I will try to find a link. If I can't find one, I will try to post the essence of the theory here.
EDIT : Here's a link to the original work, it's written in Old German :-)
https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/ulbtirol/content/structure/3785404Also, I copied an essay on his work and crunched it through the Google translator - The result is not too bad, I think :-)
Here's the link to the essay :
https://www.ingenieur.de/technik/fachbereiche/rekorde/die-utopie-solidarismus-rudolf-diesel/Here it is (Sorry for the formatting) :
Rudolf Diesel's utopia of solidarismThe idea of the cooperative is at the center of Rudolf Diesel's utopia of solidarism.
In so-called Volkskassen, capital is collected for loans to joint operations.
These companies should cover all important needs.
In solidarism, Diesel's utopia says, the interests of the individual coincide with the interests of the general public.
100 years ago, in 1911, the diesel engine factory in Augsburg, which had been founded in 1898, came to an end.
The name Rudolf Diesel is inextricably linked with millions of engines and one fuel.
Little is known, however, that Diesel turned to not only technical, but also social issues. "Solidarism.
Natural economic salvation of man "was the title of a book published by" Rudolf Diesel, engineer in Munich "in 1903.
In it he presents the concept of an economy based on solidarity, in which the formerly dependent employees take the financing,
production and distribution of goods into their own hands.
"You are 50 million people in Germany who depend on salary, wages and salaries," writes Diesel, and further calculates:
If everyone were to pay an amount of just one penny per week into a "Volkskasse", this would result in a capital of half a million marks a week.
If a penny were put aside every day, "you have 182 million marks a year and in ten years already two billion marks available for your economic increase"
Rudolf Diesel's solidarism equates individual interests with collective interests
This savings procedure is the basis for the principle of solidarism, which Diesel understands as the "complete equation of the individual interest with the overall interest", "the free agreement of people to mutual justice through work, unity and love": "Solidarism is the sun, which shining evenly over all, through its mild warmth and its shining light, will awaken humanity from its hibernation to economic redemption. "
The linchpin of this sunrise is the founding of a "Volkskasse", in which the millions of pfennigs are brought together.
This Volkskasse with its accumulated capital serves as a lender and surety for joint operations of the treasury members, which Diesel describes as “beehives”:
“Just as for shoes, under the protection of the liability of the whole - the Volkskasse - you build other beehives for clothes and linen , Furniture, household appliances, etc. ”, which can ultimately satisfy the most important needs of the employees, the“ bees ”and others.
Rudolf Diesel's solidarism relies on cooperative self-help
It is not difficult to recognize the idea of cooperative self-help here.
Diesel, however, expanded the idea of cooperative financing and production by adding cooperative consumption:
“So your beehives exchange their goods; In this way, a swap warehouse is created in each of them, the goods of which are available to the bees and their family members ... at the cheapest prices imaginable, as there are no interim expenses ".
Diesel thus designs a closed cycle of financing, production and consumption of cooperative goods that neither compete with other producers nor appear in markets: “The true cooperative does not even enter general competition, neither for production nor for consumption , it only works for its own needs. ”So it is not about profit, but about the satisfaction of needs, a kind of industrial subsistence economy.
Diesel criticized the production cooperatives that existed at the time, such as the Albi glassworks, for being inconceivable as a general form of an economy.
This is for the simple reason "because, because of their mostly inadequate means, they cannot hold their own against the overpowering competition of the various forms of large-scale capitalist production or capitalist unification". They are cooperative internally, but capitalist externally.
Rudolf Diesel: Social institutions complement the cooperative principle
Rudolf Diesel supplements his model of cooperative work with social institutions. So every “beehive”, i.e. every cooperative enterprise, has to build a “spacious, bright, well ventilated and heated dining establishment” in which tasty dishes are offered at “bee prices”, and they also have “healthy, light, airy, spacious apartments” " to care. In addition, hospitals, schools, apprentice workshops and community houses should be built “with a restaurant and, if possible, with a garden”.
The idea of the company as the center of life is imposed here, as is known from real socialist countries, but also from large companies in the early days of capitalism. But the crucial difference to both is the voluntariness. In contrast to socialism, solidarism can be achieved “within the framework of existing laws, in peaceful development with complete individual freedom”; in contrast to capitalism, it is not based on the game of market forces, but “on the natural game of solidarity forces”.
