Negotiation

Induction, Part 4

Negotiation

The procedure of the Communist University in its previous courses has worked well, but is not so easy to follow consistently in this fourteenth course.

We have nearly always been able to present up to four alternative texts in any week, using one of them as the default leading text. The introductions (openings to discussion) have been written like short book reviews of the original material that is given in the form of files.

We have continued to do this in the first three parts of this “Induction” course, but as we come to the fourth part, it becomes less convenient.

This part is broadly concerned with Corporations, including both co-operatives and companies. The next three parts will deal with Office Processes, Fundraising and Events, and Mass Organisations. We do not have the same kind of stock of original texts for these topics as we do for political ones. This being the case, the order is somewhat reversed. In the four items making up a weekly part, we may be obliged to start with more preliminary matters, and work up to a conclusion, instead of taking the main item first.

In live discussion, we will have to try to take all these four items into account.

In the case of Negotiation, we are taking it this time as a pre-requisite for understanding business. It will be followed in this part by Contract and Company Law plus Juristic Persons; Entrepreneurship, Trading, and Markup; and Co-operatives and Joint-Stock Companies. The four items will be constructed as a series with the intention of creating an outline of corporate entities, including but not limited to trading entities. Political parties, trade unions and similar entities also have some of the attributes of corporations formed under the law, as do NGOs.

We are still using the MIA document on Negotiation (attached and downloadable via link below) that we have used in other courses. It describes negotiation in terms of trade union practice. But negotiation happens in all kinds of different situations. Negotiation precedes contract.

The document described many of the practical realities that can take place during the approach to a “deal”. The deal itself will be a contract. We will look at formal contract law in the next item.

Negotiation is a universal skill used in any kind of business. What may be learned for the purposes of trade union business, will be applicable in many other circumstances, including circumstances of private individuals.

• The above is to introduce an original reading-text: Marxists Internet Archive, Negotiation.