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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Reflecting on the Movement: Jeffrey Brite

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GEO Original
July 24, 2024
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[Editor's note: We'll be sharing responses to our survey asking cooperators to reflect on the last 20 years of worker cooperative development. If you'd like to share your thoughts, you can complete the survey here.]

When did you first become involved with the worker cooperative movement?
About 25 years ago

What were your hopes for the worker cooperative movement at the time that you first became involved?
I hoped it would be a solution to a lot of common people's issues and a challenge to private control over resources.

In what ways have those hopes been realized? In what ways haven't they been?
The worker coop movement seems to have stagnated. I still think it's a good idea, but I underestimated the barrier to entry, like time and money.

What has your experience been with national and regional worker co-op organizations? In what ways have they been beneficial for worker co-ops?
I was on the first US Federation of Worker Coop's board and my coop was a member up until we merged with another Worker coop last year. They mainly benefit by creating a network to talk with other worker coops. I use to think they were good to send new people to the USFWC conferences, but it seems to be less relevant more recently. The USFWC is not really a member lead organization anymore. Even the board doesn't seem to have much input on how the organization behaves. A good example of that is that the staff decided to take on the building a contractor support organization without telling the board. The board told them to get out of that agreement as soon as possible, but instead kept to the project and is trying to make it seem like it's a worker coop itself in some way. It represent a lot of money and effort going to start up that has nothing to do with a worker coop.

What would you like to see national and regional worker co-op organizations do going forward? Where do you think their focus should be?
I think figuring out ways to help with worker coop staff training. Like once a month offer training that would be appropriate for a new worker owner, like history of worker coops. Models used at worker coops. My understanding Mondragon offers a week of training for worker coop managers. Offering something like that might be interesting.

Additional Notes
I think money for regional and national organizations should be mostly come from it's members to force them to be focused on worker coops.

 

Citations

(2024).  Reflecting on the Movement: Jeffrey Brite.  Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO).  https://geo.coop/articles/reflecting-movement-jeffrey-brite

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