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Social Mutualism

"Expand democracy even in the workplace!"

0 Intro

Social Mutualism is a leftist libertarian ideology that advocates for more government transparency, (less government regulation) and simplifying hierarchical structures.
More local decision-making and decentralization with more direct democracy. (state laws)
Socialist goals can be achieved via workplace reforms, participatory democracy and more freedoms from the state.
Give everyone shelter, food, healthcare and education, if you want more/better you work. UBI 'nuf said.
Let workers vote on business matters via workplace democracy.


Social Mutualism is influenced by:
Mutualism, Pirate Politics, Experimentalism, Gradualism,
Participatory democracy, Welfarism, Labor rights, Libertarian Socialism, Vikiism.

0.1 What should we do?

1. UBI.
2. push for more government transparency.
3. start using alternative voting methods (ranking or grading). (more info at plato.stanford.edu)
3.1 call for the government to take citizens' initiatives more seriously.
4. scale down the government and justice system.
4.1 start from easiest: UBI, drug laws.
4.2 then onto more harder stuff: IP-laws, patents, direct/liquid democracy.
5. let people allocate where (part of) their taxes go?

0.2 Ideologies

Mutualism and Pirate politics are the main inspirations of Social Mutualist ideology.

What is mutualism?

Mutualism is a libertarian/anarcho-socialist thought of ​​the labor movement, often associated with the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
In general, mutualism is based on the theory of labor value, according to which the producer should receive full compensation corresponding to the amount of work for the product of work, anything else is considered exploitation.
As a very anarchist ideology, it also advocates more bottom-up decision-making instead of top-down.

Mutualism on Wikipedia

What yarr pirate politics?

Pirate politics come from Pirate Parties (a label adopted by political parties around the world.) which was created as a protest against changes to copyright law.
The pirates have spread into a larger center libertarian ideology of civil liberty, participatory democracy, privacy and internet freedoms.

Pirate Party on Wikipedia

1 Government

1.1 Participation

1.1.1 Liquid democracy

More effort should be put into researching the possibility of liquid democracy and how to put it in use.
One example could be to use the Citizens Initiative website where people could either vote directly or allocate their vote to another person.

What is it?

Liquid democracy is a form of democracy where every person has a vote in decisions, they can either give their vote directly on decisions or give their vote to another person/party.

1.1.2 Voting

As with liquid democracy we should research alternative voting methods and how to put them to use.

more info at plato.stanford.edu

1.3 Army

The state must either make army conscription optional or make conscription mandatory to everyone regardless of their gender identity.

1.4 EU

2 Economics

2.1 Taxation

2.1.1 Allocation of taxes

There could be a system to allocate where part of your taxes go, as not to fund programs you don't agree with.

It could be handled on the national tax website (Vero.fi in Finland) as you pay your taxes you can either use the government recommended allocation of your tax money,
or customize it to your own liking to send a message to the government to focus more on specific parts of policy

Finnish government tax income (in Finnish)
List of finnish government services funded by taxes (in Finnish)

2.1.2 Taxable sources

Definitely: Income tax

Unnecessary: Gift tax

Inheritance tax?
on one hand people shouldn't gain from inheriting tons but people shouldn't be taxed crazy amounts for giving people money.

2.1.3 On taxation is theft

My opinion on "Taxation is theft":

It is not, you're paying for essential services everyone including you in the country uses.

I do wish for a system where if you don't pay taxes you lose access to public services and/or have to pay out of pocket.

There could also be a system to allocate where part of your taxes go, as not to fund programs you don't agree with. (see section "2.1.1 Allocation of taxes")

2.2 Freedoms of the market

As long as companies are run democratically and take care of the workers and consumers it's allright.

3 Privacy and personal freedoms

3.1 Individual freedoms

Freedoms should be restricted only when it is necessary to protect the freedoms and rights of others.

Individual freedoms include the right to self-determination even when it could harm the person's own well being.

Steps should be taken towards reducing bureaucracy and government control to grant people more freedom in their lives.

