Cooperative Workshops for the Black Community

Fed up with their banks' reluctance to lend, an Italian dairy cooperative has raised 6 million euros by issuing bonds guaranteed by huge wheels of Parmesan cheese.

"We already have some loans but, after a certain point, the banks don't want to give you any more," said Andrea Setti, the financial controller of the 4 Madonne cooperative.

The cooperative, based near Modena in northern Italy, produces the famous cheese from milk supplied by some 40 dairy farmers.

It has seen business boom in recent years with production rising to 75,000 wheels a year and turnover hitting 24 million euros in 2014.

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With something like two million residents, Iztapalapa is the largest Mexico City borough. It’s also the poorest. The Utopías were promoted most significantly by Clara Brugada, who was Iztapalapa’s mayor before winning the election to be the next mayor of all of Mexico City

Brugada is a member of Morena (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional), the left-wing populist party founded by AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the recent President of Mexico). It’s also the party of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president-elect. Brugada has a long history in politics & social movements in Iztapalapa and Distrito Federal more generally.

The name UTOPÍAS is an acronym for Unidades de Transformación y Organización Para la Inclusión y la Armonía Social, or Units for Transformation and Organization for Inclusion and Social Harmony. I was told Iztapalapa currently has 12 up and running and another 4 in the works.

The idea is a network of safe, free, public sites that provide poor and working class people with what they need for the maintenance, enhancement, and enjoyment of everyday life. Food. Health. Elder care. Child care. A cheap laundromat...

Read the rest at The Alternative

While Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out on the appropriate rate for minimum wage ($12 and $15, respectively), economic policies pertaining to “shared ownership” strategies, such as employee ownership and profit-sharing, deserve greater attention. Both forms of shared ownership have been shown to boost economic growth by increasing productivity, profits, wages, and firm innovation. Both Clinton and Sanders support shared ownership; in order to determine what policies will be most beneficial, an in-depth dialogue on the merits of these plans is essential.

Sanders has introduced two bills on employee ownership. Under his Worker Ownership, Readiness and Knowledge Act, the Department of Labor would provide funding to states to establish employee ownership centers. Modeled on the success of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, these centers would provide training and support for programs promoting employee ownership. A second bill would establish a US Employee Ownership Bank to provide loans that enable employees to purchase businesses, either through an employee stock ownership plan or a worker-owned cooperative.

Read the full article at The Boston Globe

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