In an essay titled The End of Capitalism is Already Starting, Eillie Anzilotti optimistically agrees with Marxist economist Richard Wolff that the growth in cooperative workplaces signals a threat to capitalism's hegemony. I wish I could agree. Even if the number of cooperatives was significant ( which the article admits it really isn't) this trend is a reform which Capital can absorb without any loss of legitimacy. Plus the fact, by the time this loss of accumulation/ political power/ ideological reproduction that coops represent becomes a serious problem, the climate emergency will have thrown the system into crisis which coops can't escape..
Neither climate nor ecological breakdown is mentioned in the piece at all. Wolff places all his emphasis on " the smaller waves and shifts in the way things are done that signal true change." I couldn't disagree more. Capital is incredibly adaptive and fluid and it is only major ruptures or upheaval that threaten its continuity.Ecological breakdown- its early manifestations such as we are witnessing- and the threat of runaway feedback loops- is that rupture. The metabolic rift is the contradiction capital cannot overcome. Why would Wolff ignore it?
A cooperatively organized enterprise still has to compete in a global market. It can appeal to a niche consumer who values the ethic but that is a luxury. Poor people buy the cheap shit (I am and I do). Wolff and the DSA and Jacobin and socialists in general are looking to a re-vitalized workers movement to challenge capital. I wouldn't hold my breath...
No comments:
Post a Comment