Noam Chomsky on Workers' Self-Management

referring back to your earlier comment about escaping from or doing away with capitalism I was wondering what scheme workable scheme you would put in its place me just others who might be in a position to set it up and get it going well I mean I I think that what used to be called centuries ago wage slavery is intolerable I mean I don't think people ought to be forced to rent themselves in order to survive I think that the economic institutions ought to be run democratically by their participants by the communities in which they exist and so on and I think basically through various kinds of free association historically have there been any sustained examples on any substantial scale of societies which approximated to the anarchist ideal there are small societies a smaller number that have I think done so quite well and there are a few examples of large-scale libertarian revolutions which were largely anarchist in their structure as to the first small societies extending over a long period I myself think the most dramatic example is the perhaps the Israeli kibbutz in which for a long period may or may not be true today really were constructed on anarchist principles that is of direct worker control integration of Agriculture industry service personal life on an egalitarian basis with direct and in fact quite active participation in self-management and work I should think it's primarily successful a good example of a really large-scale anarchist revolution are largely anarchist revolution in fact the best example to my knowledge is the Spanish revolution in 1936 and in fact you can't tell what would happen that pentakus revolution was simply destroyed that force but during the period of in which it was alive I think it was inspiring testimony to the ability of them who are working people to organize manage their affairs extremely successfully without coercion control how far does the success of libertarian socialism or anarchism is whoever really depend on a fundamental change in the nature of man both in his motivation his altruism and also in his knowledge and sophistication I think it not only depends on it but in fact the whole purpose of libertarian socialism is that it will contribute to it it will contribute to a spiritual transformation precisely that kind of great transformation in in the way humans conceive of themselves and their ability to act to decide to create to produce to inquire precisely that spiritual transformation that social thinkers from the left Marxist tradition from Lexus Luxembourg say on overthrew anarcho-syndicalist have always emphasized so on the one hand it requires that spiritual transformation on the other hand the its purpose is to create institutions which will contribute to that transformation

Channel: Workplace Democracy

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Keywords: Noam Chomsky, anarchism, workplace democracy, libertarian socialism, spanish revolution, kibbutz, co-op, cooperative, co-operation, equality, egalitarian, anarcho-syndicalism, spain, democracy, direct democracy, chomsky, participatory democracy, marx, rosa luxemburg, left-marxism, libertarian marxism, socialism, cnt, union, iww

Id: gxwjqyYJTb0

Length: 3min 8sec (188 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 28 2014