Blogs

In a "letter from Mondragon", recently published by on the Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative (CUCI) website, Armin Isasti, makes some incisive and thought-provoking observations that I think we in the worker co-op movement would do well to consider.  Below are some quotes from his letter along with my thoughts and comments.

Imagining a multi-generational ecovillage.

Something came up at the Worker Cooperative National Conference in Austin that created a lot of mixed feelings in me.  At the USFWC member meeting one of the topics for discussion was setting up a joint 401(k) plan for member co-ops.  While it's great to see the staff at USFWC helping worker co-ops harness the power of cooperation in their benefits packages, there are a number of aspects of the 401(k) model of retirement saving that I think should be cause for concern among cooperators.

The only way out of our sexist nightmare is through it together. Men of all colors and classes will have to leave their cocoons of privilege, and allow women to begin leading them  through it. If our women are not willing to do this, not capable of moving beyond their traumas, rage and despair, then there is, indeed, no way out.

In editing an article recently, that touched on the design of the US monetary system,  I was forcefully reminded of 1) how complex (some would say purposefully so) our monetary system is, and 2) how rarely anyone tries to talk about it in an easily digestable way.  There was a time in this country's history when knowledge of the fundamentals of the monetary system was wide spread among the common citizens, not just Wall Street financiers and academic economists.  Nowadays, however, even a lot of financiers and economists fail to understand either the design or the problems of our money system.

In this blog I want to share my current thinking about the meaning of the Evergreen project to our cooperative/solidarity and other alternative economic movements. This meaning is of major importance. That project may be the most concentrated effort to mainstream worker cooperatives of an industrial size in the US. To boot, it was combined with an innovative green economic development strategy.

"Doing well by doing good" is an idiom that should be removed from our lexicon.

Our socio-economic backgrounds effect how we see the world, and therefore how we interact with each other.

It always bums me out when I see or hear about cooperators partnering with what I consider soulless corporate entities.  I like to think that our enterprises hold themselves to a higher ethical standard than traditional corporations who explicitly state that their only goal is maximizing "shareholder value." On the other hand, I understand that co-ops, just like any other businesses, need to create revenue and that sometimes the best way to do that seems to be by partnering with a corporation that doesn't share our cooperative values.  Still, it's a dangerous path to start down.

The jobs that are the most vital to the functioning of society are those that get paid the least. Equal pay recognizes that all work is valuable and deserves dignity and equal remuneration.