cancer boy
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Re: Electrickery
Jun 26, 2002, 17:50
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Oh go on then, as long as it's eco-friendly (and that doesn't mean nuclear as G.W.Bush seems to think).
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MonkeyBoy
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Re: Moneyless world
Jun 26, 2002, 17:53
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The Former soviet union was pressured to change it's economic sysem more than it's political set-up by the west after the late 80s.
The political corruption of a bureacratic ruling class with all the money & power wasn't tackled by introducing greater democracy and accountability and removing the parasitic Fat party officials.
Instead large parts of the economy were quickly privatised so former party officials had all the money, power & connections to take advantage and set themselves up as a Mafia like new Ruling Class.
The west knew what they were doing by pushing for economic reform above all else, as a politically reformed Russia with much greater democracy & much less corruption, but with a different economic system than private monopoly, could have been more of a threat to Western Capitalist interests.
Political & Social changes over economic change could have led to Russia being far more Socialist like & maybe even truly democratic - such a thought would have terrified the West and they would rather have the place descend into Criminal ruled capitalism.
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FourWinds
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Re: This throws a spanner in the works
Jun 26, 2002, 17:56
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Yeah. Obviously when these sales happen the money will go straight into the state coffers (and subsequently back into the pockets of the gansters in the form of protection money and bribes etc) and will not be distributed evenly amongst the people.
But I think we digress. I think the issue here is the progress down the slippery slope being made in Russia. When these lands do go into private hands someone is going to make a profit (there's that evil word again). To make that profit prices will have to rise and therefor more people will not be able to afford their daily bread.
I really hope that some communities will band together to buy their local fields and try some sort of commune approach out there. There may be hope for little autominous anarchist states to evolve - afterall so many parts of Russia are remote from other parts.
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FourWinds
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Re: Moneyless world
Jun 26, 2002, 17:58
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I heartily agree :-)
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MonkeyBoy
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Re: This throws a spanner in the works
Jun 26, 2002, 18:48
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A commune approach to ownership of some of the land would be a step forward from state ownership and definitely better than a Gangster Elite owning it.
The trouble is will the local communities be able to buy the land. Coperative ownership of the land by communities would be brilliant - but I fear there are not enough ForwardThinkers in the Russian parliament to push through even limited coperative ownership of some pieces of land.
Wholesale coperative ownership of all the land would be total CommonOwnership of the land - which would threaten Russia's Mafia ruling class, as well as threaten The concept of private landownership in the West - who are supplying all kinds of aid & money to Russia's capitalists.
The trouble with limited coperative ownership or small anarchist communities is they would be as Marx said 'islands of Socialism within Capitalism'. This could create problems for the commmunes as they would still be living with a competive world all around them. They would have to compromise and even trade with the finacial system - even just to get machinery etc. As well as have all kinds of pressure and conditioning from outside.
The communes wouldn't be able to realise there full coperative potential. They would have to have links with other such hypothetical communes in Russia.
I'm all for communities running things coperatively. Any communes would have to part of a greater force pushing for the coperative ownership of everything in any local community, anywhere!
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