Can Cooperatives Control Capitalism?

see http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/04/taming-the-tiger-the-challenge-for-european-social-democracy/.A recent article by me in Social Europe Journal.

see http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/04/taming-the-tiger-the-challenge-for-european-social-democracy/.

A recent article by me in Social Europe Journal.

My argument is that capital has become so liquid it is threatening the 50 year old EU model. A model which balances the demands of capital (business investors), organised labour (the trade unions) and the state together to create social democracy. But the banks have become ‘vampire squids’ to use a current buzz phrase, sniffing out stored capital in businesses, latching on and using private equity funds to suck it out to use as betting chips in the global casino of capital speculation.

To prevent capital (investment for business as well as stored financial reserves and the capital infrastructure underpinning our societies) disappearing and dumping us in the capital famine that typifies the Rust Belt inner cities of the American mid west, we need to find business models which lock down capital and put it under democratic control.

The ideal model, which works well in a competitive capitalist market, is the cooperative model.

In this article


Join the Conversation