[diggers350] Re: How to switch to common ownership

[Exley, Duncan]

Re  the end of feudalism:

I reckon It's worth discussing how to MAKE A CASE for that 
(Before discussing how to implement it) but, to be 
positive, I don't necessarily think that the cynics case 
(that a task's impossibility is directly proportional to 
how much it will achieve)is valid : 

On one level it's a bit like an integrated transport system.
(ie the vast majority would agree with it but:
i)no one outlined it them 
ii) no one asked them.)

But on another it's not:
"will this just affect big landowners, or are you wanting 
to nationalise my bathroom?"
"i don't want land given to me, I'm a hairdresser"
"It's going to bugger the economy up, innit? there goes my 
job".

I'd say that the only hope for such a dream is if a case 
can be built that your average person in the street would 
strongly agree with, feel to be to their own advantage, 
and feel to be within their power to act upon: Large scale 
effective public support would be the only way to achieve 
it.

Dunx


On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 18:01:32 +0100 Stephen Bint 
<digger at barrysworld.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> I am keen to start a national discussion of the end of feudalism. That would
> involve discussing the advantages of ending it, the way of ending it and how the
> money should be shared.
> 
> I find that most people drop the ball when they say, “landowners would never let
> us have it back and they are so powerful and we are just the sheep.” What
> nonsense. Whose army is it? The fact that powerful people will be inconvenienced
> be nationalising the land, does not make it so impossible there is no point
> discussing it!
> 
> Because most potential allies become limp at this subject, I am putting the ways
> of achieving common ownership to the top of the list. Would you mind helping me,
> by sending me any ideas about ways of getting it back which I haven’t thought
> of? Here are a few I have come up with:
> 
> 1. We could do a ‘Thatcher’ on the landowners. A ‘Thatcher’ is a large-scale
> police operation in which the target citizens have their homes destroyed, are
> beaten bloody in front of their children and dragged off to cells on trumped-up
> charges which can later be thrown out of court. There is no legal impediment to
> doing this to the landowners because the state’s right to do that to its
> citizens has been established by the Thatcher government at Stonehenge in 1985.
> 
> 2. We could convert all permanent land titles to 200-year leases.
> 
> 3. We could announce the nationalisation of the land, 100 years in advance. All
> current landowners would be dead by the time it actually occurs and anyone
> purchasing land after the announcement would pay less for it, knowing it was
> coming.
> 
> 4. We could announce a referendum to take place in 100 years time, on whether it
> will be nationalised. This is the same as (3), only it is not finally decided
> whether it will actually happen.
> 
> 5.  We could buy it back in forced sales, effectively getting it at a discount.
> 
> 6. We could all pull together and buy it back for the full asking price.
> 
> So you see, it isn’t impossible, it’s just something to discuss. I welcome your
> comments and suggestions, because I am working on the problem of ending
> feudalism all on my own, with no feedback and I am flagging now. Does anyone
> beside me think it is worth discussing?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Was the salesman clueless? 
> Productopia has the answers.
> http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/555 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 

----------------------------------------
Duncan Exley, Student Activities, UWE Students' Union, coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY.
Phone:0117 344 2719
Fax:0117 976 3909
Email: Duncan.Exley at uwe.ac.uk

"Nothing in this message constitues an order. Orders can 
only be made with an official SU order form."


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