Anti-Duhring, Part III – Socialism, II – Theoretical - Part 20

But, after 1855, and the passing of the Limited Liability Act, those same processes of capital accumulation, the socialisation of that production, and of the large scale industrial capital itself, leads to an explosion of the joint-stock companies, which, previously, were a minority. It is this form of socialised capital, rather than the worker cooperatives, which became the means by which “the expropriation of the expropriators” was accomplished. It is the joint-stock company, whose form, today, is the limited liability company/corporation, which became the dominant form of socialised capital, as the transitional form of property between capitalism and socialism. The fact that these large corporations, inevitably developed into multinational corporations, breaking themselves out of the fetters of the nation-state is an indication of that transitional nature.

It does not mean that worker cooperatives have no place, today, in that process, but, it does mean recognising the constraints on them. It involves recognising that, to break out of these constraints, a worker cooperative needs to be able to mobilise the mammoth amounts of capital that a multinational corporation does. It also means that, like the multinational corporation, it cannot limit itself to being tied to the nation state, let alone some smaller, local operation. That, also, shows why the statist notions about nationalisation are, now, both idealist and utopian, and consequently a reactionary delusion.

As I set out many years ago, even in Marx and Engels' time, they argued that it was necessary for worker cooperatives to combine their capitals, including cooperatives in different industries, as well as to plough their profits into a centralised pool to be used for a planned expansion of cooperative production.

“Then what is the only salutary basis for co-operative industry? A NATIONAL one. All co-operation should be founded, not on isolated efforts, absorbing, if successful, vast riches to themselves, but on a national union which should distribute the national wealth. To make these associations secure and beneficial, you must make it their interest to assist each other, instead of competing with each other—you must give them UNITY OF ACTION, AND IDENTITY OF INTEREST.

To effect this, every local association should be the branch of a national one, and all profits, beyond a certain amount, should be paid into a national fund, for the purpose of opening fresh branches, and enabling the poorest to obtain land, establish stores, and otherwise apply their labour power, not only to their own advantage, but to that of the general body.

This is the vital point: are the profits to accumulate in the hands of isolated clubs, or are they to be devoted to the elevation of the entire people? Is the wealth to gather around local centres, or is it to be diffused by a distributive agency?”

(Ernest Jones Letters)

Ernest Jones, who Marx and Engels, initially, saw as the future leader of the working-class, was writing, here, on behalf of the First International. His position, even nearly two centuries ago, is way in advance of those, today who, instead want to promote the idea of localism.

That combination, today, has to extend even further beyond the constraints of the nation state, and to utilise the kind of credit that Marx and Engels – and , here, Jones – refer to. It means mobilising the large pools of workers' savings in their pension funds that did not exist even 50 years ago, let alone in Marx and Engels' time. We certainly should have democratic control by workers over them, and certainly, as the repeated attacks by the state on pensioners shows, should not rely on the state to provide them. No wonder the ruling-class not only deny workers the right to control their collective property in the form of the socialised capital of the joint-stock companies/corporations, but also deny them control of their own money accumulated in the workers' pension funds!

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