Marx’s central concern about work under capitalism was that it generates what he defined as ‘alienation’. This is a complex and, I find, invaluable concept. It is based in Marx’s view, which I share, that work is essential to human well-being. Without work we lose identity and psychological health. And yet under capitalism the only work available inevitably humiliates us by requiring us to lose our autonomy. So we face a stark choice¾loss of autonomy or loss of identity. This is the essence of our alienation which begins in the workplace but then infects all other aspects of our lives until we are the ‘low serotonin society’ described in Oliver James’s Britain on the Couch.
The escape from alienation is via
mutualism by working together to solve our problems. In the economic realm this
means building up that sector of the economy where workers are responsible for
their own businesses, and, incidentally, where the surplus is shared between
them. This is the cooperative sector.
The International Cooperative Alliance gives a list of values that cooperatives should share (information from the Cooperative Union Ltd., Manchester): ‘self-help’, ‘self-responsibility’, ‘democracy, equality, equity’, ‘solidarity’ and finally ‘social responsibility and caring for others’. Taken together these values stand in opposition to the system of appropriation that lies at the heart of capitalism, because this is what they were designed to do. I see no point in reinventing the wheel when the earlier victims of the economic system that oppresses us today have done such a good job. I would point out, however, that this system of values is not sympathetic to state socialism, since it is based on grassroots action, people working together to solve their problems, not ringing up the council or writing to the government to do it for them.
If the problem with capitalism is the appropriation of the value of others work by the minority who control capital, the solution is the reorganisation of production along cooperative and mutualist lines. As Kropotkin noted:
We are laughed at when we say that work must be pleasant, but¾‘every one must be pleased with his work’, a mediaeval Muttenberg ordinance says, ‘and no one shall, while doing nothing appropriate for himself what others have produced by application and work, because laws must be a shield for application and work (Kropotkin, P. (1902), Mutual Aid (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1939).
Peter Kropotkin, who was responsible for the phrase ‘mutual aid’ which he saw as preferable to state intervention, also suggested reviving and modernising the form of work organisation that prevailed in European cities in the Middle Ages, i.e. the guild system.
Cooperatives often have an old-fashioned image, while fair trade is seen as dynamic and sexy and is supported by glamorous popstars. In fact, it is the cooperative model that puts the fair into fair trade, as I argue in an article you can download here. You can also link through the the UK Society of Cooperative Studies for find out more about cooperatives.