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Alternative Economic Structures and BusinessEnterprises
by Dieter Dambiec
Cooperation means getting things done with collective effort. The benefit of cooperatives is that they combine the wealth and resources of many individualsand harness them in a united way. To help achieve this, however, cooperativesshould be structured so that individual interest does not dominate collectiveinterests. Individual dominance can adversely effect the welfare of different socialgroups and the environment.
Essence of Cooperatives
Cooperatives as a form of economic enterprise involves getting things donebetween free human beings with:(i) equal rights;(ii) equal human prestige (and mutual respect for each other);(iii) equal locus standi (eg, legal standing) so that everyone's welfareis considered.This is called "coordinated cooperation" and is needed for equilibrium andequipoise in social life. A socio-economic system should be based oncoordinated cooperation not subordinated cooperation."Subordinated cooperation" involves people doing something individually or collectively, but at the same time keeping themselves under other peoples'supervision or control. This can degenerate the moral fabric of an enterprise andshould be avoided when structuring cooperative business enterprises.
Avoid Communes
A collective economic enterprise that lacks coordinated cooperation as itsprimary mode of functioning is a commune or communist system. It ends upbeing based on subordinated cooperation and the predominant relationship isthat of supervisor and supervised or master and servant. According to Proutfounder Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, these relationships are ultra vires to thepsychological needs of the human mind and retard progressive movement.Such systems force production down, not increase it. This is becauseworkers do not feel oneness with their job, nor do they have freedom to expressall their potentialities. Communes or collectives in communist countries were notcooperatives. They were simply production distribution mechanisms under a
 
regimented system of control. The major distinctions between communes andcooperatives are:(i) Communes lack personal ownership; this is one reason for their failure. Without a sense of personal ownership people do not work hard or carefor property. Suppression of personal ownership sentiments results in sluggishproduction and psychic oppression. In cooperatives, to compare, there ispersonal ownership, subject to social limitations on concentration of wealth butalso part of a mechanism to ensure progressive increase in everyone's livingstandards.(ii) Communes lack a proper incentive system, which discouragesindividual initiative by talented people. The result is that people do not work hard.(iii) Organisational behaviour and outlook in communes tends to bematerialistic and the imposed leadership crude and unsophisticated.
Avoid Capitalism
Cooperative economic enterprises must also avoid becoming capitalist in nature.A key feature of capitalism is the import of raw materials from other countries or regions in order to manufacture finished products. Cooperatives must notencourage this form of economic imbalance. An economy based on cooperativesmust develop its own raw materials through research so that cooperatives arenot dependent on foreign raw materials.For example, apple orchards (raw materials), sericulture, appleprocessing, packaging, transportation and marketing should all beregarded as part of the farming industry of a region and function ascooperatives.However, in capitalism raw material producers like farmers, timber growers, fishing fleets, etc. have to sell their produce immediatelythrough large commodity exchanges or multinational companies in order to payoff loans for irrigation, seeds, labour, equipment, etc. Because capitalistenterprises control markets for these raw materials, producers often sell at lower prices than they could get under other arrangements. A good example of thesqueeze on primary producers' income by capitalist enterprises can be seen inthe steep decline in wool prices in Australia over recent years. Commodityexchanges and multinational corporations act as or dominate raw materialsmarkets to the detriment of their suppliers.In a cooperative system, raw materials producers like farmers would not be facedwith the same financial pressures, and so not be forced to sell produceimmediately after harvesting at sub-market prices. By advancing money toindividual farmers, cooperatives will allow farmers to better control the conditions
 
of sale and thus enjoy more financial security. A properly conceived andstructured cooperative should be capable of:(i) determining how much to sell.(ii) determining the most favourable time to sell in order to get thebest price;(iii) fixing the price of its own produce within certain price limits.In this way cooperatives will get the profit which is presently taken by middlemenand profiteers in the capitalist system.In a cooperative farmers sell their produce to the cooperative at a rate fixed bythe cooperative. When the market price is reasonable the cooperative sells theaggregate. The farmers then receive their percentage of the profit, which will be proportional to the amount of their land shareholding in the cooperative. At least this can be aninitial arrangement.
Membership Requirements
Cooperative members have to be local people who, by virtue of their established residence, can make a commitment to the cooperative and theregion it services. Therefore the problems of a floating population and immigrantlabour which may disturb the economy by increasing the availability of labor willnot occur in a cooperative system. The requirement of a worker's or shareholder's longer term commitment to the cooperative means there is noscope for floating labourers to be cooperative members. Elimination of immigrantlabour will also protect the social life of the cooperative from possible adversesocial influences created by mobile populations.Anyone who wishes to be part of the socio-economic life of a region,however, can settle there and become a member of local cooperatives.
Unemployment
Sarkar further states that in the cooperative system unemployment will be solved.This is because as production increases the need for more human resources andfor the construction and operation of more facilities will also increase. Educatedpeople can be properly employed as skilled workers. There will also be a needfor tractor drivers, labourers, cultivators, etc. who as cooperative members willnaturally do this work.In times of economic downturn everyone's labour will be proportionately reducedso that no one suffers the stigma of being unemployed. In this way economicdownturns will always be short and temporary.Shrii Sarkar is confident that cooperatives will solve the unemployment problemand states that in the cooperative system there should be no compulsory date for 
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