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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Yondoza@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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[-] verdigris@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

Join the IWW.

[-] Libra@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

If your goal is to, say, kill all of the tigers in the world, why would you be okay with making more baby tigers? Yeah the baby tigers are cute and can't hurt anyone yet, but baby tigers don't stay babies for long, and 100% of the large, angry tigers who like to eat people used to be baby tigers.

The goal of communism is not to turn every person into a capitalist, it's to create a society/economy that meets the needs of all of its members instead of just those of the rich. Encouraging the working class to start businesses is just like making more baby tigers: it's working in the opposite direction of your goal.

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 3 points 1 month ago

It can be difficult for coops to play on the capitalist market.

A company with a top-down hierarchy can make decisions much faster than an organization where the decisions are made ground up through internal democratic policies. The democratic process also very likely limits the co-op from doing shady stuff.

It's possible though, but it requires a really good community backing.

[-] LordGimp@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

You're missing the entire point of government.

The goal of communism is control. It always has been. It always will be.

Why?

Because it is a system of governance designed by and used for controlling humans.

Government owned does NOT mean it is owned by the people. It simply means it's owned by the people who control the government.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago
[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

There would be what we would consider a "government" in Communism, just not a "state," ie heavily militarized police to resolve class contradictions in the favor of whoever controls the state, the workers or the Capitalists. Anarchists want full horizontalism, Marxists want full public ownership.

[-] prole 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Lol no its not.

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[-] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I think that's Richard Wolff's whole thing. I think he's communist? At least socialist.

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this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
203 points (100.0% liked)

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