Alternative Model

People's eyes tend to glaze over when I talk about this vision. I want to see a kind of manufacturing enterprise which only benefits the workers who produce the product. All workers will be paid a good salary. Any profits above the cost of manufacturing the products will be distributed equally among the workers who make them. If a worker leaves the enterprise, her or his share is added to the total amount distributed to the other workers. If the worker were to leave for retirement, she or he would, of course, receive retirement benefits, but no longer a share of the distribution of the surplus of the company.

If workers make decent salaries to begin with, any shares they receive would be welcomed, but not essential. There would be no motive for the company to gouge prices, rig markets, or fall into any of the egregious practices of US profit driven corporations that need to pay share holders, more and more at the expense of the workers whose labor makes the product. Workers who make enough money to support themselves and their families decently and who contribute necessary goods to the society would have the dignity and self respect such things allow.

I do not here advocate a society where no one could benefit from the work of others, though I think it would be more fair and just. I do advocate for some instances of companies where 1) the workers are the ones to benefit from their labor; 2) labor costs are high by choice; and 3) no consideration of paying outsiders who do not work for the company inform any decisions.

Getting Closer

We are getting closer to having a viable product. Today the two of us who are not the designer did trials of the prototype. We are quite pleased with the results.

The next step is a trial with people who are not involved in the project in any way to see if there is real interest in this product. We can then begin to think about production and serious marketing of the product and getting it into distribution.

I continue to want to work on more alternative production, worker owned cooperative production for example, but I have not enough experience to know what to make much less how to distribute products.

We talk about local distribution of this product ourselves, and we certainly can do that. The others still hope for corporate investment in it, I believe, which might mean more money, but would mean less control and maybe no control and ultimately the moving of production off shore and into sweat shops.

What do people need? Food, of course, clothes, shelter, transportation. Are there opportunities in those areas? I feel blind and stupid today, as though someone else could see just what to do right now.

The New Shovel

Since it snowed yesterday, George asked if he could use the new shovel to remove snow. Naturally, I said yes. I do hope he wiped it off; a rusty shovel is not good.

The snow, however, is good. It was very wet snow because the temperature hovered around freezing. I kept wishing it were colder so it would have been more comfortable to be out in it. I came home from doing errands wet and chilled. Though it was not my favorite snow ever, we need snow. I trust it is doing its job of providing water to the soil and thus to the plants.

I look forward to digging later and to seeing what kind of soil I can grow.

Adapting and Continuing

Now that my status with this particular project has been clarified, I am looking for another opportunity to manufacture some useful object right here in New York City in a way that favors workers who make it and people who buy it. Anyone for subway parts?

In the meanwhile, I am still acting on my commitment as artist to artist with the other project. It is snowing hard with strong winds, but I ventured out to get a price quotation from a printer with whom American Creative Dance has done business. Naturally, after I fought through the elements, I found the printer closed today.

I did see the proof of a print from the vector file yesterday and was very encouraged; it looks great. I believe there are real possibilities for this product. I also looked for a space that we can afford to rent in which to hold a focus group. If we find that no one is interested in this product, regardless of how good it might be, we will need to rethink things.

Moving on toward our goals for 2010!

Progress, Hard Decisions, and Big Issues

On the very positive side, a thorny problem--specifically finding a person to make a vector file for us at a price we can pay--appeared to resolve itself. I say appeared, but really the solution was the result of taking actions: telephoning people recommended to us by others and asking still others if they might know someone. The perception that no answer would ever come after calls to fewer than five prospective providers of the service is normal. The truth, however, is that the right person came forward after fewer than five efforts. I need to remember this. We didn't call a hundred people; we didn't even call twenty people, not ten.

As we continue to determine what kind of working relationship we four have and how to establish clear lines among us, one of us agreed to come up with a basic partnership agreement. Another one of us had already failed to attend any but the first meeting and to return calls and email regularly. We other three decided to let that fourth know that we were moving forward as a threesome. It was painful, but the best evidence of desire to work on this project is work on it.

For my own part, as I read the partnership agreement and thought about my experience so far, I became very aware that, though I want to see this endeavor succeed, it looks more like a sole proprietorship than a partnership to me. The designer of the product we are working on and the person I think owns it in a serious way said that without my work so far and that of the third person, the project would not be where it is. I do not discount my own and the third person’s contribution and agree that without our help, the project would not be where it is today. It is, however, perfectly all right for a person like the designer to need help, to ask for it, and to receive it, without helpers having to be remunerated in any way. I think it will be best for me to continue my commitment to this year's goals for the enterprise without owning any part of the business.

