How Employers Organize

Workers cannot blindly imitate employer organizations, but we should find it instructive.

Employers organize primarily as partnerships, corporations, etc..., on an industrial basis to take direct action on the job, to run it so as to get the most out of it. This means running us so that they get the most out of us. They even set up special departments to make sure they do run us that way.

Workers have little or no reason to compete or quarrel with each other, but we often find ourselves competing against each other. Employers have many reasons to compete or quarrel with each other, yet they manage to cooperate. The chief secret for that is that they organize special bodies for special purposes, and don't mix these purposes up. For example, they don't split up their trade association or federation over their political differences.

They have built many intricate financial organizations, including worldwide companies. Through these organizations the capitalists of even supposedly hostile nations work together. Many of their most critical undertakings depend on an unwritten mutual understanding of their collective interest. They make it hard for any employer who does not play along with them. And they have managed to keep on running the world although they have repeatedly made a mess of it.

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