Seize The Means Of Production

In this video we discuss what the means of production are, and who should own them.

[noname]

Transcript:

Hey, it’s Aaron, this is my show Re-Education, and welcome back to another episode of my “Anarcho-Communism: How Does it Work?” series. Today we’re going to be covering the means of production and seizing them. So without any further ado, let’s get right into it!

“So I hear a lot of communists always talking about the means of production and who should or shouldn’t own them, but I’m not entirely sure what that even means. What are the means of production, who owns them now, and what are you gonna do once you seize them? Because it kinda sounds like a bunch of violent communists are gonna come marching on my home and try to take it away from me. And if anybody ever tries to do something like that, they got another thing comin’.”

Now hang on just one second. I assure you that none of us want to come down and steal away your family home. That’s not what we’re talking about when we say the worker control and ownership of the means of production. We’re not talking about seizing people’s houses. We’re talking about taking something away called private property. So, essentially, the means of production would change hands and be classified not as private (owned by an individual or shareholders), not as public (owned by the state), but as common (essentially, ownership by use). So, a worker at a factory would contribute to that factory through their labor, and that contribution would give them ownership of whatever they produce. If you produce the sole of a shoe, then you own part of every shoe that your shoe factory creates. Instead of having an owner, you would all collectively make decisions through democratic means. You could elect your supervisors and bosses based on their work ethic and abilities, or choose not to have any managers or bosses at all.

The means of production aren’t your personal home or your toothbrush, but essentially all of the resources, land, equipment, machinery, labor, and buildings necessary to produce goods in a society. Currently, the people that own and control all of the land, labor, and resources used in that production-making process are the private capitalists. Once a bunch of individual business owners now conglomerated together into what is essentially oligopolies that control the entirety of industry across the entire planet. Essentially shareholders and individuals on the board of directors at Walmart or Amazon or any number of other business that currently control the world economy. And since these individual billionaires or shareholders own the business in a detached way, they don’t think of things the way that the worker or the citizen that lives near that industry might think of them. For example, if there’s some sort of business that is a high polluter, like an oil refinery or a paper mill, the capitalist business owner doesn’t think much about where he’s going to place that industry outside of some government regulations. If he wanted to, he would drop it right in the middle of your neighborhood without much regard for the safety or concern of anybody there. Unfettered, capitalists have absolutely no problem exploiting and basically torturing their workers as long as they’re able to make a profit at the end of the day. It wasn’t capitalist business that came up with child labor laws or the institution of a minimum wage or even an 8-hour work day. Those were all fought for by the workers. But if the workers at that factory or the people that worked in the neighborhood near that factory had a say in what went on with that business, they would probably decide not to have that oil refinery or that paper mill polluting their water supply.

That’s why communists talk so much about seizing the means of production. We’re not talking about stealing your toothbrush; we’re talking about giving you part of what you worked for your entire life. It isn’t the case that a bunch of communists would come marching on your house to steal your property, but rather, we would all be marching on the capitalist’s house and taking back the means of production that we essentially should own in the first place.

Understand that throughout history, these means of production were never owned specifically by individuals. For the most part, they’d been common. The lakes, the forests, the mountains, the planes. They were never owned by an individual. They were always owned by everyone. Everyone got to use the common land, and if one individual decided to come up and say “This is my land. You can’t use it anymore”, everyone would’ve laughed in their face. But over time, through force and propaganda, that land was all stolen or bought up, and now Walmart, all by itself makes more money than the entire GDP of Cuba. But communists and anarchists want to bring things back to the way that they once were. We want the workers to go back to owning a part of whatever they produce.

And the reason why this hasn’t exactly worked in the past is because most of the time, socialism on these countries just transfers the ownership from the private sector to the public sector. This means that there is still an employer-employee relationship, which is what is causing all of these antagonisms between classes. In essence, we never destroyed that ownership class and the worker class. And that’s basically what we’re talking about when we’re talking about anarcho-communism. The abolishment of all unnecessary hierarchies is extremely important. Throughout history, there have been many different forms of this: master and slave, lord and serf… These are all just different forms of oppressor and oppressed. So the way that we make it successful is to eliminate that. By getting rid of the ruling class entirely and structuring the system from the ground up.

“Very interesting. I used to see communism as the government owning and controlling the means of production and distribution of goods, but I guess I was strongly mistaken.”

