The Third Sector
My obnoxiously neoliberal economics professor once argued with me about workers’ collectives. We were talking about water privatisation in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She argued that despite the fact that it took 1/4 of the residents’ paychecks and left them starving, water privatisation was “better for the people” in the long run. Ignoring, for a second, that this was a ridiculously patronizing and paternalistic viewpoint and naive beyond belief, I told her about how the people had taken over the water system there and formed a collective. By doing so, the people of Cochabamba had essentially stolen the water supply from the large corporation that had bought it, but had also defied the government that had given the water supply to that corporation in the first place.
Globalization: privatizing the world, one resource at a time.
My professor smiled and said, “so you’re saying privatisation is bad for the people? But what is a collective? Is it public?”
I stupidly answered, “no.”
And there it was; she had proven herself right with her bullshit polarisation of private vs. public. I was too furious at the time to bother debating any further, but had I had energy to think, I would have simply said, “there are not only two sectors.” At the time, however, I didn’t know that there was a name for the Third Sector.
Collectivisation is not private ownership. For one, many workers’ collectives (or cooperatives, as they are sometimes called) are not interested in profit maximisation. Stock is only owned by workers, and this is not traded for profit. Collectives generally use direct democracy for decision-making and rotational jobs and leadership, to keep power evenly spread. There are many other differences between corporations and collectives, which can be seen here.
Collectives are the ultimate exercise in democracy. They are literally by the people and for the people and are not imprisoned by our culture’s hierarchical power structures. If someone found out I was against the private sector, they would assume I was a socialist. And they would be correct. Since collectives are not governments or run by governments, nor are they corporations or simple nonprofits, they are inherently anarcho-syndicalist or libertarian socialist in nature. Even non-libertarian forms of socialism favour collectives, as collectives make up a large part of a socialist society.
When people argue in favour of the private sector, they are arguing for giving power to corporations and for the rights of markets to govern society. They may even argue for the nonprofit industry and use the tired example of charities; how they work so much better than any governmental social system (ahem. Bullshit!). But they would never argue in favour of collectives, and certainly not collectives taking control from private corporations. If somebody argues in favour of collectives, they are not economic liberals, they are not laissez-faire capitalists, and they are not pro-privatisation.
In addition, my dear economics professor, if you are arguing that privatisation will help a country out in the long run, your argument has nothing to do with collectives. You are expecting a Reaganomic trickle-down effect that is simply not a characteristic of collectives. Collectives serve the people at the grassroots level, give power directly to the workers, and do not provide economic growth for a country at all as they represent more of a closed system with no profit and therefore no emphasis on increasing capital and investments. I assure you, your buddy corporations would be very unhappy to hear your simplistic definition of the private sector, and how you are not bothered by the fact that the little people rose up and stole (legally speaking) the water supply of Cochabomba from a large corporation.
Back to the First World’s ridiculously patronising ideas about how to “help” the Third World, I have to say I am so far unimpressed. We managed to fuck these countries straight to hell, then we order them to “fix” themselves the way we say or we won’t give them back any of the resources we stole from them! Yes, we are doing them a great favour by forcing them to develop the same way we have. After all, our industrial society is the best way to go, despite the fact that we’re destroying the environment, 1/7 of the population of the world is hungry, child abuse, racism, and sexism are rampant, and the Third World would not do what we tell them to if they had any choice in the matter.
