Much more can be done under the cooperative spirit and systems, than any socialist system. Champions of cooperatives do not need the socialist tag stuck to them. Odd, when a socialist ‘experiment’/project was plodding along, and almost nobody claimed it wasn’t real socialism in the material world (which is what counts as per Marx). It was after, or just before, when the failures became obvious that socialists denied (retroactively) that it was not real socialism. Strangely socialists have the habit of refuting real-world experience, yet Marx told them that it all comes down to material factors (economic and the like).
Over the last hundred years or so, the two dozen or so attempts to build a socialist society failed. That’s real-world experience! Why because they lacked the cooperative spirit. These socialist projects didn’t stand up for cooperatives as the mainstream of commerce, but imposed communes which are not equivalent to cooperatives. Communes lack a sense of ownership — only a sense of it is needed — that is all, as it is a matter of psychology.
From the Soviet Union to Maoist China to Venezuela, the self-proclaimed socialists of today will tell you that was not socialism! But the fact is it was real — it existed (and died) in the material world. To Marx that is what counts (even though he was wrong) and what happens in the material world is only ever the real truth. Such are the workings of the material factors of production, and so on. And reality tells us socialism fails.
When history proves that socialism fails, well as we know, socialist adherents of today will say that’s because none of these ‘experiments’ were ‘real socialism’. It’s an automated response that goes no further. And, the claim it was fake socialism is only ever made after the event’s failure. Just like George Orwell mentioned, history is rewritten!
Society today needs a new approach, or an evolved approach, away from capitalism as we know it. That is becoming more the demand of day. Society (people) needs a new approach in the socio-economic sphere with new characteristics that will make economics more dynamic and economic results more equitable for everyone. A system that rests on coordinated cooperation, that involves cooperatives as the mainstream of commerce is what is required.
Cooperatives are surely the proper next step. This does involve shareholdings or other participatory interests, sense of ownership, and incentives. Though these are also characteristics of corporations today, the key difference is the cooperative spirit. This leads to more equitable distribution of wealth, which does not require any socialist label for it to happen.
https://substack.com/@macropsychic/note/c-213917630
