GEO Original

“Multi-stakeholder” co-ops have become popular in recent years, but what does it really mean to bring different groups together for common ownership and governance?

What form should member ownership take in a worker cooperative? How is the form of ownership related to the economic viability of the enterprise? How is ownership of equity allocated and measured, what impact does ownership and accumulation of equity have on distribution of surplus? In this chapter, Razeto offers an economic theory of ownership and distribution of surplus in worker enterprises, proposing the issuance of “labor shares” representing individual members’ ownership of equity.

How the VAWC Inter-cooperative Loan Fund helped save the fledgling worker co-op Flat Iron Coffeehouse.

Ajowa and Josh share their thoughts on whether worker co-ops should have investor shares with voting rights.

The networks, organizations, and movements that we generate reflect the quality of our own consciousness in the moment. What does the global state of human consciousness tell us then about the movements that we're capable of building?

Josh, Ajowa, and Chris share their thoughts on Venezuela's Cecosesola co-op network, why we don't hear more about it in the US, and what we might be able to learn from them.

Every year the message of Ella Baker Day spreads a little a farther, and we hope that your community will begin its own tradition of celebrating EBD.

There has been an effort to dissociate accumulation from distribution, resulting in a contradictory and confused understanding of the relation between the two in cooperatives, with very serious practical consequences. In this chapter we examine this nexus and all its implications, demonstrating the importance of understanding accumulation as a necessary element of rational economic behavior in cooperative enterprises, and revealing the distortions caused by failing to do so.

Reflections on the documentary film FOOD COOP, and the discussion panel that GEO held to talk about the film and the food co-op world.

Prof. Pavlina Tcherneva discusses the benefits of creating a Job Guarantee program, and the role cooperative and community enterprises could play.