Title changed from Look At The System July
2020
‘The System’ Explained
And How We
Should Organise Society
by Ed McDonnell, a
retired lecturer who taught workplace
union representatives,
active in politics and worker's
organisation in the UK
for fifty years.
Introductory
Text
‘It’s
the system’ - what shopfloor workers
always
said to this writer when he worked
in
industry and argued against the wealth
and
power of employers and the rich.
‘A lesson from the Obama years –
failure to
seize the opportunities offered by
the great
recession to reform an economic
system that
has worked against most Americans
for four
decades.’ (The Observer
17-1-2021)
It’s ridiculous, the state we are
in. It’s because
people look too much to politics
(or, vaguely,
‘metropolitan elites’ or even ‘the
swamp’) as
the cause of our problems instead
of the whole
system, and only to politicians for
the answers.
But it’s futile to discuss politics
– from what
politicians do
to the views of the ordinary
person you are talking to – without
referring
to the wider system, and their
place in it.
Because everything doesn’t come
from politics
and from politicians. They don’t
govern all of
society’s relationships and
practices, like,
particularly, those in our economic
activity.
It’s the other way round – politics
emerges
from overall society, from all the
relationships
where we produce, buy and sell by
making
many deals in business and work,
and maybe,
crucially, organise - to make our
living or make
money – the system.
Political rights to influence this
system are
important. But with so many
relationships
in the whole system, and political
rights
being (at best) amorphous and
insufficient,
they also keep us at a distance
from it.
What also does this is how the
system is
mystified as ‘the economy’, ‘free
markets’,
‘economics’
or ‘capitalism’.
Everyone knows there are big things
wrong
with the outcomes of the
system but without
a clear view of the rights and
wrongs of the
processes
we can’t think and act clearly.
Take the huge disparity in wealth. People
accept the rich’s case that they
earn their
wealth from their own efforts
because they
don’t understand the process that
enables
them to take it from workers.
When you have the system clear in
your head,
it’s easier to cope with politics.
And life too.
It’s because we’ve not had a clear
view of the
system as a common reference point
that some,
to find meaning in the world,
resort to culture
wars and crazy conspiracy theories.
These works explain the system, not
with
academic talk of “-isms” but simply
by
showing how we interact ordinarily
as fellow-citizens. They show how
humanity can relate fairly and build
a secure, sustainable global
society.
The System Explained -
-
explains the system clearly,
-
relates it to daily experience
-
uses everyday language.
More
>>>> the Introductory Text continues in
a
1500 word summary of the book.
Other Key Free Downloads :
1.
SysEx - The Ten Minute Read Large.pdf
a 5,000 word
summary
(large text for
phones/devices).
and SysEx
- The Ten Minute Read Normal.pdf
(small text)
the full book. A long read but just read
to page 27 and you get the basics.
(To buy the book
printed and posted, $13.55 plus postage,
from
Lulu, anywhere in the world,
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/ed-mcdonnell/the-system-explained/paperback/product-2ev2qd.html )
4(a) How To Talk Politics With Each Other.pdf
.
will help you discuss politics with others,
in large text for smart
phones/devices
4(b) How To Talk Politics In Normal Text.pdf
4(c)…
for progressive movements, a version
with a group activity to use in
meetings…
How
To Talk Politics With Voters.pdf
Short,
taster downloads from the book ...
(in large font to read on smartphones/devices;
to print, use the
copies in normal text in the full book)
Employers are organised - as businesses
and public bodies - and their organisation
is recognised in
workplaces (obviously).
This piece shows how workers too are
entitled to have their organisation
recognised in
workplaces.
… there is no ‘middle’ class –
there’s mainly
the business class and the worker class
…
that’s all nations are
... the myths about competence, spending and tax
Brexit,
Trump and Populism.pdf
… blame the business
class, not outsiders
... if people do as
these writings urge
One-page
Summary Charts
...
how we relate in politics
… people’s right to organize as
workers
It's Your Money Not Theirs.pdf
… how we make
all that wealth
The
Right To Organise In Unions.pdf
is an extract from the full book
208
pages, v.2021.7
Buy it from Lulu by print-on-demand,
$8.00
plus postage,
Its own website is
End of website