International Network for Democratic Economic Planning
= "an international network ... sharing the common goal of advancing a post-capitalist economic system based on democratic economic planning" [1]
URL = https://www.indep.network/
Description
"It is not the role of INDEP to endorse a single proposal for a post-capitalist society but to facilitate the rich research, debate, and experimentation on that question. However, as a network, we believe that humanity can only overcome the chronic dysfunction of capitalism, including the urgent ecological and climate crises, by transforming society to a system based on democratic economic planning, which we advocate as the alternative to both command and market economies.
Broadly, Democratic Planning means that important decisions over production, reproduction, consumption, distribution, investment – and, indeed, about our lives in general – are determined consciously and collectively via democratic processes rather than by state authorities or market forces."
(https://www.indep.network/about/)
Characteristics
"We reject Command Economies"
"We reject command economies and the direction of society by any elite, however well-intentioned. Democratic economic planning emerges in a society which is genuinely popular and free. This is not compatible with a state-dominated social order, characterised by elitist and autocratic governance, a hierarchical division of labour, and the instrumentalization of workers. Rather, democratic economic planning depends upon the self-organisation of communities, and is characterized by democratic governance and by a classless and need-supportive division of labour, and the autonomy of workers. We are committed to empowering individuals and communities to actively participate in shaping their destinies, cooperating autonomously rather than being controlled by state authorities.
"We reject Market Economies"
We also reject market society. This includes “Market Socialism” in its various forms. We acknowledge that the very definition of “market” is hotly contested and INDEP members will span a variety of opinions. Nonetheless, we do not endorse a society controlled by market forces and the cycle of capital, even with “worker control” of individual enterprises and/or profit-sharing. In a market economy, societal evolution is driven by the competition between enterprises for profit and growth in an environment where the dominant strategy is “grow or die”. This is an emergent process blind to human and ecological needs, wherein the structure of human activity is determined by narrow economic performance, price competition, the commodification of labour power, and a feedback loop of profit-investment-profit."