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It seems that the implementation and the realization of our workers self-management was chiefly governed by a democratically liberał or »proudhonistic« concept.¹ What are the basie outlines of this concept?

First of all, the basis of society is represented by voluntary associa-tions of producers (mutualistic organizations) which do not need po-litical mediators in the form of State or political parties (the State is withering away). These organizations must have at their disposal a certain amount of »property« which is a synthesis of private and group ownership. Proudhon has difficulties as do our lawyers in the definition of the legał status of such organizations. This »legal status« is best explained by today’s concepts of group ownership i. e. a mix-ture of private and collective ownership (private especially as regards usi et frui, and collective as regards abuti).

Secondly, production relationships between associations of producers are based on a free exchange of products which presupposes rela-tions based on agreements or contracts between interested parties without the intervention of a third party. The society based on mutualistic associations is directed by the principle »service for service. product for product. loan for loan, insurance for insurance, credit for credit and guaranty for guaranty ... In this system the laborer is no longer a serf of the State, swamped by the ocean of community. He is a free man, truły, his own master, who acts on his initiative and is personally responsible«. (P. G. Proudhon).²

Thirdly, by putting the emphasis on free exchange as a principle of personal freedom and autonomy of association, the market appears as a basie medium of exchange, with the laws of supply and demand as regulators of production. »The advocates of mutualism are as fa-miliar as anyone with the laws of supply and demand and they will be careful not to infringe them. Detailed and frequently reviewed sta-tistics, precise information about needs and living standards, an ho-nest breakdown of cost prices, the foreseeing of all eventualities, the fixing after amicable discussion of a maximum and minimum profit margin, taking into account the risks involved, the organizing of re-gulating societies: these things, roughly speaking, constitute all the measures by means of which they hope to regulate the market. There will be as much liberty as you like, but morę important than liberty are sincerity, reciprocity and enlightenment for all.« (ibid. p. 70). It is not necessary to explain how the Yugoslav practice of »self-management discussions«, establishing profit margins, sincerity and reciprocity work in reality. Proudhon’s outlook on the market system was that of a bourgeois liberał in spite of the fact that he realized that the market should be controlled by a constant analysis of economic

^ł A morę detailed description of this concept can be found in my book .Power and Socialism«, that will be in print soon. There I am discussing other types of productive organizations, also the democraticalv-humanist or the functionalistic concept of workers self-management on which I am basing the criticism of our System.

* P. J. Proudhon, Selected Writings, Doubleday, 1969, page 59-60.

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