Contra Doug's claim, the author does not argue that communes are full fledged economic system s or even full fledged communes. Rather, the function of a commune is to lay the groundwork for a move away from capitalist relations of exchange and they do so *relative* to capitalism. He doesn't even say that the end goal is small scale communism. He simply says they lay groundwork for building a new economy. Thus, the complaint that they aren't "real communes" is horseshit. Even better, the author later says it doesn't matter how the collective physical and intellectual capital of the rest of society is acquired, it dosn't matter that they still depend on the "shit" we inherit from capitalism. The point is to keep pulling capital into the commune(s) so that they grow and grow until they are an effective force against capitalism.
This will take time he says. In the meantime, what we do is reappropriate the means of _social reproduction_ and we do so "directly and immediately." He is quoting Théorie Communiste at this point.
Next, he injects his own thoughts, which are provocative and thanks to Eric for bringing this to my attention (although there web site's writing gives me a giant headache b/c I'm unfamiliar with the lingo and can't be bothered just yet to spend the time to get it. Still, this bit about Hawthorne's Purity (!!) is interesting: \
"One need have no particular scruples about how this should be done; for example, it’s immaterial whether one pays for, steals, or buys on credit what’s needed to keep the commune going, so long as one enables the group to live without wages—and not only to live, but to grow, to spread, to incorporate more capital, like phagocytes in the economic bloodstream. Nor does it matter whether or not the commune has these means from the get-go; the point is to acquire them, after all, and that takes time."
I was reminded of an incident early on in the occupy when some tea party moron showed up at the first occupy march and complained that we were hypocrites for wearing Gap sweatshirts made by the very corporations we supposedly "hate on" (ha ha ha). Who cares if you wear a Gap t shirt to a rebellion?
Only someone seduced by Hawthorne's Purity.
Earlier, he wrote this bit, which Doug conveniently ignored, as he ignored the above:
"They’ve already begun to attract the jobless and homeless and underemployed and will continue to do so for as long as the occupations keep going. And this, after all, is the economic function of communes relative to capitalism: not to liberate people in the abstract, but to lay the groundwork for a retreat from the wage system. It has always been a desideratum of capitalism that such refuges should be destroyed, whether to flush people into the labor market (primitive accumulation) or to prevent alternatives to the wage system from materializing. <>
Doug conveniently snippedety snip snip snipped: <> The following passage: <> <>> Critics will say that while these small acts of communism are well <>> and good, they will never be able to provide for the millions who <>> depend on capitalism for daily bread (Doug Henwood said something to <>> that effect on last week’s Behind the News). Two months ago, though, <>> these same critics would have said that organizing even a single <>> commune was an impossibility, that communes inherently fracture and <>> fail, and would in any event be too geographically isolated to <>> matter. Clearly the mayors and police departments of the occupied <>> cities see things differently. In any event, the communes exist and <>> can’t be wished away. They’ve already begun to attract the jobless <>> and homeless and underemployed and will continue to do so for as <>> long as the occupations keep going. <> <> Yeah, I did say that, because as wonderful as OWS et al are - and I <> think they're totally wonderful - they're not communes in any <> meaningful sense. Yeah, they've got nurses staffing clinics - but the <> nurses were trained in universities ( = prisons, of course), and they <> dispense things made in factories. Food is distributed, but it's grown <> and processed far away. Proceedings are livestreamed, using <> electricity generated by ConEd and fiber optics run by the likes of <> AT&T. Distributing goods & services produced elsewhere in small <> quantities is not "an economic response to capitalism." <> <> Doug <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <>
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