Q&A: Cybernetic Socialism in the 21st Century
Here is the Q&A of the talk I recently gave to the Dutch socialist group, De Socialisten in conjuction with INDEP. Enjoy!
Comments (2)
These are great discussions. I would like to add some thoughts to the transition aspect. I don't think revolution is the only way to transition, I think that some of these concepts can be battle tested right now within existing structures. Yanis Varoufakis, when he was up against Grexit had a strategy for creating a parallel economy using the existing Tax system. Wouldn't this be a natural fit for an alternate/parallel currency measured in hours of work? Hours of work are already recorded there anyway, couldn't there be an issuance of 'digital currency work hours' to use/in place of tax credits? Perhaps initially for things like "free" Public Transport. Governments already offer incentives like this to transition to Electric Vehicles/install solar panels. If this concept indeed works could it not just be expanded and all else will follow?
I think the change from money to labour-time aspect is not the difficult part. It is probably analagous to Varoufakis ideas or indeed to changing from the drachma to the euro. A few years to build all the new banking infrastructure, point of sale equipment/software changes etc etc. But thinking of labour-time in terms of a 'currency' misses its essence. Labour-time accounting is really a reflection of a revolutionary change in production relations, of the worker control of the means and conditions of production. It is this change that requires a revolutionary break - the technical aspects of the change to labour-time is not where the difficulty lies. If that makes sense.