GEO Original

This year is the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the USFWC. To celebrate, GEO is asking cooperators to share their experiences in the US worker cooperative movement over the last two decades (and beyond).

Though the involvement of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with worker co-ops was never intentional – it has been evolutionary.

Tech worker cooperatives have the potential to provide particularly crucial infrastructure for the communication and coordination necessary for a liberatory movement and a robust and just economy.

My main work over the past 44 years has been about figuring out how we can consciously develop democracy all over this country. This has included 16 years of active involvement with the cooperative/solidarity economic movements. I believe that bringing this developmental perspective to the cooperative movement can be a rich and productive way for celebrating the 20th birthday of the USFWC. 

Increasing popular dissatisfaction with the current state of urban life contains the seeds of a different city for the future. A growing number of people desire cities that will be viewed and managed as commons by their residents. Democratized urban space that will allow for a genuine right to the city to be experienced by the entire citizenry.

John McNamara is an important player in the US worker co-op movement. For our coverage and reflections on 20 years of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, we naturally asked John for some reflections. He willingly gave us an interview and John filled out our survey.

Here is a small window on a big event: a tent city in Bhrikuti Mandap park (a dozen 300-seater striped tents with PA systems, named for Himalayan mountains, and small kiosks for individual organisations) complete with street food and big yellow street-wild dogs; across a road streaming with mopeds, rooms in two faculties of the university (law, social work); and adjacent, the formal meeting hall and shady lobby of the Nepal Tourism Board.

While there are many people who contributed to the founding of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, I would like to provide reflections on the role played by the Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) Newsletter Collective.

A review of the benefits of indivisible reserves, their connection to community, and the early 19th century origin of these ideas are discussed in this article.

GEO is kicking off a special collection in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives.