Economic Democracy: A New Frontier for Freedom

December 29, 2011 | by Chad Rochkind

We stand now at the moment of confrontation between two great, ever-expanding forces: that of freedom and that of capital. The challenges we face today are the result of the impasse that occurs at the meeting point between these forces.

The last century saw not only the enfranchisement of all men and women in the political process regardless of color, but also the simultaneous commodification of all spheres of human life. How can freedom expand when moneyed interests seek to thwart the progress of liberty for personal gain at ever turn?

It is the nature of both systems, democracy and capitalism, if they are to be true to their ideals, to expand ceaselessly. For instance, it is the job of a business to do better this quarter than it did the last. Businesses, after all, must grow to survive. For the capitalist system as a whole this means there must always be some new market to exploit, and where none exists, a market must be created. The commodification of our public lands and natural resources–the basic necessities that sustain life on this planet–are but symptoms of this inherently expansionist principle of capital, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Yet so too democracy, if it is true democracy, must expand. Once a person tastes liberty, the pursuit of it is unending. Once a community of people becomes truly free in one sense, they crave freedom in every other sense. No free people ever chooses to wear shackles. And further, no free people can tolerate the oppression of others.

That is, unless the people are deceived, as is the case today. In the economic sphere of life, we have been led to believe that freedom boils down to the choices one makes as a consumer in a marketplace, or the ability to sell one’s labor as a commodity to the highest bidder.

This is not freedom. It is the false choice of a neo-feudal order.

When a politically free individual enters into the vagaries of the marketplace, he loses the ability to shape his own destiny, deferring the most important decisions that impact his life to the boss, the board of directors, and the banks.

Yet it is in the economic sphere of life–in its productive and consumptive capacities–that we spend the vast majority of our waking hours, and it is here, also, where we are least free.

In the past 30 or so years, the marketplace has expanded into the sphere of democratic life. Corporate campaign contributions have devalued the precious right to vote for which we fought so hard to achieve. When it comes to all the important decisions, voting has been reduced to an empty relic of a bygone era of self-governance. This has nearly suffocated the principles of liberty upon which this country was founded.

To counter this trend, now is democracy’s time to make its next logical, necessary expansion. It’s very survival depends on it.

But where to expand if the ballot box has been secured?

The answer, of course, is the economy.

Economic Democracy is the next great frontier in the fight for freedom. The office, the factory, the farm, the bank, and the marketplace, have been led by the forces of tyranny for too long. As such, we demand the reinstatement of our societal role as CITIZENS in these arenas of social life.

Our watchword shall be Democracy at Work. Our guiding principle: Democracy for Life. And as with the great battles for freedom that have ensued since the ink dried on the Constitution, we shall emerge from the struggle truer to our founding principles, more American in the spirit that Jefferson expressed in the great poetry of our Declaration, and ultimately our national life–as Lincoln expressed during the battle which almost split our nation asunder–governed of, for and by the people, shall emerge, as ever, victorious.