Scooter, you can also copy that link and head over to the Tiny URL website. It’s free to use. All you do is enter the long link, like the one you posted here, and it will condense it for you.As for the looming health care job action in Saskatchewan:
quote:
This is so disappointing to see this happen with an NDP government in power.
The is yet another case of the NDP forgetting its democratic socialist history, and relying too much on the same old worn out corporate capitalist structures over enterprises and services and their oppressive, conflict-oriented labour relations.
Practical history shows the key way to reduce economic conflict and strikes, especially in vital services like health care, is to reduce the oppressive top-down corporate management structures and give workers more democratic input and control over businesses and facilities on their own terms.
As a general rule, economies with the highest rates of unionization, unless there is political unrest or economic upheaval, have among the lowest strike/lock-out ratios—since the stronger presence of labour economics and politics creates more stable and representative laws, programs and accountable governments (with some noteworthy exceptions, of course).
The Scandinavian economies, for example, which enjoy the highest union percentages in the world (around 90 per cent of the workforce—including self-employed and freelance professionals), also enjoy some of the highest living standards and greatest political freedoms without major labour unrest due to the huge influence and presence of democratic socialist enterprise in those economies.—as in worker-run or union-sponsored businesses, employee-ownership, multitudes of varying cooperative ventures, sustainability-focused community economic development etc.
As much as almost 40 per cent of these domestic economies are made up of such businesses and economic models—and that could actually be higher when you include small single-outlet family businesses, many of which are fully unionized and are supported by a cooperative investment network or labour-sponsored venture capital fund.
While all modern economies are primarily capitalist (regardless of what various 20th century regimes have claimed), including the Nordic ones, it’s clear that these socialistic developments diverge from the typical oppressive employer-employee/corporate-vs.-community model that dominates capitalist economics.
These economies have a dynamic and effective low-bureaucracy (as in state capitalist bosses, executives and similar hacks) public infrastructure and social welfare system
The same is true in many other European countries, as well as Japan. Whenever you have greater overall unionization, you invariably get greater degrees of democratic worker ownership and self-management.
The NDP/CCF has a legacy of creating similar socialistic ventures and public service organizations and labour relations, like co-ops, labour-sponsored enterprises, credit unions, various types of democratic community economic development.
But over the last 30 years or more, the NDP, like many left or social democratic organizations, has become much more bogged down with state capitalist economics (state ownership and/or regulation of capitalist enterprises and administration via corporate style top-down bureaucracies) and welfare state reforms and “fairness between employers and employees,” which have taken over most of the center stage.
As hugely beneficial as these reforms have been (and it is ridiculous to say they haven’t been), they were, when they were originally set up, seen as largely compromises and stepping stones toward developing a democratic economy over time—not the end result in themselves.
Sadly, that’s where the NDP governments have been stuck, and therefore they are having to deal with the same types of problems that result. If the Saskatchewan NDP government would sit down with the unions and develop processes giving the unions and union members of the shop floor a significantly greater say in the running, budgeting and planning of the system it would, first, cut the huge corporate costs of senior management, consultants, etc., and second raise productivity, which would free up resources for improvements to the system, including wage increases.
That’s what we need to get back to doing more of.
[ 27 June 2007: Message edited by: Steppenwolf Allende ]
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posted 27 June 2007 07:43 AM
