Vulture Capitalism makes a case for socialist planning but misses some vital arguments, writes Thomas Foster
Online retailers, such as Amazon, rely on planning (Picture: Chris Watt)
Monday 11 March 2024
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2896
A new book by Grace Blakeley shows up the myth of “free market” capitalism and argues for a democratically‑planned economy.
Vulture Capitalism demolishes the idea that capitalism is dominated by the “freedom” of the market.
Blakeley carefully goes over how businesses plan their own production and states coordinate society for profit.
She argues that planning has always been part of capitalist society. What matters is who makes the decisions— and, currently, those in charge are unaccountable politicians and bosses.
However, the book’s strategy for replacing them with truly democratic processes is flawed.
It rests on the idea that working through parliament and other institutions of the capitalist state can achieve a total transformation of how planning could work. Planning Blakeley uses Amazon as an example of corporate planning.
Amazon didn’t get to where it is now because of the “free market”, but because it operates through highly organised and efficient planning.
From what goods and how many goods distribution centres receive to its supply chains—most aspects are consciously planned, coordinated and designed on a massive scale.
There is no internal market at work. But corporations don’t plan on their own. They rely on the support of the capitalist state and financial institutions.
States frequently intervene to enable bosses’ pursuit of profit or to “shield their most powerful businesses from international competition”.
When a state bails out a corporation, it’s protecting it at the expense of others. When a state ignores anti‑competition practices, it is facilitating monopolisation—when one firm dominates a particular market.
Blakeley rightly argues that coordination shouldn’t be the prerogative of bosses or bureaucrats. Instead ordinary people should be in charge.
Here she draws of the example on the Lucas Plan, produced by workers at Lucas Aerospace Corporation in 1976.
They aimed to shift the firm away from producing weapons and towards producing socially-useful goods.
But bosses rejected their plan as they “preferred to see their organisation die than hand it over to the workers,” writes Blakeley.
She then turns to the example of Salvador Allende’s left wing government, elected in Chile in 1970.
His government set up an early computer system to connect workers’ control of industry to the planning processes of a national government.
The system exchanged information between state institutions and workers— showing planning is possible on a large scale.
But a US-backed coup violently overthrew Allende’s government, which had demobilised its supporters.
To reach socialism, Blakeley argues, we must “build a movement capable of resisting the vested interests that would seek to prevent us from reaching this point”.
Struggle Socialists, she writes, “must struggle within and outside all social institutions, including those of the state” to “take control over the (existing) state”.
This is an absurd conclusion to reach after examining Allende’s government, which exposed precisely the limits of working within parliament and the capitalist state.
Allende failed because he didn’t break the power of capital and the state.
Instead, he tried to subdue the workers’ movement, instructing it to “end their illegal seizures of land and property”.
Breaking capitalist power means relying on the social power of the working class, not manoeuvres at the top.
The capitalist state must be replaced with a new workers’ state, based on democratic bodies from below that ordinary people set up through the course of struggle.
And that sort of challenge can only come through a revolution. Blakeley’s vision of achieving a democratic society is deeply flawed.
A new book by Grace Blakeley shows up the myth of “free market” capitalism and argues for a democratically‑planned economy.
Vulture Capitalism demolishes the idea that capitalism is dominated by the “freedom” of the market.
Blakeley carefully goes over how businesses plan their own production and states coordinate society for profit.
She argues that planning has always been part of capitalist society. What matters is who makes the decisions— and, currently, those in charge are unaccountable politicians and bosses.
However, the book’s strategy for replacing them with truly democratic processes is flawed.
It rests on the idea that working through parliament and other institutions of the capitalist state can achieve a total transformation of how planning could work. Planning Blakeley uses Amazon as an example of corporate planning.
Amazon didn’t get to where it is now because of the “free market”, but because it operates through highly organised and efficient planning.
From what goods and how many goods distribution centres receive to its supply chains—most aspects are consciously planned, coordinated and designed on a massive scale.
There is no internal market at work. But corporations don’t plan on their own. They rely on the support of the capitalist state and financial institutions.
States frequently intervene to enable bosses’ pursuit of profit or to “shield their most powerful businesses from international competition”.
When a state bails out a corporation, it’s protecting it at the expense of others. When a state ignores anti‑competition practices, it is facilitating monopolisation—when one firm dominates a particular market.
Blakeley rightly argues that coordination shouldn’t be the prerogative of bosses or bureaucrats. Instead ordinary people should be in charge.
Here she draws of the example on the Lucas Plan, produced by workers at Lucas Aerospace Corporation in 1976.
They aimed to shift the firm away from producing weapons and towards producing socially-useful goods.
But bosses rejected their plan as they “preferred to see their organisation die than hand it over to the workers,” writes Blakeley.
She then turns to the example of Salvador Allende’s left wing government, elected in Chile in 1970.
His government set up an early computer system to connect workers’ control of industry to the planning processes of a national government.
The system exchanged information between state institutions and workers— showing planning is possible on a large scale.
But a US-backed coup violently overthrew Allende’s government, which had demobilised its supporters.
To reach socialism, Blakeley argues, we must “build a movement capable of resisting the vested interests that would seek to prevent us from reaching this point”.
Struggle Socialists, she writes, “must struggle within and outside all social institutions, including those of the state” to “take control over the (existing) state”.
This is an absurd conclusion to reach after examining Allende’s government, which exposed precisely the limits of working within parliament and the capitalist state.
Allende failed because he didn’t break the power of capital and the state.
Instead, he tried to subdue the workers’ movement, instructing it to “end their illegal seizures of land and property”.
Breaking capitalist power means relying on the social power of the working class, not manoeuvres at the top.
The capitalist state must be replaced with a new workers’ state, based on democratic bodies from below that ordinary people set up through the course of struggle.
And that sort of challenge can only come through a revolution. Blakeley’s vision of achieving a democratic society is deeply flawed.
