The Cooperativist Manifesto

PREFACE

The history of our society demonstrates that people cannot be appeased as long as their economic well-being is dependent on the arbitrary will of others. Feudalism and slavery eventually failed as economic models because people refused to be dependent for subsistence on the will of wealthy masters. The advent of unionism within the capitalist system can be traced to the failure of private owners to provide workers with sufficient economic independence or security. Communism, despite all its grand promises of liberty and democracy for the worker, merely served to transfer ownership of the means of production from private owners to state control. To prosper within a market economy individuals and households must be allowed a true opportunity to earn a fair wage.

Since the publication in 1848 of The Communist Manifesto, which called for the overthrow of the bourgeois class and the establishment of an ideal society through the dictatorship of the proletariat, the mention of "manifesto" conjures visions of armed workers marching through city streets. The writings of Marx and Engels aroused the revolutionary passions of oppressed workers worldwide. The Capitalist Manifesto, written in 1958 by Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler, was not heralded in the same manner as its communist counterpart. Nonetheless, the book was endorsed by generations of influential figures in the United States. The Capitalist Manifesto presented the ideological blueprint for the promotion of employee ownership of productive resources.

The Cooperativist Manifesto is predicated on the proposition that labour, capital and the state are interdependent factors in the creation of wealth. Prosperity within a market economy demands greater recognition of the value of labour and infrastructure as complements to capital for wealth production. Over the years, governments have tinkered with various elements of the capitalist system. Attempts to eliminate the injustices and arbitrariness of markets resulted in progressive income taxation, equitable labour laws, unemployment insurance, social security payments and other macroeconomic government programs. Capitalists that present such social programs as injurious state interventions are deceptively ignoring the fundamental nature of the productive process.

A manifesto constitutes a declaration of policies and aims. The principles and objectives of the doctrine of "cooperativism" relate to the interdependence of labour, capital and matters of infrastructure, such as laws and economic policy. This book strives to pronounce a series of economic truths and concepts that identify the significance of distributional equity and cooperative arrangements within the economic paradigm of working relationships.

When The Cooperativist Manifesto was first published in print form in 1994, it rejected the notion that workers would have to unite and take up arms in the fight for Economic Justice. A great deal has transpired in the past decade. The author's prediction that technology would comprise an increasingly important element of global wealth creation has been realized with tremendous speed. Issues in the governance of multinational corporations have highlighted the pitfalls associated with the overzealous pursuit of capital. The dire realities surrounding the pursuit of Economic Justice have changed considerably since the first printing of this book. Self-interested political and business elites battle daily in boardrooms, court rooms, and back rooms in the United States of America and elsewhere. Labour activists are being stifled by their powerlessness and the absence of cooperative intentions.

Economic globalization and technological advances provide the potential for growth and prosperity for workers around the world. By allowing rapid dissemination of information and access to global markets, the Internet has reinvigorated the notion of free enterprise. Regrettably, disparities have escalated to disturbing levels across many nations and regions. The advent of the Digital Age has infused a new sense of urgency into the Cooperativist Movement.

In this Digital Edition of The Cooperativist Manifesto, the author succinctly reviews some of the ideological concepts introduced in the first print version of the book. The web version of The Cooperativist Manifesto is divided into ten separate chapters - in addition to the Preface - with each chapter being no longer than a page or two. Each chapter strives, directly or indirectly, to explain the role of co-operatives and worker-owned enterprises within modern societies. By reviewing the implications of certain truisms underlying the market economy, The Cooperativist Manifesto aims to inform citizens of the world of the need to challenge the economic platitudes often put forth by political and business elites. The time has arrived for us to demand that Economic Justice be promoted through cooperative arrangements!