Grady Ross Daugherty

Welcome to Grady Ross Daugherty’s Blog

I’d like to share with you information about MODERN COOPERATIVE SOCIALISM

Here’s my synopsis and declaration

Modern cooperative socialism is our non-Marxist political movement, founded in the United States in 2009. Our goal is to bring about a network of pluralistic, non-bureaucratic cooperative republics in all the countries.

Time is of the essence in this endeavor, for the empire of monopoly capitalism is destroying the oceans and the world environment. If the destruction is not soon stopped and reversed, civilization and even human existence may be ended.

We are different from other socialists. Contrary to Marxists and other sectarians, we value and guarantee freedom of spiritual conscience and religious practice. We embrace the concept of patriotism, knowing that the true patriotism of every country is the striving for a cooperative republic.

Our socialism is distinctly modern, and should not be confused with the original cooperative socialism of the 1800s. The “old cooperators” did not understand the need for a focused political party; nor the necessity of acquiring state power. They relied on employee- and consumer-owned cooperatives for an economic evolution to socialism. We rely on a combination of the economic and political evolutions—with the political being by far the more important.

Authentic socialism for us is a form that is functional; that truly works. With competent political leadership, the republic that embodies this form can begin its development under a current regime—whether oligarchic monopoly capitalist or bureaucratic state socialist.

Central to the success of a cooperative republic is the retention and adroit use of two historically-evolved institutions: private productive property rights and the trading market. These are essential for economic and social dynamism. They are also the most effective—and perhaps only—counterbalance to the enormous power of the state, shielding the people from tyranny.

Private productive property however must be in the hands of those who are truly productive: the broad majority of citizens. It must not be monopolized either by a monopoly capitalist class or a socialist state bureaucracy.

The cooperative trading market should still be competitive, but within healthy, sustainable limits. It should be inspired and guided by science and democratic socialist government. It should serve the nations, and not be allowed to operate solely for profit.

In every sovereign country, a cooperative republic must be achieved independently, in accordance with existing social and political conditions. Where democratic rights are severely restricted, appropriate methods of advancement should be developed by the transformational leadership.

The specific method of achieving the new government is important, of course; but, it is more important that the republic established is cooperative and democratic, rather than statist and bureaucratic.

A cooperative state must of course defend itself, but its power should not threaten or injure decent citizens. It should help focus the talents and energies of all citizens in a constructive, prosperous, sustainable direction. It is a new beginning for all.

Our movement takes note of the socialist experiments to date. Their uniform self-destruction has been the result of the core hypothesis of “concentration of all the means of production in the hands of the state,” as set forth in 1848 at the end of the second chapter of the Communist Manifesto.

With the state owning all the means of production and being the one big employer; with a lack of a sense of proprietorship among employees; with a lack of market mechanisms to help guide and incentivize production; a modern economy can only limp along under massive bureaucracy, political absolutism and social regimentation. The creative impulses of the people are dampened, social enthusiasm is undermined, and economic performance is degraded to the point of political collapse.

Tragically, the core hypothesis was viewed scripturally as dogma for strict adherence, rather than scientifically as hypothesis for experimentation. Real-world attempts at socialist construction have been unable to carry out candid self-analysis and creative readjustment.

On the positive side, we take note of the many historical cooperative experiences. These include the worker-owned Gung Ho cooperatives of China, 1938-49; the Faridabad Experiment of India, 1949-53; and the Italian cooperatives from the 1800s to the present day. Most instructive are the employee-owned industrial cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain, 1956 to the present.

These “Mondragon cooperatives” have abolished the opposition between management and labor. They have proved for all time that employee-owners, given workplace democracy and market orientation, can be amazingly successful. (See the short films “The Mondragon Experiment,” and “Democracy in the Workplace” at video.google.com, or purchase them on-line on DVD or VHS.)

We understand however that employee-owned cooperatives cannot, by themselves, achieve socialist transformation. If not linked to the political endeavor, they ultimately will be reabsorbed into the old system. To make the economic cooperative movement socially and politically transformative, what is needed is competent leadership by a determined, forthrightly socialist party.

In the United States our goal is to establish—by peaceful and constitutional means—a democratic Cooperative Republic, based on the Constitution of 1789 with key amendments. The first opportunity for doing so may be in the approaching 2020 national elections.