Advocates of capitalism are wrong to say that only profit motivates people to contribute to society. I don't know that a desire for profit necessarily leads to greed and exploitation of others and of resources in all cases, but I do know that unregulated capitalism does. I also know that many other values motivate people. In this endeavor, I am motivated first and strongest by my desire to see my friend succeed. I am also motivated by my personal and professional mission to support the work of other artists (the other two members of our group are also artists). A further motivation is learning about how to start up a business.

On that last score, one thing I know now, not just intellectually, but experientially, is that a start up must have enough money. As a group, we do not have enough money to achieve the production goals we have set. The designer actually does have resources to commit and the partnership agreement called for expenses contributed by any of us to be reimbursed from sales of the product and then any profit shared by us equally. I had called earlier for an exact accounting of everything that is spent so that we know for sure what costs are rather than anyone contributing goods in kind or out of pocket expenses that are not counted. Certainly, the proposed agreement appears fair, especially in a system where money is valued more than the work and the people. I don't mean by that that the individuals concerned have those values, but that the values are so pervasive that they obtain without conscious choice. There was also talk of eventual investment from outside (perhaps corporate money) that would, in the US capitalist model, lead to ownership by outside persons or entities of some part of the business.

What would it be like for someone who has money to contribute it to a start up and still have only the share that everyone else has if they actually work on the project or no share at all if they do not? Why should money be more important than the work and people? Why should anyone who does not actually contribute to the production of something gain any financial value from it? This creates a need to deprive the actual workers in order to pay those who don't work. What possible real measure can be applied to money, work, and people? If there isn't one, then how can people proceed in these matters? What equitable system for providing funds for the production of things and remuneration for the people who make them can there be?

I do not want to replicate the non-productive capital model that exits in the US. I want to see the people who do the work be the only owners of the means of production, to be the only ones to decide what to make and how to do it. I want to see "work" extended to unpaid and mostly invisible productive and necessary activity that takes place in human societies. I also want to see production of many fewer things, most of them either essential to life or at the very least useful by small, local enterprises that benefit the workers first and then the local community. I am interested in alternatives to both capitalism and globalism. It would be ideal for this kind of enterprise to also take less of anyone's time and for all people to make "a living but not a killing".

All these questions and issues are very important to me. Our project is allowing me to pose the questions and think about the issues and to explore alternatives to the prevailing and accepted models.

Not Nearly There Yet, But Moving

Today, I met with the colleague on this project who is the designer. She had reached an impasse and just needed support. We decided that this is just a stage of the work. I affirmed that we have a soluble problem, we just have not found the solution yet.

My colleague did, in fact, have some ideas of what to do next, at least whom to ask for help. While I was present to offer support, she made several telephone calls which did not provide an instant solutions, but which did help us all to feel as though we are making progress.

I agreed to ask George for some information about a particular kind of software and its applications. He was able to tell me what we had rather determined ourselves: that we need expert help in one area. The calls my colleague made were to those sorts of experts. It appears that whatever process we use, we will need the services of one of these persons.

On Wednesday, in plenty of time to report at our Friday meeting, I plan to talk with a printer I know who did good work for American Creative Dance to see if he provides the kind of printing we want and at what cost. Once we get the expert help, we will need a printer.

I am beginning to feel anxious about money for this project. We plan to make a small number of these things this year, but it does not appear to me that the very small amount of money we have now will be enough. Then what shall we do? This issue is especially interesting to me. This project may not turn out to be the radical kind of organization I am looking for, but I will have an opportunity in a safe place to put some ideas out for discussion. I am learning a lot.

We may have the initial partnership agreement to review this week at our meeting also. That, too, will give opportunities to look at alternatives that are not common in US enterprises. It will be interesting to see what results.

Copyrights and Patents

As I promised my colleagues, I telephoned a friend (a good amateur tango dancer) who is an intellectual property lawyer to discuss possibilities for our new product. He gave generous information about options and said if we bring him a graphic of it, he would know more. Now we will discuss this issue at our next meeting a week from today.

Another step taken. Many more to go.

Small Steps

I read minutes of Friday's meeting of all participants in our manufacturing project, saw corrections from one of my colleagues. I did a little research on what looked like an American supplier of a major product we need only to discover it is a subsidiary of a US corporate giant, alas, and reported on that to the others.

These are the little steps I can take today that are leading to our achieving our goal of manufacturing and having in distribution a thousand of the things we are making right here, right now in New York, once a city with much light industry.

I know from my sixty-three years of life that big changes often result from a series of small steps. I am willing to take these small steps. In fact, this process is very enjoyable so far and it is not at all difficult to make these small steps.

What is lacking here for me is an element of solidarity. We are working closely as a group, but we are not in any way affiliated with others who seek major systemic changes in US manufacturing and the US economy. I think about that. This project may or may not turn out to be a vehicle for solidarity. What it is doing for sure is giving me experience in starting up a project that already is a cottage enterprise and may grow into light industry here in New York. That alone is a lot.

