• WAY STREET But one message seems clear today-people are tired of expensive, unresponsive and self-serving institutions-parti~ularly ones to which we are allowed no alternative. People are demanding control over their tax money and what is done with it. Local tax revolts, for whatever reason, only aggravate the problem- for as we can see in California, our institutional tendency is for the larger bureaucracy to bail out the smaller (and gain control of it) rather than to face and make basic changes in ho~ we do things. Citizen participation in determining governmental actions may sound like some foggy, sweet ideal, until we realize that according to most reports, China, with a population of nearly a billion people, is already doing just that. Production goals, government programs and community development are arrived at through negotiation and discussion in village, district, county and national meetings, and go all the way back to the individual for ratification, according to reports in Fanshen, by William Hinton. If true and the system does work, we've.been vastly out-democratized! WORK Democracy in the Workplace, 1977, 98 pp., $5.00 plus $.50 postage from: Strongforce 2121 Decatur Pl., N.W., Washington, DC 20008 Democracy at Work, Daniel Zwerdling, 1978, 190 pp., $5.00 plus $.50 postage from: Association for Self Management • c/o 1414 Spring Road N.W. • Washington, DC 20010 Worker control, self management, cooperative, collective- these are key words in describing a significant move towards changing our lives, our economic system, our jobs, our politics. It is a strong and challenging step that many people are taking to become less exploite,d and re·gain control of our lives and environment. These two books are excellent complementary sources to encourage and enrich that expe(_ience. Democracy in the'Workplace lays out the practical and philosophical questions that we need to consider in beginning the process of self management-~rom organizational, educational, to legal, marketing and financial aspects, as well as a basic folder for starting a self-managed business and case study of a farm January 1979 RAIN .Page 5 Actually, none of this is really any different from the powers we already have to vote on state and local bond issues as well as many special programs. We don't have that option with federal programs and taxes. Why-not? If we can't regain that power, we've got to regain control at the other end of the tube. A process that could accomplish some of these goals at that end would be a referendum/rebate system in which a state refusing to par_ticipate in a federal-funded freeway program or a community voting down a federally funded fluoridation program would get the allocated funds refunded to. the affected taxpayers. Is it an unreasonable dream to have your vote count on the CIA budget, nuclear power, neutron bombs and governm~nt salaries? No real balance of power in our society can be achieved unless we regain balance between collective needs and local and individual control'over governmental budget and tax powers used to fulfill those needs. Dreams, budgets, programs, and taxes need to be developed through dialogue between all_ levels of government and the people ourselves, as governments inevitably serve different ends than people, and to remain a democracy, the power mu~t remain with the people. D .5 :>- u cd '"' u 0 e V 0 e 0 ,!: workers production co-op, making this a very comprehensive sourcebook. , Democracy at Work presents experiences of cooperatives or worker controlled businesses throughout the world which provide rich learning from the experiences of tryose involved. Also a clarification of what "workplace democracy" means and a discussion of labor unions in relation to worker self-management. Both books have excellent resource information, and I highly recommend them. -LS Non-Profit Food Stores, 1977, 64 pp., $3.00 plus $.50 postage, from: Str.ongforce 2121 Decatur Pl., N.W. Washington, DC 20008 Another exceilent handbook from the Strongforce people that documents community-worker controlled businesses. The experiences of workers in four food co-ops are shared in this manual, which provide insight into the difficulties and joys of participating in the process of worker management. (Boston Food Co-op, U.A.W. Worker's Market in Detroit, New Haven Food Co-Op, and Common Market Cooperative in Denver.) There's also a section on operating community food stores as well as a good resource list. - LS
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