Ajamu "Nagasaki" Nangwaya advocated on Rabble a different type of workforce in Jackson. His column is based on his presentation at the recent Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy 2013 held in Atlanta. He opens by quoting our patron Mayor:
We have to make sure that economically we’re free, and part of that is the whole idea of economic democracy. We have to deal with more cooperative thinking and more involvement of people in the control of businesses, as opposed to just the big money changers, or the big CEOs and the big multinational corporations, the big capitalist corporations which generally control here in Mississippi.” [1] - Chokwe Lumumba
Here are some choice Nagasaki quotes:
Worker self-management or the practice of workers controlling, managing and exercising stewardship over the productive resources in the workplace has been with us since the 19th century. Workers' control of the workplace developed as a reaction to the exacting and exploitative working condition of labour brought on by capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. Many workers saw the emancipation of labour emerging from their power over the way that work was organized and the fruit of their labour got distributed.
I believe we are living in a period that has the potential for profound economic, social and political transformation from below. It might not seem that way when we look at the way that capitalism, racism and the patriarchy have combined to make their domination appear inevitable and unchallenged. But as long as we have vision and are willing to put in the work, we shall not perish. We shall win!...
The challenge posed to us by this historical moment is the role that each of you will play in ensuring a robust programme of worker cooperative formation and cooperative economics in Jackson. We ought to work with the Jackson People’s Assembly, the Malcolm Grassroots Movement and other progressive forces to transform the city of Jackson into America's own Mondragon. It could have one possible exception. Jackson could become an evangelical force that is committed to spreading labour self-management and the social economy across the South and the rest of this society....
As an anarchist, I am not a person who is hopeful or excited by initiatives coming out of the state or elected political actors. More often than not, we are likely to experience betrayal, collaboration with the forces of domination by erstwhile progressives or a progressive political formation forgetting that its role should be to build or expand the capacity of the people to challenge the structures of exploitation and domination. I am of the opinion that an opportunity exists in Jackson to use the resources of the municipal state to build the capacity of civil society to promote labour self-management....
This is the good one from Nagasaki:
In working-class Afrikan communities across the United States, there are economic predators that exploit and dominate the local business scene. These petty capitalists must be seen for what they are; business operators who do not normally employ the people in the local community and they live and spend the wealth generated elsewhere. We do not need to search for business ideas or opportunities because the existing capitalists and their businesses should become targets for replacement with worker cooperatives and other solidarity economy enterprises. If these existing owners would like to become worker-cooperators, they are free to join the labour self-managed enterprises....
Furthermore, the Office of Economic Development should be empowered to vigorously, strategically and relentlessly create the enabling condition for the development of worker cooperatives and other social enterprises in Jackson. A part of its worker or labour self-management agenda should include transforming the city of Jackson into a catalyst for this approach to workplace democracy, workers' control of the means of production and the producers of wealth being the ones who determine how the economic surplus or profit shall be distributed.
This new role for the Office of Economic Development will be startling for some and is likely to generate opposition.... Rest of part 2
The Mayor probably is not going in this direction but its still fun to read. You can't make this stuff up. Lenin would be proud. However, methinks Nagasaki is going to be a little disappointed.
Conference website
25 comments:
What a nut job.
He's apparently never looked at Columbus, Mississippi which is governed by a black mayor and a majority black city council. All the industry has moved into the county or left completely because of the "black way" of doing things for themselves. We also have a black police chief now and crime is at an all time high in the city. Drugs are everywhere and black on black shooting are out of control. Many whites have fled to the available communities in the county where property is available. City taxes are at an all time high where the cost of a car tag is 3 times higher than the same when living in the county.
They can babble all day long.
Basic capitalism is thriving even in Africa with a "K".
In many villages, tribal wealth and social status is still measured by the number of cattle one owns.
Not a single Afrikan in the audience was awake as he moved into his third paragraph. The wait staff even dropped stacks of plates and leaned against the wall.
All you have to do is look at these crazy made up names these people have...CHOKWE,...I swear this is something he got off one of the Star Wars movies.
I have no problem with the Mayor's comments. Having the employees of a corporation being provided with a say in how the corporation is run is not some radical idea. Many successful corporation are employee owned and managed.
What's wrong with that? No commie/socialist barbs, please. I love the capitalist system, properly regulated.
That's not what he wrote.
9:54, I'm a simple farmer who doesn't understand the ways of business the way you do, I'm sure, but can you give us the names of some of these companies where employees have a say in how the corporation is run? I'm genuinely curious. It doesn't count, you know, if the company is employee owned. The owners of the company have every right to decide how to run it. Just list the ones where non-owner employee groups make the decisions.
