I've just installed a new component to my website's backend that allows registered users to receive emailed updates from this website. The really cool thing about this is that users can choose which sections of my website they want to receive emailed updates from. So, for instance, if a person wishes to receive only and all updates concerning Radical Theory (the section of my site covering thoughts on Parecon, Syndicalism, etc.), then they can check that box and not be bothered with emails regarding blog posts, philosophy, and all that other jazz.

Maybe it's just me, but this is really neat. My site basically sends out a TomGram to interested subscribers. I've waited a long time to find an easy-to-install script that does this, and now I've come across a Joomla! component that does this and more. Score.

Hopefully this will provoke more discussion on this site rather than other blogging outlets such as LiveJournal. It's not that I don't like LiveJournal and all, but I'd much rather consolidate all my writing and discussions on this site. It helps me search through it later, work on articles in progress, etc.

So if you're a friend of mine and regularly discuss politics or economics and all that stuff with me on LiveJournal, then please register an account with DCTedrow.net and then subscribe to receive email updates. (The email subscribe option is available only to registered users who are logged in.) I really would rather drift away from LiveJournal, but I'd also like to stay in touch.

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(This interview originally appeared on ZNet on July 4, 2007. )

Participatory economics, or parecon for short, is a classless economic system that serves as an alternative to capitalism, market socialism, and centrally planned economies. Parecon is based upon equity, solidarity, diversity, and participatory self-management, as well as takes into account kinship/gender, community/race, and polity in addition to economic considerations. Under parecon, workers and consumers councils are responsible for self-managed decision making; workers have balanced job complexes; effort and sacrifice are rewarded, not hours worked or how much capital was invested; and planning is participatory.

When I first read about Parecon, what struck me was that it sounded like an anarchist economic vision. Do you think this is a fair assessment? Why or why not?

Yes, I do think it is fair. Anarchism is a very broad and rich approach to understanding social relations and affecting them. Most broadly anarchism says we don't want hierarchies of wealth and power which enable and even compel some people to dominate while other people, generally far more numerous, are subordinate. Parecon takes that agenda into the economy and proposes a way to accomplish production, allocation, and consumption, that is consistent with not having any one constituency, by virtue of its economic position, dominating any other. Parecon is in this regard a classless economy, an economy without class hierarchy, and is in that sense, I think, very much in the anarchist tradition.

More, I think anarchism has another broad commitment, which is that people should have a say over decisions that affect them. People should be able to participate and to self-manage their conditions and options, of course in concert with one another. Again, parecon is an economy that celebrates self-management—meaning that all people should have a say over decisions in proportion as they are affected by them—as a central aim. Parecon is a solidaritous economy that delivers to all participants the same self managing say as others have, and in this regard too, I think it is anarchist.

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Over at the ZNet blogs, Mitchell Szczepanczyk has "an audacious proposal to advance a participatory economy":

I had an idea for a tactic to proceed our economy. Why not just go ahead and start a participatory economy?

Some might react by saying "We already have projects like Z Magazine and South End Press which already are starting". I know that, but that's not what I had in mind. But start building and implementing a participatory economy, now.

This might sound nearly impossible to do in the world here and now, but this idea wouldn't be in the world here, at least. But in another, possibly virtual, world. Or at least, could.

In his proposal, Szczepanczyk suggests that a website designated as a virtual Parecon world could allow users to list what they want, join workers councils, receive credits, and so on. The idea is that a social networking website centered on Parecon would attract more people to the Parecon cause.

I'm hooked, except for the part where it's entirely virtual. I think users could definitely experiment with actually producing goods, etc. There are tons of websites and online trading communities in which people exchange skills or items they've made. This is especially true for hip scenester communities, where fashionable handbags, clothing, jewelry, and such are traded or sold, much of it hand-crafted by the fashionistas doing the exchanging. Maybe if the website were structured so that only certain items could be requested initially, so that available producers could make those requests a reality. I think many people are sufficiently fed up with corporatism that they'd give this sort of thing a try.

