Re: Venture Communism

[Dmytri Kleiner <dk@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2004 at 10:13:12AM -0400, Waistline2@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Comment
>
> Venture Communism would face several real world obstacles that  are economic
> and social in my opinion. This is not to say I am against socially
> responsible investments . . . with "socially responsible" increasing defined on  the
> basis of protecting the metabolic process of the earth and women as priority
> one.

Well, it seems that my propspectus has caused a little confusion in that
that the primary difference between a venture commune and a venture
capital fund is two fold.

  1- Shares are purchaced with labour not money and are non-transferable.
  2- All Shareholders are equal.

To be a part of a Venture Capital Fund you need to have spare money, which
almost nobody has. To be a part of a Venture Commune, you need to have
spare labour, which not everybody has, but a lot more people have then
have spare money.

Other than that, a Venture Commune operates exactly in the same way that a
Venture Capital Fund does, and would face the exact same obstacles.

> All the economic data I have read over the past period of my  life speaks of
> the technological revolution ousting increasing large masses of  labor from
> the production process as fewer and fewer hands are need to produce a  previous
> mass of goods.

Yet labour, especial higly skilled technical labour, is needed to operate
the technology.

> In fact the venture communism proposal is predicated on  a
> vision of the expanding capacity of production.

No more so than Venture Capitalism, the differences are limited to the
manner in which one aquires a voting share, and how profits are devided.

> This means how is this going to help the lowest 30% of the  American workers?

By pooling there labour in to Venture Communes they can build their
Capital wealth.

> Without question there is no need for the state to be a  property holder in
> America or serves as central authority of production and  distribution.

Venture Communism is not opposed to state-based efforts to make society
more equitable... I'm just not holding my breath,

I image Venture Communes to be allies in the strugle for social justice
along with many others.

> as a framework one must ask why the slave oligarchy refused the  offer to be
> compensated - bought out, to end slavery. Why did the slave  oligarchy refuse
> to  be bought out as a transition program to end slavery?

I don't know, but I would love to hear more about this. Who offered to by
out the slave oligarchy? What terms where refused?

> I do not advocate a program of violent change in America and  urge the
> bourgeoisie to stop beating up demonstrators and protesters . . . but  strongly
> believe that if you are shot at you must shoot back.

I agree. But shooting back when you've got a slingshot and they have a
apache helicopter is futile and playing into their hands.

> Actually venture communism is what was attempted in the old  Soviet Union
> during the entire decade of the 1980s . . . in my opinion.

There is no simularity between when Venture Communism and the Soviet Union
in the slightest. Venture Communism is an investment scheme, not a political
system.

Thanks you for your comments, I appreciate it!

Regards.