Grassroots Economic Organizing

Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Author

Damon Orion

Damon Orion is a writer, journalist, musician, artist, and teacher in Santa Cruz, California. His work has appeared in Revolver, Guitar World, Spirituality + Health, Classic Rock, High Times, and other publications. Read more of his work at DamonOrion.com.

Tej Gonza

Tej Gonza is a Co-founder and a Director at the Institute for Economic Democracy. He is a researcher at the University of Ljubljana, research fellow at Rutgers School of Management and Labour Relations, and a recipient of Changemakers for Democracy Fellowship.

Kosta Juri

Kosta Juri is the Head of Policy and Research at the Institute for Economic Democracy. His research focuses on financial instruments for worker buyouts and municipal policies that promote worker ownership.

Candela Hernández

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Denise Kasparian

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Julián Rebón

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Rebecca Kemble

Rebecca Kemble is a member of Union Cab Cooperative working as a taxi driver and serving on the Accident Review Council. She is also engaged with cooperative organizing in Wisconsin regional food systems, working to build critical physical and digital infrastructure to connect small and historically underserved farmers with wholesale markets. She serves as a representative of the Madison Mutual Aid Network on the board of MadWorC, the Madison Area Worker Cooperative Network. During the period between 2009 and 2016 she served on the boards of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the Democracy at Work Institute, CICOPA (worker co-op sector of the International Cooperative Alliance), CICOPA-Americas and CICOPA-North America. She was elected to the Madison City Council in 2015 where she served as Alder for 3 terms until 2021.

Alex Fink

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PUNCHCARD

PUNCHCARD - the podcast about worker controlled businesses Sick of businesses only maximising profits for their owners & shareholders? Tired of butting heads with management to improve working conditions & raise wages? Worker cooperatives are an alternative business model where the workers own & control the business. PUNCHCARD explores the world of worker-controlled, democratically run cooperative businesses. Tune in to hear from a variety of guests sharing their stories, experiences and insights as members of worker cooperatives.

Bobby Jones

Bobby Jones joined Shareable as Development Director in October 2022 after spending the previous four years as a fundraising consultant and the first Director of Development at the William S. Davies Homeless Shelters in Rome, GA. While at the Davies Shelters, Bobby helped secure the organization’s first three government grants while doubling individual giving. He also helped launch a farm and food program that employs shelter guests to grow food to be sold in a sliding-scale mobile farmers market. Before joining the nonprofit sector, Bobby and his wife owned and operated an organic vegetable farm in middle Georgia for nearly 8 years, where they launched a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, community farmers market, farmer advocacy group, and a farmer’s cooperative. Bobby holds a BA in Liberal Studies with a minor in Nonprofit Management from Georgia College and an MS in Nonprofit Administration from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. He moved back to his hometown of Rome, GA in 2018, where he loves biking around town, being active in all the community things, slowly turning his front lawn into one large garden, and camping and hiking in the northwest Georgia mountains with his wife, Chelsea, and son, Tripp.