Both Aníbal and Fredo responded quite quickly to our strategy paper, which we wrote partly as a reaction to their earlier criticisms of some of our positions (see link: https://nextcloud.arbeitszeitrechnung.org/s/ofo5DtsR4YEEetZ )
We would like to point to these critiques here on our blog, since we explicitly welcome critical debate on the practical-political questions surrounding labor-time accounting and its implementation, and – as far as possible – we want to make such debate visible to the public! See the critiques here: (https://leftdis.wordpress.com/2023/12/15/a-discussion-on-labour-time-accounting-and-co-operatism/)

That said, we would like to note that we will not be writing a reply to the critiques by Aníbal and Fredo in the near future. This is not because we lack interest in the debate, but because we are currently quite absorbed with other topics and projects. It is also because we fear that another round of back-and-forth between us might lead to a certain amount of redundancy, and to positions becoming more entrenched against one another – despite the fact that we undoubtedly share the same theoretical-political foundation: namely, that a planned economy can only lead to a libertarian socialism if it is based on workers’ self-management and labor-time accounting!

In this regard, we are likewise convinced that only a proletarian revolution – however it might look and unfold – can lead to such socialism. Our strategic considerations, however, revolved around the question of how the idea of labor-time accounting might spread here and now. Existing worker cooperatives could play an important role in this. But we also think the opposite is conceivable. At the present moment, we cannot foresee whether or how a new (council communist) workers’ movement will form. For this reason, we do not believe this question can be satisfactorily resolved on a purely theoretical level. We do not see this as a flaw in the theory, but as an expression of the historical situation – one which we intend to change!

We wish you a happy New Year!

IDA, December 2023