Seeds of Thyme

A bottle of McCormick dried thyme leaves that I bought at the local Gristedes supermarket on 86th and First Avenue cost over $7.00 with tax. A smaller bottle of another McCormick variety, cost $6.00 but it was worthless powdered thyme.

In addition to not knowing who grew the thyme plants, where, how, when, and by whom it was processed, I also know that for little more than seven dollars worth of materials (and a lot of my labor to be sure), I could grow enough thyme in George's courtyard to supply all of this Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side. I would not use chemical fertilizers nor pesticides nor genetically engineered seeds and would provide it fresh for six months or more of the year. People could dry their own if they wanted or I could provide naturally dried thyme during the months when fresh is not available.

I do see locally grown herbs in the Key Food store on Second Avenue and 92nd Street in the summer, so some people are working on this.

A hunt for seeds to plant in my milk jug "serres" has been very unsatisfying. In spite of all the Italian gardeners in my Carroll Gardens neighborhood, the places where I could swear there was seed for sale just a few years ago have none now. Barb and I were in a garden store in Soho a few years ago, but it must have closed; I can't find it. Calls to a number of places in this city (I refuse to even consider a big chain anywhere in the five boroughs it may exist) have revealed no seed for sale.

Organic seed is available online, so the carrots, lettuces and French beans will be grown from seed produced outside of the city, ordered online, and delivered to George's. Pity.

Does anyone know of a source of seed anywhere in New York?

Carrots, Lettuces, and French Beans

The story says, "Lettuces, French beans, and radishes," but I want carrots. Also herbs and marigolds to ward off insects. I had announced to George that I was not going to consult about the details, but rather that I am going to grow food in his tiny New York City garden, currently wild and untended with the remnants of a few plants from previous tenants. I asked for and was given a shovel as a Christmas present and will mostly grow soil organisms this first year. Also, since my previous gardening has all been in a different climate, I will learn about how to grow plants in this one. Barb, George's sister who gardens in a Chicago suburb, gave me some ideas about starting seed in gallon milk jugs that can be made into mini greenhouses and I already know a lot about building soil. I must also learn how to make compost in this climate with what is at hand. The arrival of a truck load of manure from my brother's Tennessee farm, the best present he ever gave me, is not only not forthcoming but would be overwhelming in the space here. Also, the grass clippings from a lawn which were staples of the compost heaps I have had that the Southern sun just cooked without much work on my part are not part of this picture either.

All of this is, of course, fun for someone like me who enjoys digging in the dirt. It is also what I can do now to resist the products of the corporate agriculture that is polluting the planet and poisoning its people.

There are rather a number of New Yorkers who grow food in our postage stamp sized back courtyards and on the roofs of many of our buildings. I don't yet have any aspirations to joining with others to distribute food in any way, but I may do that. One of my colleagues, an artist, in our alternative manufacturing project, wants to learn how to garden. She and I really enjoy working on things together, so we will do this. That is already a step toward broadening the scope of this effort.

More later.

Making Things

To my right were examples of the product we are making in early stages of design. We sit around the table and discuss the issues on our agenda. In some ways this may look like any small enterprise in the early startup stages.

We are not ready yet to publicize our product for a variety of reasons, but I can say that it is not subway parts. Last summer on that long walk from Park Slope home, I had that flash of insight about talking to my friend Jeremy about making something--like subway parts. I wanted to do something to reverse the flight of manufacturing from this country. I had read that when NYC wanted new subway cars, there were none made in the US; the city had to buy foreign ones. Making subway cars really seemed impossible and subway parts not very likely, but I liked the idea. There is something solid and important about subway parts.

It is perhaps more appropriate for me to be collaborating with other artists who want to make a product right here in the city of New York, things more in line with skills I already have, things we can make ourselves right now.

My original inspiration was not only about manufacturing here but about a very different model as well, maybe a worker owned business, a more egalitarian institution than prevails in most US business. I want to avoid the capitalist, corporate model all together. My idea was to produce something useful right now, to share any profits, ultimately to have all workers earn "a living, not a killing" doing it.

When I learned that my friends were interested in manufacturing a specific item here in the city as opposed to in China or somewhere as well, we decided to start exploring together. We have already done research on materials and suppliers, gotten suggestions from helpful individuals about ways to produce our first products, set goals for this year, made some prototypes--not bad for three weeks.

Our goals are modest and attainable. We plan to have in distribution one thousand of these items by the end of the year. Our enterprise will be more the "cottage industry" type this first year, but we are thinking now about what more complex production would require. Everyone has put in a small amount of money to get us started and we are all contributing labor and will contribute much more of it. One important result will be to know whether there is really any demand for what we are making. If we find there is a market, we will already know some things about how to produce more items and will have some funds to expand production.