight years have seen an exponential rise in the idea of the commons as a framework for articulating a new socio-economic imaginary. Even more promising has been the growing convergence between commons thinking and co-operative practice. Spurred on by the epoch changing impacts of digital technology, and by the emergence of peer-to-peer networks and open co-operatives which have recast the meaning and practice of co-operative democracy, the language of the commons has become a touchstone for activists searching for an ideology and a vocabulary that reflects contemporary values and visions in the age of Google. 1 Above all, what the last eight years has shown is the absolute necessity for convergence among the key movements for system change – most especially the co-operative movement for economic democracy, the movement for environmental protection and sustainability, and the movement for the protection and expansion of the commons. None of these movements can effect the change that is needed on their own. All three must find a way to act in concert and to fashion a political project that brings focus, vision, and direction to the growing legions of the discontented. For this is the most significant shift that has occurred since I wrote about the anti- globalization protests of Seattle, Quebec City, and Toronto. Significant as they were, these protests were the expression of a global movement for change that was still 1 I take this formulation from my good friend and colleague, Robin Murray. See “Co-operatives in the Age of Google, Cooperatives UK, 2014 !8 outside the mainstreams of political life. Today, that discontent has become perva- sive. It is at the centre of politics. It is defining the character and fortunes of political parties, of governments, and deciding the fates of nations. Those political parties that are capable of giving voice and direction to a deeply embittered and aggrieved public are winning hearts and minds. The question is, what is this voice expressing and in what direction is it pointing? There is hope and human solidarity on the one hand, and the politics of impotent rage and reaction on the other.

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