Guild Socialism: Growing Democracy from the Workplace

Guild socialism should grow from the mode of production before pursuing political power. This is in constrast from previous socialists movements which obtained or seized political power before installing nationalist industries and the welfare state.  

For democratic guild socialism  to develop outwards from the economy guild socialists entities such as co-operatives and social enterprises need to find strategies to survive and growth within an advanced capitalist system.  This means competing in a highly competitive market against multinational corporations benefiting from economies of scale and international production/supply networks.  Co-operatives need to maintain the principles of worker democracy in face of market pressure which places additional time pressures on the working day.  Yet despite these challenges the co-operative sector has experienced a global resurgence in resent years with strong sector growth in some developed economies such as the UK.  The co-operative sector has plays a significant role in a number of emerging markets including the potential super power of India. Co-operatives have also played a key role in driving Africa's new model of economic development.  

These trends maybe caused by a growing dissatisfaction with capitalism and the need to find a more stable and dignified means of organisation labour.  As Neo-liberalism continues to steer the global economy towards serious crisis, with escalating trade contradictions, international financial insecurity and resource depletion its likely that more individuals will looks towards democratic workplaces.

Image by newrabler via Flickr

Concentration of Capital: British Banks, Too Big to Save?

Last nights BBC documentary presented by Robert Peston 'British Banks: Too Big to Save' portrayed a balanced and accessible break down of international banking crisis and its threats to capitalism. The programme is available on BBC iplayer for the next 6 days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12214849

The City of London was deregulated during the 1980's under Thatcher and banks across the globe looked to maximise profits by finding new ways of holding less of their deposits in cash.  Over the proceeding decades this was achieved with increased use of 'shadow banking' and 'derivatives'.  Derivatives were initially used to spread risk on investments, such as issuing mortgages, but become more like a gigantic intertwined pharmid schemes.  Banks were able to 'outsource' risk associated with mortgages by  selling them on as derivatives products.  The banks receive an instant return on long term investments and inflated their profits in the short term through selling derivatives. This freed up capital for bank to reinvest in short term speculation markets and take on ever riskier mortgages.  Banks grouped these 'sub-prime' mortgages and obtained a AAA rating from rating agencies with invested interests.  The 2008 financial crisis materialised when it became apparent these financial products had exceeded and de linked from their true value... 


The international banks industry have become increasingly centralised into a small number of mega banks with balance sheets larger then many nations.  The centralisation of international banking accelerated during the financial crisis as banks were forced into liquidation, take overs and mergers.  These mega banks are also intertwined through their cross investment in each others derivative products.  The outstanding nominal value of swaps and derivatives at the end of June 2006 was $283 trillion- nearly ten times theq combined GDP of the US, Canada, the EU, Japan, and China, or ten times the value of total US home equity. The potential for nation states to bail out any financial crisis has become less viable as banks and their financial products exceed the size of countries GNPs. 


These trends in the international financial markets relate to what Karl Marx refers to as capitalism's tendency to accumulate and concentration into larger entities. The ultimate crisis of capitalism is the product of advanced concentration of capital.

Peak Oil 2006?

This blog was start in 2009 with a article entitled 'Oil' which summarised the concept and challenge of peak oil.  The article points to a predictions from David Strahan's book that peak oil production will happen some time between 2010 and 2020.  On this basis I also made a prediction that the price of petrol will double within 2-5 years.  The price of petrol was 81p a litre in the UK at the time and is now in the region of 1.30, the doubled price is on way to be nearer two then five years. 


This National Geographic article 'Has the World Already Passed 'Peak Oil'? suggestion peak oil was reached in the 2006...


"The year 2006 may be remembered for civil strife in Iraq, the nuclear weapon testing threat by North Korea, and the genocide in Darfur, but now it appears that another world event was occurring at the same time—without headlines, but with far-reaching consequence for all nations."


Oil production reached 70 million barrels a day in 2006 and had since stabilised at 68-68 barrels a day as is unlikely to exceed this production.