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Workers Can Run Society!

MYTH: workers aren't capable of running things…chaos would erupt if we didn't have bosses. How often do we hear this? In Feudal times it was said that without a King, Queen, Nobles, and Clergy—-everything would fall into immoral violent unruliness because the peasants/serfs wouldn't know how to run society.
Fear was spread to maintain the status quo then and fear is spread today to protect the current hierarchy. Eventually the monarchy was overthrown and now it's time for us to overthrow our oppressors.
An increasing body of literature talks about "Workers Self-Directed Enterprises," or "Coops." Promoters of co-ops often call them alternatives to Capitalist modes of production.
However, co-ops function within Capitalism and are not free from the need to produce for profits for survival in the Capitalist market.
Still, we can describe them for folks who mistakenly believe that workers wouldn't know how to run things without the bosses or the rich, who do very little or nothing while we do ALL Workers within co-op enterprises make all decisions related to production: what is produced, how it's produced, how much is produced, etc.
It's said that co-ops create an "environment of equals" where workers enjoy their work, work well together, and are more creative.
This helps demonstrate how workers ARE CAPABLE of running things even without overrated Harvard/Cambridge MBAs.
Some co-ops are small, like groups of 10 to 20 Silicon Valley engineers who leave large companies, such as Oracle and IBM to form a coop. The largest co-op frequently cited, The Mondragon Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region, is the 7th largest corporation in Spain, with about 120,000 workers.
However, these examples only show that workers can run capitalist enterprises.
At some point surplus value is extracted, and production for exchange value rather than use value continues. It's important to understand the huge difference between co-ops and the communist society we need.
Future articles will describe how the communist-inspired masses in China began to organize and run production along very different lines, and the limitations of these great experiments.

Red Flag has described work under communism and what motivates workers to do it. Under communism, our class collectively runs society. Production is for use, not profit. There are no bosses, money, privileges, personal wealth, or private property. Everyone works for the common good and shares in the results. Communism frees the masses to make the decisions that affect us all. Are you motivated to fight for communism yet?
Communism combines learning and work. Classrooms are centers where we put knowledge to work based on theory and practice. Schools aren't separate from factories, laboratories, or hospitals…they are the same place! Under communism, we are workers and students!
Also, we're motivated by safer and more fulfilling work because we can see how our labor directly helps society. Communism encourages workers' creativity and innovation. We meet frequently to discuss communist ideas and how to advance and deepen our communist social relationships while figuring out how to apply them to better feed, shelter, dress, cure, educate, politically develop and improve the lives of the world's workers.
Mobilizing the Masses for Communism uses the example of the Chinese Cultural Revolution to demonstrate that workers know best how to meet our class's needs. Masses of peasants mobilized to build irrigation systems and organize cafeterias, where everyone could eat, and so that they no longer paid for food. In fact, the masses implemented many aspects of communist relations in large localities all over China.
Workers are also motivated by the opportunity to live in a communist society, where social relationships of cooperation, collectivity and share-and-share alike are primary.
Communism abolishes all borders, allowing us to live, work, and share together for our class as a whole.
Work is also different because there is no separation between mental and manual labor. No one is more valued than another because of how, or how much, they contribute to society. All are struggled with to contribute to society according to their abilities and commitment.
Communism will wipe out much of the anti-social behavior that capitalism's wageslavery job culture breeds. We implement all these ideas in ICWP today.
So, now that you're even more motivated to fight for communism, join us or increase your commitment to your party! Read, write for, distribute, and contribute funds to Red Flag!

WE CAN'T EAT MONEY!

Communism nurtures critical and creative thinking to improve collaborative efforts, freeing us to think of innovations. Psychological theories of instinct, drive-reduction, and motivation help to explain this.
Instincts are innate, untrained, fixed responses that are common among most members of a species. Humans are instinctively curious and creative. Optimal Arousal Theory states we actually require novelty and complexity from our environment.
Pre-class societies provided for their needs collectively. The community's needs were primary over the individuals' because that way the individuals' needs were also met. When everyone helps grow food and build shelter, the labor and time involved is lessened. Time and energy are freed to focus our instinctive curiosity and creativity on contributing to the art, health, transportation, and social cohesion of the collective.
Drive-Reduction Theory notes our bodies' need to maintain an internal balance (homeostasis). For example, we need to eat because our bodies' nutrient stores are depleted. This leads to the drive to eat, and then this drive is reduced. In communist society we collectively produce and collect food to meet this need. Did you see money come into this drive-reduction scheme? Because communism nurtures our instinctive curiosity and creative thought, we design new ways of doing things. We can spend less time and labor and get an improved source of food. Meanwhile we'll have a symbiotic relationship with nature, not a destructive impact.
Motivations to work can be intrinsic (internal, mental, physiological) or extrinsic (external). The internal drive to eat is fulfilled without any external reward like money. The internal reward for being able to meet this need is the primary motivating factor and leads directly to innovation. Extending this, when money is made primary, as in capitalism, we are actually less motivated to improve the process of getting food and will work individually rather than collectively.
Let's discuss these ideas more and fight for communist revolution so that future communist generations can continue to improve society

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