My final thoughts on

March 10, 2012 at 1:42 pm #87891

Participant

My final thoughts on this.Firstly I have no objection to a group of socialists getting together to engage in some kind agricultural project. And if it was nearby I would possibly contribute (or maybe not, a local vaguely “anarchist” group have actually been doing this for a number of years and despite numerous invites to tree plantings and the like I have yet to make it there!)I actually live on a farm. The whole operation only requires 2 people to run it. Most of the labour that goes into food production actually occurs in the manufacture of machinery and extraction of fuels. I don’t see why a socialist society would wish to return to the lifestyle of the serf, I certainly have better things to be doing with my time than watering the lettuces. So if anyone is still convinced that this is a course of action they want to take then get to it, it is not me that is stopping you.My reservations:Firstly this is not a new or fresh idea by any stretch of the imagination, people will have been saying similar things for the last 100+ years.Thinking about it, isn’t this how the Amish live? What does that tell us about socialism? I don’t know..

Gog_ wrote:

I originally stated that one of the guiding principles would be to challenge the local monopoly of businesses selling people to buy food: eventually, if succesfull enough severely impacting the profitability of such a business. The people doing so would be challenging the fundamental assumption within capitalism that so many people still labour under that, “you have to work, to earn money to pay for food”.

You’re letting your enthusiasm cloud your judgment. You are forgetting the major thing that such a project would require, CAPITAL. If people are fortunate to have the free time they can give it for free, but in a capitalist society land, machinery, seed stock etc are far from freely available. Without sufficient stocks of these your level of production is going to be petty to say the least. I don’t think you’d be able to produce enough crops to support many people either.But for most people on low wage jobs, who have to work longer hours, in terms of hours put in and produce at the end, they are going to be better of going to the super market.Sorry to not be overflowing with enthuisiasm but the cold economic facts speak the truth.

Quote:

I originally stated that one of the idea’s principles would be to produce a practical demonstration of socialism

This is probably my major reservation and as a social-scientist in training I should know it:If you where conducting this to try and demonstrate how a socialist society would operate you are going to be constructing an invalid experiment. What you would be measuring is not how affective socialized production is, but how a small group of people living within a capitalist society choose to use their free time. Though you could probably extrapolate some relevant data I guess…To conclude..If people get exposed to socialist ideas by getting involved in a socialist agriculture club then that can only be a good thing. But the same could be said of a socialist cycling club, a socialist rambling association or here’s a thought, a socialist discussion group that discusses socialism.