Relative to Leauge for Industrial Democracy and Upton Sinclair Mutual Aid Fund

Robert,

Thank you for the letter.

It is quite interesting to see you (and others?) trying to take similar initiatives to the Peoples' Equity Union (i.e. the Upton Sinclair Mutual Aid Fund). My research and your correspondence indicate that we have very similar motivations, understanding, and intentions relative to ecological economic redevelopment/community betterment. I think we both understand the concept of the community/worker hybrid cooperative and would like to get very busy in implementing such in our respective communities and elsewhere.

With respect to such, I am trying to work on two fronts, the micro and the macro. It is my considered opinion that success will not occur on the local level until there is a huge critical mass of citizens that understand the fundamental root causes of the current and further impending failure of the Capitalist/Corporatist system and the need for us as a country and a world to unify in support of an alternative economic paradigm, a "plan and implement" economy based on the meeting of human needs, and not a "risk and return" motivation based on profit.

It brings to mind to mind the schism of the 1800's between Marx and Proudhon, and it is almost rendered impossible by the myriad of profit-motivated, solely self-interested endeavors that have evolved to be a highly decadent but self-perpetuating entropy of linear trajectory and the massive systematic inflation in the price of real and capital assets..

There is a fundamental accounting principle: Equity = Assets - Liabilities. Until we can bring to the fore world leaders who value equity as a fundamental universal principle (equity means ownership and it means equality), along with inclusion, humanity, altruism, well-being and quality of life, peace, and sustainability and who speak to the human condition in historical perspective and propose bold collective action by the species, the future of the human race will remain bleak.

I'd like to get your thoughts.

Thank you.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity.

Mike Morin

Equity Union Inculcation - Attempted Post on Moore's Website

Yes, but even mutual insurance companies are not the answer because there is nothing mutual about the make-up of their portfolios.

An Equity Union is a better idea in that the participants could be, if the for-profit exploiters were not allowed to lie and steal and cheat and exploit their way through their lives. In other words, if we could get a voluntary consensus for world unity and cooperation with the locus being every individual/every local community, inter-community, inter-regional, and world round based on the principles of meeting needs and reasonable wants in an inclusive, humane, equitable, wellness-oriented, quality of life, peaceful and sustainable principled manner based on a plan and implement modus operandi.

Such would constitute a true mutual.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Unsimplifying and Concisely Describing Socialism

Thank you, Duncan.

It is a longstanding social and economic theory known as cooperative communitarianism, mutualism, (and incorporating the word socialism to impart the idea that we need take care of the elderly, the infirm, the displaced, in essence each other) predating Marx by centuries, and contemporary to the bearded one in the form of some gentlemanly disagreement. Certainly, if one follows closely the evolution of "socialist" thought, one would see the errors of their jumping to conclusions about simplifying "isms".

There are two fundamental fronts in the struggle for equity and economic and environmental justice. There are the necessary anti-Capitalist forces and there are theorists, who hope to become practitioners, who study the history of the equity/economic justice and environmental justice movements, the arguments both for and against "socialism" and try to come up with a peaceful mission, plans, programs, and policies, to try to build consensus, and hope that there is time for the sufficient education, reorganization, and implementation of such.

The most enlightened school of thought is perhaps those of the libertarian socialists. Foolishly, some of these folks cling to the term anarcho-syndicalist, not understanding that anarchist was a derogatory term used against the early cooperative communitarians/mutualists/socialists to turn the average citizen against them in a reactionary manner.

The libertarian socialist believes in a minimum of government intervention and participation. They believe in an economic democracy that comes from the people in their local "villages", encourages and promotes inter-community, inter-regional, and world unity and cooperation. The libertarian socialist believes that consensus must be reached with respect to the local to world mission, principles, policies, and programs and that any form of government would be transitioning from the military and economic dominance of today to one of peaceful inter-community cooperation. The modern libertarian socialist purview recognizes the need to fundamentally change the ways and means by which resources are allocated to and within communities and within and among economic sectors. It is not centralized planning. It is decentralized consensus. Inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life, environmental health and wellness, sustainability, and peace are fundamental principles to be accepted, inculcated, implemented, and maintained in all aspects of the "plan and implement" modus operandi.

I hope this essay is edifying to your attempts to understand the alternatives.


In Peace, Friendship, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Capitalism vs. Socialism; and Industrialism

I agree with Richard's assessment that it is Capitalism, the blind to
externalities profit motive system that is driving us towards
extinction.

Of course, the answer is not so simple, so white and black as
Capitalism versus Socialism. The ideal system will be communitarian/
mutualist in a way that does not extinguish entrepreuneurial spirit
and motivation, but is different from Capitalism in that it focuses on
needs and reasonable wants, and encourages the best qualities in all
of us, not the personally and socially debasing characteristics so
rampant in the USA and its Capitalist Empire: greed, opulence,
ostentation, consumerism, immediate gratification, irresponsibility,
the glorification and justification of violence, etc., but instead
focuses on and acts with love and caring of our fellow humans (and
other species) and whose overall libertarian mission focuses on
inclusion, humanity, equity, quality of life, sustainability, and the
resultant peace.

Industrialism also needs to be called into question for its lack of
humanity and for the pockets of excess which are resultant from its
success (kept in the perspective of their raping virgin landscapes and
exploiting, dehumanizing, murdering, and ruining fellow human beings)
which has lead to so much decadence, arrogance, and selfish
irresponsibility towards their fellow men, towards animals and the
environment (they don't seem to grasp the suicidal nature of their
genocidal, ecocidal highways of life) and towards a future for the
youth and children of the planet.

Eschewing industrialism does not eschew industriousness. Unfortunately
the spoils of industrialism, the evolution of a concentrated ownership
class living side to side with a welfare state, has caused great
degeneration in the work ethic of many rich and poor alike. The
reorganization, reallocation, relocalization economic redevelopment
paradigm will recapture the humanity and joy of life if it embraces a
return to artisanship. The cultivation of beauty within ourselves and
in all our environments will go a long way towards realization.

We must fundamentally change the way that we allocate resources to and
within communities, and within and among economic sectors. We can do
this if we can get fundamental consensus that the purpose of our lives
is consistent with a mission of making the world a better place for
our contemporaries and especially for the progeny.


In Peace, Friendship, Solidarity, and Cooperation,


Mike Morin
http://groups.google.com/group/world-unity-and-cooperation


> Richard Robinson wrote:
>
>> In short, it is capitalism that is the ‘fifth horseman’ who drives the
>> four horsemen of our impending environmental apocalypse – global
>> warming, ecosystems collapse, resource depletion and (the disastrously
>> adverse effects of) population growth. Conversely, it is wholly
>> implausible that the motivation for and control over our industrial
>> civilisation will shift away from profitability and radical
>> unsustainability without equally radical political intervention.
>>
>> All in all, I don’t know how far capitalism can be adapted to social
>> and environmental sustainability – given its inherent drive for
>> economic growth, either it or civilisation itself will have to give –
>> but I am quite certain that capitalism is a much more realistic answer
>> than Paul and George’s rather speculative abstractions.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Richard
>> Fifth Horseman blog:http://richardjrobinson2.blogspot.com/