To advance to the new republic we must win the support of the great majority of the nation, including the truly patriotic professionals of the old corrupt regime. For this support we establish—in the United States—Four Cardinal Principles: non-violence, legality, openness and persuasion. Without strict adherence to these the people cannot be won, and the transformation will not take place.

While the economy of the Cooperative Republic will be pluralistic—with many smaller, privately-owned businesses—its main economic units will be cooperative corporations, consistent with the Mondragon model. Voting ownership share in these will only be available to current employees.

Regardless of the longevity or financial accumulation of an individual share, each co-owner will have equal discussionary voice, and equal decisionary vote, on all company matters (one person, one vote).

At the same time, significant and adjustable blocks of non-voting, non-controlling preferred stock shares will be owned by socialist government. Regular quarterly dividends from these will provide all the revenues needed for public expenditures. This will allow society to dispense altogether with taxes and tax bureaucracies. (The first to go will be property, income and business taxes, along with the Internal Revenue Service and other tax collection agencies. The last to go will be sales and so-called “sin” taxes.) The Cooperative Republic will mean—at long last—an historic end to tax-based government.

Through this non-statist, cooperative form, socialist government will not be burdened with the attempted administration of the hundreds-of-thousands of business enterprises necessary to sustain and serve the people. It will be able to concentrate on the things that government can do best. These include planning, coordinating and regulating the economy; restoring and preserving the environment; maintaining infrastructure; ensuring civil and national defense; directing resources toward all sorts of public priorities; and ensuring universal healthcare, education and retirement pensions.

While major industrial and commercial production will be taken care of by the broad citizenry through cooperative corporations catering to the socialist market, significant production will be taken care of by the highly respected small business community.

Modern cooperative socialism—which is as yet a theoretical construct—is a natural form. Entrepreneurial leadership will play a key role. The gifted leader will be able to guide cooperative enterprise and achieve significant personal prosperity, but only as a consequence of achieving prosperity for fellow co-owners and society, as well.

We believe that a classless society—that long sought-after dream of socialists—cannot be achieved by converting the means of production into state property, as per the Marxian hypothesis. Full state ownership of the means of production brings forward the degrading employer-employee relationship—the direct antithesis of workable socialism.

A cooperative republic, by contrast, abolishes this relationship for most . It ensures that the majority of those who use their labor and genius to produce social wealth also own their workplace and manage it independently. It transforms the majority of the people into a dignified, property-owning class. The employees of major industry and commerce will be in business for themselves, and have therefore a sense of security and self-mastery.

It is apparent however that such a majority will not be a true class—at least, not in a static sense. As direct owners of the major means of production and distribution—and without society being choked up by such things as tax laws and bureaucracies; military-industrialism; and an exploitative banking and monetary system—they will begin merging culturally with the small business community.

As those who produce come more and more into ownership of property—with social inequalities and degradations steadily diminishing—society will find itself in a dynamic process of organic self-transformation. This will constitute, in fact, the long sought-after diminution of social classes—in the United States and across the globe.

As the culture of the people rises; as class distinctions fade; the coercive attributes of government—being less and less necessary—will fade, as well. This will be the classic promise of the withering away of the state and of national boundaries. This process will bring humankind to a condition of siblinghood and peace, and unleash the full glory of human potential.

The old hypothesis for building toward a classless society was to take private property away from the working people, and give it to the state in the people’s name. It hasn’t worked. The new hypothesis is to give private property to the working people through small businesses and employee-owned cooperative corporations; and give the state an appropriate, non-controlling, non-voting share—to avoid a tax-based system.

In summary, our movement strives for a secure, prosperous, truly human network of socialist cooperative republics. It is a world in which the extinction-level threats of global warming, oceanic destruction and nuclear world war have been reversed; in which unemployment, tenant serfdom, usury and massive debt do not impoverish the people; in which racism, sexism, class arrogance, and imperial disrespect for the sovereignty of nations are but aberrations of a fading past. It is a world in which liberty, justice, prosperity and a sustainable environment are the legacy of the coming generations.

We boldly declare that if the true patriots of the United States and other countries will abandon Marxism and other paralytic forms of sectarianism; if they will conceptualize workable socialism as a democratic cooperative republic; then the end of monopoly capitalism is at hand.

For further information, contact:

Grady Ross Daugherty, chair

Modern Cooperative Socialist Movement

Santa Monica, California USA

grady@grdpublishing.com