3.2 Freedom of speech

freedom of speech, even unpopular speech should be allowed,
as long as it doesn't violate the liberties of others.

Individual services may limit these rights, as they are private services.

3.3 Individuals right to privacy

Violations of privacy include for example intrusion into thoughts, opinions, beliefs, relationships and ways of life of others.

Even the smallest restrictions on privacy protection must be very well justified.

State surveillance of citizens inevitably leads to abuses, and there is no basis for it in a free society.

3.4 Equality of legal protection

An individual shall have access to legal protection regardless of their financial situation.
Anyone who has been unlawfully acted against by the authorities must have the right to reasonable compensation without the burden of a trial.
Legislation's task is not to make citizens unequal, but everyone should be equal before the law.
The equality of citizens can be realized in a meaningful way by removing the division of people into different groups.

4 Equality

Social Mutualists believe in radical equality where everyone is treated fairly when it comes to:
gender, age, origin, citizenship, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity,
family relationships, health condition, disability, sexual orientation or other reason related to the person.

The state...
- Must operate so that it respects all biological genders and the diversity of gender identity.
- Does not need to know an individual's gender and thusly it should be removed from citizens IDs.
- Must either make army conscription optional or make conscription mandatory to everyone regardless of their gender.
- Give parental leave equally to both/all parental guardians.
- Must not give preferential treatment to certain religions.

5 Rights

5.1 Access to information

Education and information should be freely available for those interested in learning about anything.
Scientific research produced with tax funds must be accessible to taxpayers.
We must dismantle the structures that lead to paying first for research, then for publishing it, and finally for reading it.
The money that is now directed to publishing platforms could be used for research.

5.2 Copyright reform

Why you need to get profit from 70+ years old content that could instead be reused and remixed into more value?

bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh bruh

I propose content to be released into the public domain 30-40 years from creation date.

5.3 Digitalization

Empty

something about empowering peoples rights via digital services

6 Safety

6.1 Anti-terrorism

Breaking individuals privacy (as stated in section 3.3) as a means of preventing terrorism is not effective.

*write more stuff about good alternatives here*

6.2 Police and fire department

The police force and fire department should be organized at a local level, having a changing board of directors to ensure public benefit.

6.3 Gun control

The current gun control in Finland is sufficient.

We should allow individuals to bear arms for recreational and/or wildlife hunting use,
with strong background checks and misuse reporting system.

6.4 Traffic

Empty

Probably something about personal risks, no surveillance

7 Social systems

7.1 Basic income

Universal basic income is a requirement heading into the future of automation and personal freedoms.

7.2 Healthcare

Free healthcare is a human right.

7.3 Drug abuse

Drug problems should be taken care of by healthcare systems as treatment of addiction, rather than punishing all drug users by arresting them.

We should setup drug use rooms where a doctor or similarily specialized personnel overlook a clients use of drugs and recommend possible paths of care for drug problems.

8 Employment and education

Work in progress...

Something about expanding workplace democracy and work training

9 Energy and climate

9.1 Nuclear and renewable energy

Prioritize nuclear power until renewable technology improves to the point it outputs all the energy needed.
Nuclear power harms way less people than the dino juices.
It is necessary to become carbon neutral and free from fossil fuels as soon as possible.
Individuals should not be scape goated into making "greener" decisions.

9.2 Protect nature

Yea idk why i put this section here.

Will add something along the lines of Extinction Rebellion later.

10 Other

10.1 Food waste

To minimize food waste we should encourage food producers to discount or give away any food that would otherwise go to waste.
Schools and other public institutions should give away food to take home and/or sell it to non-members at a low cost.
Restaurants should give workers the opportunity to take home food that would otherwise go to waste and/or sell it to customers at a discount.
Grocery stores should also discount food waste with a discount basket or membership discounts.
An extra example is to give the food waste to charities sharing food and giving to people who need it the most.

10.1 Historical monuments

If a majority of citizens vote against having historical monument displayed publically the monument should be moved to a museum, not be destroyed.