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Why don't communist movements focus on creating and nurturing employee owned businesses? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Yondoza@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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The overarching goal of communism is for laborers to own the means of production instead of an owning/capitalist class. Employee owned businesses are the realization of communism within a capitalist society.

It seems to me that most communist organizations in capitalist societies focus on reform through government policies. I have not heard of organizations focusing on making this change by leveraging the capitalist framework. Working to create many employee owned businesses would be a tangible way to achieve this on a small but growing scale. If successful employee owned businesses are formed and accumulate capital they should be able to perpetuate employee ownership through direct acquisition or providing venture capital with employee ownership requirements.

So my main questions are:

  1. Are organizations focusing on this and I just don't know about it?
  2. If not, what obstacles are there that would hinder this approach to increasing the share labor collective ownership?
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[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
  1. There are efforts to build emoloyee owned businesses around the world
  2. The system is pitted towards accumulation through antisocial behavior which is absent in democratic companies, hence they're disadvantaged
  3. Communists and anarchists are revolutuonists, not reformists. The reason is that reform makes the inherently cruel system easier to bear and abolishment less likely.
  4. Some want to go the reformist route to try if it is actually achievable
  5. Most importantly and very evident in the US: 100 yrs of reform can be rolled back in one day. We're seeing that reform is pointless.
[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most importantly and very evident in the US: 100 yrs of reform can be rolled back in one day. We're seeing that reform is pointless.

It also means swinging the other way takes a day. (Unlikely, but now far more likely than before.)

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 3 points 1 day ago

Absolutely not. Progressive politics arent easy to understand and need vastly more effort to implement than regressive politics. You're arguing completely against history.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No they aren't. A number of proposals have been kicked around for decades. There has not been the will to implement.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

Political Economy is material, not based on the willpower of individuals. Reforms are hard to get because the ruling class doesn't want them, and they control the levers that can enable them in the first place, hence why revolution is necessary.

[-] Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 day ago

A number of proposals have been kicked around for decades. There hasniot been the will to implement.

That's the point. A dictatorship of the bourgeoise will not implement progressive policies unless you fight hard for them. They will however, in the absence of resistance, implement increasingly reactionary policies in a heartbeat.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 3 points 1 day ago

In that case I suggest a history class.

There have been bloody protests over a long time, people died, there even was a revolution in france.

All for some small changes that are absolutely logical.

Now germany for example is reverting the 8 hr workday without any protests needed.

The ignorance of people is insane.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If conservatives can shape society with executive orders, progressives can as well.

Shaping change grassroots is great, but progressives don't need to be bound by different rules than conservatives.

Edit: toning down my rudeness.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 4 points 1 day ago

But again thats only technically true. There are no progressive majorities and fascist billionaires are manipulating the masses. Misinformation is ruling the discourse. What you're sayibg is factually impossible at this point in time.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is both rude and ahistorical, laws are passed based on what the ruling class wants. The ruling class cannot abide Socialism unless the Proletariat becomes the ruling class through revolution.

Watch your rudeness if you are going to be confidently incorrect.

this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
195 points (95.3% liked)

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