Democratic by Design

Author:Gabriel Metcalf
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

Their theories began with the concept of the “workers’ purchasing power,” which, if organized collectively, could enhance working class power. According to their model, the workers would first form consumer distributive branches, which would then unite in a wholesale operation. From these, in turn, producer cooperatives would be formed to produce the products consumed in the consumer cooperatives. From consumption to production, in other words, the movement would build outward to a vast cooperative sector of the economy, which would gradually expand the realm of workers’ ownership and, finally, supplant capitalist institutions. As Warbasse [president of the Cooperative League of the United States] argued, “Cooperation penetrates steadily into the business of the capitalistic world and crowds it out.” Another advocate explained in the CFPA [Cooperative Food Products Association] newsletter: “[T]he thing that it supplants will almost imperceptibly fade away as the new is developed to take the place of the old.” The theorists’ model, in sum, was one of evolution, even of secession. “Violent revolution not needed,” as one promised.15

The theory of cooperatives, as developed in Seattle, stems from the insight that the “purchasing power” of people’s normal household expenditures can be used as a force for change. If large numbers of people can be convinced to redirect their spending into new channels, there is potentially enough wealth to build new types of economic institutions.

The cooperative movement grew even more quickly immediately after the strike as people became more politicized and as they witnessed the support that the cooperatives were able to provide to the strikers. Workers who were unable to win concessions from their employers through strikes realized that they could, in a sense, go into business for themselves. The butcher’s union opened a slaughterhouse, the building trades formed a cooperative contracting enterprise, and the longshoremen’s union started a cooperative stevedoring company.

The cooperative movement in Seattle, as in the rest of the United States, lacked the support of strong national working-class unions or progressive political parties such as those that existed in Europe. But the city labor unions provided the financial backing and the membership that made the cooperative movement possible. In this sense, the movement stands as an example of what can be achieved when political organizing and institution-building efforts work in concert. The labor movement could not have won significant demands, and certainly could not have pulled off a general strike, without the cooperatives. By the same token, the cooperatives could not have grown so large without the support and organizational backbone of the labor unions.

Neither the radical labor movement nor the cooperatives ultimately survived the postwar recession. In hindsight, both were fragile. Following World War I, as shipbuilding was ramped down and the general labor shortage in the country eased, the business organizations in Seattle went on a successful offensive. At the same time, the movement was discredited by the fact that many labor leaders had started “pro-labor” businesses for themselves that turned out to be simply regular businesses intended for private enrichment—creating a sense of disillusionment and confusion about politicized consumption choices.

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