Sometimes I think that “the masses” who are sick of the concentration of capital in the hands of the few be more receptive to the idea of worker ownership and democratic control of companies/enterprises. It seems to me it would be much more palatable to people that productive (in the Marxist sense) companies in their current form just be given to the workers and the board of directors for day-to-day operations would be elected by the workers not the shareholders, with major decisions made by plenum of the workers. Unproductive companies would just become artisanal, small-scale neighborhood/city-level reach.

Plus I’m thinking worker-owned companies would eventually be easier to nationalise, since it is no longer the decision of a few looking to increase profits but rather a decision of many who’d be looking out in the workers’ interest.

I avoided the word “co-op” cause of the connotations but yeah, pretty much. I also think Yugoslavia had the right idea (perhaps execution was lacking) with direct worker control and allowing small (up to 5 people) companies all in a tightly controlled market. It always seemed to me Yugoalavia was on the right path.

I’m thinking about this because I feel like the left doesn’t have a “moderate” alternative. The only parties who wish to change our economic system are the Communist/Marxist-Leninist parties, who aren’t present everywhere in the West. The socdems, the liberals, the “centrists”, the conservatives, the fascists, the Christians… these are all slightly different flavours of the same thing economically speaking. And then the only alternative to this is the hardcore Marxist-Leninists who people have literally been programmed and brainwashed into hating. Why not a market socialist party?

Feel free to dispel my idealist, petit-bourgeois notions. ;)

NB. I am for state-ownership, central control, basically I’m for any kind of change in the communist direction and away from our current system, but for the sake of this thread I’m a market socialist.