At the same time, if any sort of Parecon website were set up, it'd be nice to have one with practical advice. An era of consumers councils isn't likely to happen soon. Instead, we're stuck with small-scale models of Parecon in action, in particular workplaces. Why not set up a website (or better yet, a national organization) that gives workers' collectives advice on topics such as incorporating, getting a business plan going, or other things that deal with the practical side of running a business? This website could also allow workers in actual Parecon work environments to share their experiences, give advice to newbies, arrange meet-ups and conferences, and so on. Sort of like a North American Parecon Federation, I guess.

It'd also be nice to have a short, accessible primer to Parecon to hand people. CrimethInc. has several dirt-cheap books and a zine that expose people to drop-out culture/primitivism. It's pretty sick, but their strategy works. If, for instance, there were a well-made zine to distribute freely or cheaply to people expounding the virtues of participatory economics, that could do wonders. I know from my experience printing Turning the Tide that 2,000 copies of a 24-page newprint zine only costs 400-500 dollars or so to print. That's about 25 cents per issue. If you sold a first run of these to infoshops for 50 cents a copy with the suggestion that they sell the zine for a dollar (a grid rate comparable to that of AK Press), it's plausible they might go for it. And if that doesn't work, you could find Parecon advocates who were willing to table at shows/events, perhaps even willing to pay for a bundle out of their pocket and distribute them freely. (This assumes that 50 copies would cost 20 bucks or so.) You could then use the proceeds to print more copies and distribute further. Rinse and repeat.

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It seems obvious enough that the proponents of Parecon will need adherents before this economic vision can be fulfilled in any large economy. Thus, any serious strategy for attaining a non-coercive, solidaric economy has to answer a huge question: What about labor? It's well and good that there are certain radical groups committed to the Parecon model, and even better that some have decided to implement it. But these are only on the fringes of society. Currently, those people who are either members of or support organized labor should be at the top of the list of those who might be attracted to a participatory economics system.

For those committed to the Parecon vision, it won't do to simply set up new economic structures along Parecon lines or convince radicals of Parecon's merits. This overlooks many people who, by their affiliation with unions, have shown that they at least have an inkling of class concerns. It's possible that non-unionized workers would be more susceptible to Parecon influence, but I doubt it.

And if we grant that we should get organized labor on board with Parecon, this raises another question: What sort of tactics should labor advocate? Should unionists simply use the established channels--in other words, union bureaucracy and legal battles--to win Parecon gains? I don't think so.

First, this approach would be problematic because the dominant unions--the AFL-CIO, SEIU, etc.--have structures that replicate corporate divisions of labor and heirarchy. This subverts Parecon values. Further, corporate structures and capitalism generally are resilient enough to resist sweeping reforms advocated by the mainstream unions.

Second, if unions integrate themselves into the establishment and follow conventional norms, becoming what's called "pragmatic" on the assumption that it's the only way to get things done, they send a message to corporations and the state saying that they are dependent on them in order to function. And in fact, they do become dependent. Quoting the IWA:

...It is like eating cheese in a mouse trap, you get immediate "advantages", but in practice you are caught!

The capitalists and the state need predictable opponents being dependent on the legal framework, structures, and subsidies. All in order to direct, control, reduce, split and eventually crush the organisations.

source: Defence of the IWA and anarchosyndicalism. Sept. 11, 2006 

We cannot have libertarian social transformation unless libertarian values guide it the whole way. For those that work for the major corporations, rather than outside them, they will have to adopt different tactics than the conventional ones that masquerade as reform but are really forms of class collaboration.

Certain strategies come to mind: wildcat strikes, slow-downs, occupations, sabotage, expropriation, propaganda efforts, etc. In other words, methods of anarcho-syndicalism seem appropriate for Parecon advocates, still forced to work within corporate systems, to subvert those systems in order to bring them in line with Parecon vision.

Of course, at the same time those actors should also not lose sight of Parecon's other emphases on kinship, polity, and intercommunalism. These are important. But many of the elements of the strategy that emerges, I think, would overlap with anarcho-syndicalist methods.

At least, this is my thought process explaining why syndicalism is, in an important sense, a strategy compatible with Parecon values (or, at least, for certain actors - in this case, those radicals working for corporations). I realize I'm playing fast and loose with much of this, but it's really just an idea I wanted to throw out there to discuss.

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