Wild plant harvesters gain insights from a successful cooperative model in Viet Nam

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To gain insights on how successful and sustainable cooperatives operate, 16 participants from collector organisations and six Forest Protection Department (FPD) staff went on a visit to the company Sapa Napro in the Lao Cai Province in December.
Founded in 2006 by Mr. Ly Lao Lo, an ethnic Dao of Lao Cai Province, Sapa Napro processes and trades local cultivated MAPs to generate income for the cooperatives who work within the company. Locals of the province can become cooperative members by contributing money or resources. The revenue is then divided into three channels: 40-50 percent goes to reinvestment, 40-45 percent is distributed to cooperative members, and 10-15 percent is allotted to a community fund. This successful model is improving the livelihoods of cooperative members in Lao Cai province and promoting benefit-sharing mechanisms within their communities. Through their operations, they contribute to local economic growth and the conservation of provincial resources.

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Chasing Utopia

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In short, co-ops, once an integral part of radical political movements, are now largely integrated into the capitalist order. They may lobby for particular changes, but they no longer mobilize alongside those fighting capitalism.
Instead, the main interest of co-op members is generally no more radical than getting a higher selling price or lower buying price in the market — nothing to scoff at, but also nothing to make capitalists sweat.
Even with these shortcomings, takeovers and co-ops do have some positive strategic attributes. The enthusiasm for employee stock-ownership plans, in contrast, is downright puzzling. Under ESOPs, workers are partially compensated through company shares that are held in trust until they retire or leave. A notable proponent, Alperovitz concedes that ESOPs are far from perfect but still cites them as evidence of “evolutionary reconstruction” in the advance of democracy.
Yet ESOPs were introduced to undermine workplace democracy and worker power, not enhance it. Corporations like Proctor and Gamble, IBM, Coca-Cola, and UPS chose employee stock-ownership plans for the tax breaks and to help keep unions out (or at least limit their mobilization against wage or benefit concessions by offering a partial “offset”).

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A worker-owned factory in Argentina. The Working World / Flickr

Publication date

March 21, 2016, 12:00 pm

Article

Community is the Heart of Resilience

Remembering Clark Arrington

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Cooperative lawyer and organizer Clark Arrington recently passed away. Clark was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in 2021.

A pragmatic visionary, Clark Arrington used his legal training to address capital formation for worker cooperatives. From developing bylaws that established capital accounts to pioneering preferred stock that maintained democratic control, Arrington has had a foundational influence on worker cooperatives.