Ask Prof Wolff: The Yugoslav Experiment

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "I wanted to know if you could explain the socialist model of Yugoslavia under the Tito government, how the companies self-managed by the workers worked, how they competed in the market, etc, and if you think that this model can be applied today in the historical context in which we live?"

This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

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“Marxism always was the critical shadow of capitalism. Their interactions changed them both. Now Marxism is once again stepping into the light as capitalism shakes from its own excesses and confronts decline.”

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[democracyatwrk]

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[josip]

Proff Wolf, Yugoslavia was not allied with Stalin. In fact they broke relationship in 1948 and whole of Soviet block imposed sanctions to Yugoslavia which in turn resulted in a famous Tito's third way: workers self-managment. Yugoslavia established Non-aligned movement which included all the countries in the world which didn't want to be part of NATO or Warsaw pact. So yes Yugoslavia was neutral.
This is very important fact.
Thanks

[slavenarkaimovski]

SFRYugoslavia haved 3000 factories and companies, and number of employed people per factory was between 5000 and 12000 people.The most famous yugoslavian industry was Jugoplastika, becouse of its high liquidity.Witch it has acomplished by joining others smaller companies, like button, cotton, fabrics, and freds, under Jugoplastika management.In SFRYugoslavia, Jugoplastika has haved 250 distribution centers, hers own manufacturing facilities, shopping malls Jugoplastika, and hotels for annual collective vaccation for workers.Its net value in 1989, was 250.000.000 dollars.And Jugoplastika was making everything, from peugot plastic interior, to addidas sport bags, and it was in charge of production, of 3000 various products.

[iceangeld]

I always learn so much on your channel here. TY!!

[emiebex]

I heard about this experiment. But wasn't sure what it was. Thank you professor Wolff for explaining this.

[cynthiachristiansen]

How can we personally help to not be so dependent on capitalism? We moved off-grid in '94, and doing our best to grow our own food, and recycle all we can. Using what we acquired to build with.

[homelessgamerxx]

I see ya prf Wolff, rocking the new poidum

[patrickholt]

In each of the former Yugoslav republics, some faster than others depending whether the new governments called themselves socialists or not, the co-operative sector was destryed by an acto fo parliament. First they mass nationalised them, so that the co-operative members would have no say, and they they immediately sold off what they had just nationalised as privatisation.

There are a few lessons from this. Firstly neoliberal ideology is an enemy which has to be overcome to enable a co-operativisation of the economy, no matter how successful spontaneously created co-ops may be in outcompeting private businesses and spreading through the economy without state support. Secondly that without the protection of a one party state, which isn't obtainable even if it was desirable, it is absolutely essential to build up mutualist consciousness as well as co-operative membership to create a mass lobby to advance the interests of co-operatives and to protect them from arbitrary theft and expropriation by the bourgeois class, using the state, as happened after the break-up of Yugoslavia and of the federated Yugoslav communist parties.

If co-operative members only devote themselves to building up the co-op that they are co-owners in, and ignore the political context and the goal of displacing capitalism, they won't be thinking and acting as a class while their class enemies do. Co-operatives are not an alternative to trade unionism and socialist politics, and if they behave as if they are, they will end up destroyed.

[msandrearobinson]

Yugoslavia was a paradise when I was there in 1970

[kuhar]

Very misleading, Yugoslavia was not in a pact with Stalin and was not behind the Iron Curtain.

