INDEP online Talk with Matt Vidal on Lean Production, Worker Control, and Socialist Efficiency in the Age of Climate Crisis

Critics of lean production, including many Marxists, argue that it is a management system that was designed to deskill labour and intensify work. It is an inherently capitalist management system that should be resisted by workers and rejected by trade unions, the implication being that it would have no place in a socialist economy, and no role in socialist planning.

Against this, Vidal argues that the forces of production have a relative autonomy from capitalist relations of production and that lean production is a general management system compatible with worker empowerment, strong unions, and worker control.

In this talk, he will argue that under socialism, worker managed production and service organisations – within and beyond manufacturing – should adopt lean production methods. He will argue that socialists need to take efficiency seriously, particularly in the age of climate crisis, will distinguish between capitalist efficiency and socialist efficiency, and will argue that lean production is necessary for achieving socialist efficiency in a burning world. He will offer some reflections on the role lean production can play in socialist planning.

This event will take place in English.

Please register yourself here to participate.