[Outro]

[stellar_queer]

a favorite little quip of mine that i've seen online is "right wing outrage gave you the kkk, left wing outrage gave you the weekend"

[Jcewazhere]

Minor correction, we have a plutocracy not quite an oligarchy.
A plutocracy can be run by the oligarchs, but it can't be run without money. A money free society can still be an oligarchy, the thing that sets the oligarchy apart is the source of power. That power can come from wealth but it doesn't have to. In a plutocracy the leadership's power comes mostly from their wealth.
Take Moscow Mitch for example. He is an oligarch, but as far as wealth is concerned he has 'only' ~$35 million. A pittance compared to Bezos/Musk etc. Mitch's power comes from being a longtime politician, from being immune to hypocrisy, from incumbency advantage, from gerrymandering, etc. Not strictly from his wealth though I'm sure it helps.
Musk is a Plutarch, the only real power he has is his money. He has some influence for being the best in the private space race and EV market, and some from having a cult, but the vast majority of his power is derived from his wealth.
Bezos could be either. He's the richest individual on the planet (Plutarch), but he also runs Amazon (oligarch). That company controls about a third of the internet and the majority of online shopping.

[xHarpyx]

This speaks to my soul. Wtf IS “ownership”? We all just temporarily use things.

[RAMIV]

Newer leftist here, I think I identify with anarcho communism the most (as a result of your videos).
Just wanted to say thank you for what you do. ❤🖤

[basedcomrade]

I like how us communists always use toothbrushes as examples of personal property.

[monasimp]

Behold my comrades, the reason we as communists haven't fallen into the cold hands of capitalist propaganda. This beautiful man right here. Keep up the good work comrade!

[fuzzyplasmacat]

Generally, I find most anarchists to be a bit too liberal and Marxist-Leninist communists to be a bit too authoritarian.
The fusion seems ideal. Appreciate your explanation of synthesis as always.

I've been shouting you out as much as possible, hope you get more subs/views to spread the good word.

[cyclonasaurusrex]

I’ve always wondered about professions like doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, etc. What does that look like?

[ivan]

I think people need more practical than abstract examples. Like, studies how anarchism worked in practice in Spanish civil war. Not just like "you go into workplace, work some time, practice workplace democracy" etc. Nobody goes suddenly from this system to that system in a short time. It was planned in Spain for long time before revolution.

[SGbackup-tn]

If you are an anarchist then who is organizing the seizure of the means of production? And who will ensure that the means of production will be given over to the people?

[janeenharris]

That was a breath of fresh air! Thank you, I feel sane again.

[lorensims]

The desktop publishing and GNU/Linux revolutions of the early '90s went a long way toward getting our foot in the door. Smartphones with good audiovisual capabilities are likewise revolutionary (or "disruptive"). 
Now if you want access to media with which to broadcast your message or art, you probably already have it or can freely acquire the software tools to create it.
Public libraries, the closest thing we have to communism in our current system (the state, representing the people, owns the resources that are available for free to everyone; for a limited time to make sure everyone gets the opportunity) can also help with free access to the hardware to make use of those free software tools.
The modern DIY movement is working to expand that access to other areas of work as the early movement did more than a hundred years ago.

[klikkolee]

I feel like the phrase "abolish private property" redefines "private property" to have different meaning to what the vast majority of people use it to mean. Saying something like "stores and factories should not be private property" will make far more sense to people than saying something like "private property should not exist! Wait! Your private property is not actually private property, so it's fine!".

[hunterfinan]

Does anyone know what the name of the video at 3:37? The one about the Spanish Civil War?

[Norcaldaddy]

I’ve always wondered about the means of funding a new business, home, etc. If money is abolished in this hypothetical world, then how do these types of projects come to fruition??

[saddoro]

I always like things that help me explain things easier

[LiveShowVideos]

I haven’t had this answered yet :
Who buys the tools/machines to keep industry up to date/ maintained ?
As well as paying work comp insurance/medical etc ….

I’m very pro M4A -
And even UBi -

But I’d like to have this clarification moving forward in my support for it.

Thanks In advanced

[arc]

What movie are the clips from? It looks like a movie about the anarchists during the Spanish civil war. If it is I’d like to watch it! Great info btw, I’m not an anarchist but open to new ideas. I appreciate the channel thanks.

[opbattleaxe]

“Land is owned and used by everyone”. Let’s start by letting strangers into your home you live in. I put stock into it not working out and that would be the wake up call that this is a horrendous idea.