Bill, that's not what I said. Please read my email again.
KF, I agree that the Mayor used inflammatory language to make his point, but in my view, the gist of what he was quoted as saying is what I said. I understand that you disagree; nothing wrong with that.
And I worked to get Jonathan Lee elected partly because I believed he had the potential to be the best Mayor for Jackson given who his opponents were but more so because of Mr. Lumumba's ethical and other shortcomings that alarmed me(and many others, white and black, just not enough). I'm no apologist for the Mayor.
No need to argue, folks. If a divinely-inspired collection of books can be interpreted multiple ways by mortals, then surely the words of a black separatist can be as well.
The beauty here is that each can form his own opinion. Either Lumumba will push radical policies as long as his health permits, or he won't. But we'll all find out soon enough.
You voted at the ballot box, now vote with your feet. Lumumba believers on that side of the line (literally) and Lumumba doubters on this side of the line. There's plenty of room on both sides for all parties. After all "Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum; what might be right for you, may not be right for some."
Shalom.
People have been "voting with their feet" for, twenty or thirty years now in Jackson. The only people left in Jackson are those benefiting from the man in charge or those too delusional to leave.
I just love the first words of paragraph 4, "As an anarchist..." Sort of says it all.
9:54 and 12:16, how else am I to interpret your post? You say it's not a radical idea for employees to have a say in how the company is run, and that there are many companies that are employee owned and managed. I'm challenging your assertion that employee managed companies even exist, much less prosper. Democracy is fine for government, but making decisions based on employee input is simply a tool that management should use, not something that should be legislated.
"Crony Capitalism and Communism"! That's how they roll folks. You just can't say it any plainer.
Cisco-Eagle and Weston Solutions are just two employee owned AND managed companies that appeared on page 1 of my Google search, Bill. So I took your challenge successfully.
And I said not one word about legislating anything. That's a crazy notion. I simply said that the gist of what the Mayor was saying(not the other guy) is not a radical idea, and it's not. You have to look past the Mayor's inflammatory language that undermines his persuasiveness, not helps it.
Of course you're right about companies owned by employees - they've been around for a long time and work well. Technically, all companies are operated by employees as well, so you're also right about that. I mistakenly thought you were supportive of the part of the article where the Mayor suggests that employees, which I took to mean rank and file workers, organize to tell management what to do. That is not going to happen in a successful company.
Having the employees of a corporation being provided with a say in how the corporation is run is not some radical idea
Being employee owned and managed doesn't mean individual employees have "a say in how the corporation is run".
I love the capitalist system, properly regulated.
Somehow I suspect you are fond of a heavy regulation hand.
Bill, at my small business that I 100% own and run, I demand that my employees not be yes people but instead, give me their frank input on some significant decisions I have to make. But after considering all input I receive, I and only I make the calls on the significant, day to day decisions I have to make. The buck stops with me. So I agree that there can only be one Chief in a tribe.
If you are suggesting that a large company can't be successful if the workers organize to negotiate with management(a/k/a unions), not "tell management what to do," I disagree with that position.
8:14 a.m., "employee owned AND managed" means what it says. I can't follow the logic of your notion that if employees manage the company, they nevertheless don't have a say in how it's run. You might look up the word "manage" in the dictionary.
Your suspicion would be incorrect. "Heavily" and "properly" are not synonyms
You are obviously a successful businessman 8:17 am.
And, smart...a smart person hires the best and listens when they make suggestions for improvement. After all, it's in the employee's interest for the company to succeed and for their value to be recognized.
Many companies get sabotaged by disgruntled employees who feel they aren't being valued fairly and who have one foot out the door.
and many employees who should just be thankful to have a job have inflated opinions of their own value(and the value of their opinions) and simply don't know what they don't know...
How many employees do you have 8:17 excluding yourself and any family members?
Plenty of large companies have been and will continue to be successful with union member workforces. A contract is negotiated and both sides adhere to its terms. That's not the same as the employees getting a vote in how the company operates on a day to day basis, which is what I believe the Mayor is suggesting. I too ran a company once, and I think my former employees would tell you that I listened to their input just like you do, but I still contend that there's no such thing as a successful company that's run by its workers.
Bill the definition of successful is always subjective, but I think the co-op that "runs" the Rainbow Grocery and Deli near UMMC has been running for over a decade, apparently successfully.
4:11 p.m., have 6 employees, not counting myself and my wife. Like I said, a small business. We had a gross income last year of about $1.3 million, so we do okay for a small business.
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