[helengarrett]

I had worked some of this out for myself but had not found the concept of market economics within worker owned enterprises explained before. This is an area I want to know more about. I want to know much more about how worker owned and controlled enterprises would and could interact with each other and also with a central government, particularly during a transition from capitalism to socialism. What mechanism would there be for funding the functions of a central government? Income taxes? Corporate taxes? How would local governments be funded? Would there be appropriation and redistribution of goods? What good reading sources do you recommend about Marshall Tito's Yugoslavia? Most of what I know about Tito and Yougoslavia was how his personal, repressive and strongman led government style managed to hold its disparate parts together to quell ethnic rivalry and function as one nation, and how it all fell apart. But I don't know much about how it was structured in its economy and how that might work when interacting with non socialist countries in a global economy. What problems would socialists converting to worker owned enterprises likely face in global capitalist markets, any or many? What political considerations might there be in such a transition? Coops inside a capitalist system are a step forward but they do not fulfill all of the needs of an advanced society. We still must have some kind of central system of government and planning and I really don't want the Tito style uncemocratic method of governing to prevail. I don't want attempts of capitalists to interfere with or absorb cooperatives themselves to destrroy them or deny them market share as big corporations often do with smaller competitors. How would competition work between cooperatives? I would think that would be solved with centralized planning. How do we stop centralized government from getting repressive as it did in China, in the USSR and under Tito?

Thank you, Professor Wolff, for teaching us complicated lessons in easy to understand language. For those of us who are self taught and have no education beyond twelfth grade this is invaluable information and helps us to grow even at 80 years of age.

[TennesseeJed]

The market cares about us!! The same way whales care about kirill.

[throwawayidiot]

Hi Prof Wolf. Has anyone ever tried a transitional business which starts out as capitalistic and then turns into a co-op once it is established in the market and financially self-sustainable?

The idea would be a kind of private business which instead of undergoing an IPO to the "general" public, it's shares are distributed among workers after it has existed for X amount of time and/or reached a revenue threshold or ROI threshold.

This is to overcome the challenge of initial funding of companies. Capitalists argue that people only become entrepreneurs if they can profit out of it. What if the profit could exist but be heavily limited in amount and time? It is still an incentive to start an enterprise, it just doesn't offer the perspective of limitless profit forever. You create a business, once you have gotten some pre-established ROI you are legally required to distribute shares evenly among workers and turn it into a co-op. You can pursue some profit but in the meantime you are helping fund something which will be inherited by the community and your profit perspective is not like a cancer pursuing infinity growth.

[TheWayofFairness]

Listen, fairness should rule everyone.

[cpstr]

I head another issue with the Yugloslav model was that these enterprises were essentially competing with one another, they were not all playing on the same team. This might have contributed with the national tensions present in Yugoslavia.

[twistedoperator]

I'm glad Wolff explained the difference between markets and a type of market system. With that said the market system itself is the biggest problem facing humanity today.

[dddpvt]

Prof Wollf, unrelated but relevant topic: sling TV Directs streaming service has Cancelled RT effective March 3rd. So it Begins.

[slavenarkaimovski]

Youtube Search:Jugoslavenska Industrija I Proizvodnja, some videos has mentioned number of employed workers, and product made.So write to them on youtube, and ask any question.

[_djordje]

I am fan of prof wolf, but I am afraid he got a few things wrong in this one.

- Yugoslavia was not allied with stalin. It was unalligned. Tito had a standoff with stalin in 1948 that nearly caused war between Soviet union and Yugoslavia. After that fe founded the non aligned movement.

- the term he refers to as "market socialism" was called technically self managed socialism. It means the economy is not planified as it was for example in the Soviet union. Workers made the decisions on their surplus and participated in the market. Another name to accurately call the Yugoslav model is anarcho-comunism. Lots of ideas were imported/influenced by Spanish anarchists who interacted with yugoslav partisans during the Spanish civil war.

- the reason for the failure was that, Yugoslavia was structured as a federation of republics rather than a single state. When the second oil shock came on the early 80' the economy suffered and each republic started to turn inwards and boikot the others until it all mutated into nationalism. That alongside external forces interested in destroying anything that had to do with socialism did the rest.

[patrickmccormack]

Professor Wolff, are we bypassing the market demographics of hegemony within and between classes? Do I need to elaborate? Critical question: Why would socialism not work for the here-and-now?

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