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Why don't communist movements focus on creating and nurturing employee owned businesses? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The overarching goal of communism is for laborers to own the means of production instead of an owning/capitalist class. Employee owned businesses are the realization of communism within a capitalist society.

It seems to me that most communist organizations in capitalist societies focus on reform through government policies. I have not heard of organizations focusing on making this change by leveraging the capitalist framework. Working to create many employee owned businesses would be a tangible way to achieve this on a small but growing scale. If successful employee owned businesses are formed and accumulate capital they should be able to perpetuate employee ownership through direct acquisition or providing venture capital with employee ownership requirements.

So my main questions are:

Are organizations focusing on this and I just don't know about it?
If not, what obstacles are there that would hinder this approach to increasing the share labor collective ownership?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (9 children)

There are efforts to build emoloyee owned businesses around the world
The system is pitted towards accumulation through antisocial behavior which is absent in democratic companies, hence they're disadvantaged
Communists and anarchists are revolutuonists, not reformists. The reason is that reform makes the inherently cruel system easier to bear and abolishment less likely.
Some want to go the reformist route to try if it is actually achievable
Most importantly and very evident in the US: 100 yrs of reform can be rolled back in one day. We're seeing that reform is pointless.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Because communists wont/can't orginize in numbers that would allow for it.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I suspect a big part is tax and investment law.

A bunch of poors (like me!) who band together won't have much capital to buy inventory or equipment. I doubt banks and investors would lend to the bunch of poors, since they have a non-standard decision making structure.

That's gonna make it hella hard to get started.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Hard to get started, and not Communist, either. OP is confusing worker owned private property with the collectivized system of Communism, hence why though Communist orgs support cooperatives as less exploitative than regular firms, neither is the basis of Communism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

Join the IWW.

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