Skip to main content

Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Linking Opposition & Alternatives

Image
October 3, 2016

A Cooperative Manifesto

Authors
Summary

Cooperative development is the most important social change work that a person can do.

Image
February 19, 2024

May First Movement Technology: Digital Radicalism

Summary

Resistance in the digital environment demands that we center our values, intentions, and dreams, focusing on other ways to live, be, and know. May First Movement Technology is a cooperative (primarily based in the United States and Mexico) that aims to put these values into practice: digital media that supports social struggles and grassroots movements working to create the world we know is possible.

Image
February 12, 2024

Global Tapestry of Alternatives: Weaving Transformative Connections

Summary

Macro-transformation does not happen from individual initiatives acting alone: large shifts become possible when a critical mass of movements for radical resistance and constructive alternatives is able to coalesce through horizontal networks.

Image
February 1, 2024

Commons and Commoning: A Progressive Vision of a Good Society

Authors
Summary

I delivered the following remarks last week at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, in Oxford, England, on January 5, 2024. It was part of a session in the Oxford Town Hall with the noted British activist-scholar-commoner Guy Standing, entitled, "Commons and Commoning: A Progressive Vision of a Good Society." 

Image
January 8, 2024

Creating a Support System for Platform Cooperatives in Thailand

Summary

In Thailand, several traditional cooperatives are offering products and services through digital platforms. While these may be considered Platform Co-ops, their primary revenue does not stem from the platform but from conventional business operations. This differs from the focus of this blog article, which refers to businesses that operate online through websites or mobile apps and are characterized by democratic decision-making and platform ownership by workers and users.

Image
November 27, 2023

The DisCO Conspiracy

Summary

Stacco Troncoso gives an overview of the DisCO (Distributed Cooperative) model, which he alternately describes as a brand, an econoimc LARP, and an open source conspiracy to take over the world.

Image
November 6, 2023

The Spanish Civil War: Lessons in Economic Democracy

Summary

The Spanish Civil War and Revolution of 1936 was arguably the 20th century’s greatest experiment in economic democracy. Seizing the opportunity opened by the conflict between the Spanish Republic and right-wing Nationalists, Spain’s workers and peasants built a new economy in the midst of the chaos. 

Image
October 26, 2023

The Ghana Susu: Reimagining Financial Development

Summary

In Ghana, a centuries-old financial system called Susu provides an example of effective bottom-up development that contributes meaningfully to reducing poverty and economic inequality.

Image
October 2, 2023

The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy

Authors
Summary

This week we are joined by David Cobb, Lydia Lopez, Jyoung Carolyn Park, Kali Akuno, and Petula Hanley to hear about how to use/influence public policy advance individual policies as part of a coherent strategy to democratize the entire economy.

Image
September 18, 2023

What is the Union Cooperative Initiative?

Summary

At the June 2023 meeting of the USFWC's Union Co-ops Council, Jonny Sopotiuk presented on the Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI), an exciting project out of Vancouver, BC founded in 2021. Jonny shares about the history of the UCI, its co-ops and prospects, their strategies, and how the union co-op model is proving successful.