We call it different names, the work we do to humanize our workplaces, to build an inclusive economy and provide economic, social and racial justice: cooperative economy, solidarity economy, economic democracy, “movements moving together” organizing for economic and racial justice…this issue of GEO explores the different ways that people are cooperating in creating jobs and work we love, farmers markets, unions, building alternative economies, creating a more just society and rebuilding a city. This issue coincides with is the third Advancing the Development of Worker Cooperatives discussion conference on ways to increase worker cooperatives—by looking at the environment or “ecosystem,” if you will—where cooperatives are born and thrive. How can we use what we are all doing to advance the work of building cooperation in all its forms? Like our regional associations, this issue will continue to expand.
Regional Networks
- Caitlin Quigley of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance, writes about Cross-sector Cooperation in Philadelphia and the history of the city's cooperative alliances
- Gloria Lowe of the We Want Green, Too, in Building the New Detroit: Reviving and Re-imagining the Motor City writes about Detroit community’s efforts to rebuild Detroit in the face of the city’s bankruptcy, economic breakdown and rebuilding
- John McNamara of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center in It Takes a Village to Create an Economy, writes on cooperative organizing in the Pacific Northwest which includes organizing manufactured housing communities into resident-owned cooperatives.
- Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, co-op author John Curl writes about the worker cooperative economy in the San Francisco Bay area and one of the oldest, if not the oldest cooperative network in the county.
- Frank Cetera writes about the difficulties and success in organizing in upstate New York, Bringing Cooperation Upstate
- Adam Trott writes about Why Co-ops are Forming Support Cooperatives, and cooperative organizing in Massachusetts and Vermont through the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives
- Grassroots Visionaries and Revolutionaries: Solidarity Economic Organizing in the Ferguson Uprising by Julia Ho, a community organizer with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment in St. Louis, deals with social justice organizing.
- Vendor Solidarity at Seattle-area Farmers Markets, by Devra Gartenstein, founder of the Patty Pan Cooperative, writes about how farmers deeply cooperate in building the farmer market economy
Analysis, Theory and Research
- The Sharing Economy is the Problem: The Cooperative Economy is the Solution by Tools for Cooperative Education members Brian Van Slyke’s and David Morgan’s article on the difference between the Cooperative Economy and the Sharing Economy, using Uber as an example
- Labor Unions and Worker Co-ops: The Power of Collaboration, by Mary Hoyer, co-chair of the Union Co-ops Council of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives
- Cooperative/Solidarity Economics and Advancing the Development of Worker Cooperatives by GEO’s Michael Johnson explores the crucial times we are living for this work
- Worcester State University geology professor and Building Cooperative Power co-editor Janelle Cornwell’s analytical piece on cooperative economy.
- Building Bridges – Economic Democracy and Cooperative Alliances, Chris Michael, chair of the New York Network of Worker Cooperatives, explores a key difference in worker cooperatives and the implication for building cooperative alliances.
- GEO’s Len Krimerman’s article Cooperative Growth and/or Regional Cooperative Development raises the question of whether we can act alone if we want a fully cooperative society.
- Noemi Giszpenc, of Cooperative Development Institute, in What’s Data’s Got to Do With it writes about the nerdy but necessary part of cooperative movement-building.
