Return to Black Wall Street Co-op Incubator Course

The Working World is a non-profit offering a new way for people to take control of their economic lives and change the heart of the working equation. We turn the financial system on its head and offer socially conscious investment to businesses and factories owned and operated democratically by workers themselves. It's an idealistic vision, but it's not just an idea-- we've been doing it for ten years in Argentina, Nicaragua, and now, the United States.  We have lent over $4 million to over 200 worker cooperatives, and over 98% of these investments have paid themselves off, resulting in growing businesses, new jobs, and more workers in positions of ownership.  Our goals are idealistic, and our methods are practical-- we work for concrete results.  Our aim is to see how far we can go: How many workers can be brought into positions of power in the system of production; how much finance can be given that empowers people rather than drowning them in debt; and how much can we challenge a global economy that puts profit before people.

We are currently hiring for three new positions:

1. Two project officers working out of our NYC office to expand our direct support to worker-owned businesses.

2. An administrative coordinator to organize our office, manage our databases, and coordinate all administrative activities for our US office.

View the full job postings and application instructions at The Working World

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Organic Valley was established in 1988 under the name CROPP (Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool). Our founding members met during the farm crisis of the late 1980s to form a cooperative that would help provide a stable pay price to farmers by growing quality organic food. Organic Valley continues to be owned by our farmers and driven by our mission. Every single farmer-member has a vote on decisions that impact the co-op, such as animal care standards and pay prices. 

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Organic Valley Executive Vice President of People Jerry McGeorge summed it up. 

“The co-op principles have always been really important to us, but autonomy has been super important since day one. Having control of your own destiny and the future is the reason we’re organized as a co-op,” he said. 

Being part of a cooperative means having a group of like-minded people behind you.

“We (my dad and I) genuinely believe in the philosophy behind cooperatives,” Corse said, adding the phrase, “many hands make light work” really embodies the cooperative. “We want to be able to farm. We want to focus on managing our animals and land that are best for the ecosystem and the environment. The more time we can focus on that and not the other aspects of running a business is amazing. We’ll leave that to our other people in our wonderful cooperative.”

Read the rest at Organic Valley

VSECU CEO Rob Miller discusses the role of democracy and member participation at his credit union.

Watch the full interview on Youtube

Watch more episodes of Cooperative Vermont on their Youtube channel

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The bootstraps narrative implies it’s possible — maybe even “the American way” — to pull yourself out of poverty. The story of ChiFresh Kitchens is instead about helping each other.

Next City senior economics correspondent Oscar Perry Abello first reported this story in May 2020 after ChiFresh Kitchens opened its doors as a worker-owned commercial kitchen on the West Side of Chicago. Today it is expanding into a new facility that will multiply the kitchen’s capacity to cook and deliver meals from 500 per day to 5,000.

In this episode of the podcast, Next City executive director Lucas Grindley talks with Abello and with one of the worker-owners, Kimberly Britt, plus the consultant who helped remove systemic barriers to starting a business, Camille Kerr.

Listen to the podcast at Next City