This systemic erosion of state capacity means the UK is increasingly vulnerable to major crises. In addition to failing energy transitions, we are vulnerable to increasingly frequent and severe weather extremes such as floods or droughts.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the UK was unable to mobilize anything close to a national-scale response like China’s, which maintained a greater national capacity.
transformation
We are thus faced with a series of interconnected crises that threaten not only the long-term viability of capitalism, but the modernity upon which any socialist or post-cooperative capitalism depends.
In recent years, I have been of the opinion that we need a transformative response to this. It must be characterized by the mobilization of every resource at the national disposal to achieve the twin goals of a rapid energy transition and a rebalancing of economic power.
What does this look like in practice? Whether we call it the Green New Deal or whatever, it means, first and foremost, massive investments in new industries and technologies like clean energy and home insulation. Crucially, this requires the financial capacity of the state, as the private sector refuses to invest on its own and communities become so impoverished.
Second, it means massive regulation to reduce polluting industries and stop ecologically harmful activities like fossil fuel extraction and advertising.
This requires disciplinary powers that only the state can exert control over the rogue elements of our economy. Social movements may sometimes perform this function on their own, but their power is often dwarfed by that of capital.
Third, it also means expanding public ownership in key economic sectors that are critical to the transition. This is the basis for stripping the profit motive from our economy and putting people and the planet above the narrow interests of shareholders. Likewise, the state is a necessary tool for mediating the transfer of economic power from capital to the people.
profit
By profiting from strategically important sectors, we can end market dominance and introduce the possibility of central planning and democratic control to facilitate a quick and fair transition for workers and communities.
Of course, the energy sector should be the main theme here, as it is clearly at the heart of decarbonisation. But we should also seek to change power and ownership relationships in other key sectors: food, manufacturing, transport, water, housing and finance.
So, what is the role of co-ops in all of this? My provocation to those who are committed to cooperation is that while we may have some reasonable organizational preferences for cooperatives in terms of how we run our lives or our economies, we should not interpret them as playing any role in fighting climate change. Special strategic role and energy crisis.
When we consider key strategic sectors such as energy, transport, water and finance, it becomes clear that cooperatives can do little to lead decarbonisation efforts.
In a market system, cooperatives tend to operate with limited resources and thus cannot compete with private companies with economies of scale and the ability to take on large debts.
struggling
This means that it is difficult for cooperatives to scale within the market, especially when we consider how fast renewables must be rolled out.
Notably, cooperatives that compete with the private sector are also working to safeguard workers’ rights. In the marketplace, any company has an incentive to lower wages and work harder and longer.
We’ve all heard stories of worker cooperatives treating themselves even worse than their parasitic private sector rivals, just to pay the bills.
In a natural monopoly like the water industry, there is a clearer need for these utilities to be run by the state. Efforts to introduce cooperative sectors in these industries are really trying to maintain the existence of markets and competition that need not exist.
In these areas, it is important for the cooperative movement to actively refrain from advocating for the larger sector, whose role is to undermine central planning and democratic control.
Expand the cooperative
Are there any areas of the economy we could imagine cooperatives could play a more interesting and useful role? certainly. For those who like to organize their lives in this way, cooperative housing clearly has a role to play.
What we should be clear, however, is that it is impossible to scale up housing cooperatives to deal with the housing crisis or to accelerate home insulation without a national plan.
In terms of food, it makes sense to support the co-op to grow some food, and certainly in terms of service and distribution. This may be one of the strongest areas of growth in the cooperative sector, but we should recognize the need for significant state intervention to transform our deeply unequal and ecologically damaged food systems.
In manufacturing, while it makes sense for some strategically important products to be under national or regional state control, we can certainly imagine that cooperative management of the production of more specialized or artisanal products will play an important role.
In all these cases, if the sector does not expand in the context of public ownership, cooperatives will face the same pitfalls of market competition.
transition
So how do we overcome these limitations? What role can cooperatives play in the movement for a fast and equitable climate transition?
We can and should make a positive case for expanding the cooperative sector, but only in the context of a non-market economy underpinned by public ownership.
Otherwise, cooperatives either play a role in maintaining the market, or are doomed to be unable to compete.
We should limit our support to co-ops to providing everyday goods and services and support their expansion as part of a national strategy. This looks like using the state’s financial capacity to get the government to finance its seed and expansion.
In this case, they can be used to crowd out private competitors, but only if they have the proper resources and adhere to strict employment rules regarding pay and working hours.
justice
So what should a collaborative movement for climate justice look like? First, it should recognize the strategic limitations of its organizational form preferences.
Co-ops may be desirable for some, but they do not solve the crisis we face.it Yes Contributes to the promotion of a democratic economy and the principles of cooperation within state and municipal public ownership. This is especially important to avoid the pitfalls of the historical state ownership model.
Second, the cooperative movement must accept its subsistence dependence on forms of state and municipal public ownership.Contrary to those who hold co-ops against public ownership, co-ops should argue that these economic transformations are necessary premise Expand areas of cooperation.
This means wider opposition to Co-operative’s malign influence within Labour and the Co-operative movement, including its consistently anti-socialist candidates and policies.
It also means prioritizing the need for cooperative sports. To achieve the ultimate goal of a viable and desirable cooperative economy, members of the movement must first work with socialist climate organizers to build power for a public-owned and worker-led economic transformation.
this author
Chris Saltmarsh is Working for a Green New Deal and author Burn Down: The Fight for Climate Justice. This article is adapted from a presentation by Chris Saltmarsh at Ways Forward 2022 in Manchester on Thursday 20 October 2022.
