Edith Fischer, Brisbane
The Queensland Greens have announced their policy platform for the Queensland State elections. Along with the usual mix of progressive liberal social reforms, one demand struck me as worth commenting upon. In alignment with the national Greens party, and in alliance with some in the agrarian-conservative National Party, the QLD Greens are calling for the Coles and Woolworths supermarkets to be broken up, limiting market share to 20% per region, and selling excess stores to 3rd parties.
While many progressives may be inclined to support this “trust-busting” effort as a means to reduce grocery prices, communists should ardently oppose such a move. The development of consumer retail monopolies is a progressive development in the growth of the capitalist economy. These firms benefit from immense economies of scale and monopsonist buying power that allows them a competitive edge. To break them up would limit these productivity gains, and encourage the formation of inefficient, smaller capitalist firms. The working class will find it far easier to organise for better wages against a duopoly of massive firms. It will find the struggle against many small grocery stores far more difficult.
Of course, the monopsonists at Coles and Woolworths are driving up living costs with their price gauging. Workers can and should address this. However, the solution is not to be found in the dreams of the petite-bourgeois trust-busters. It is found in nationalisation and consumer-worker cooperatives.
PARTISAN! 