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July 1, 2019

Developing Cooperatives with Devco

Marty Frost discusses his career as a worker-owner helping others to develop their worker co-ops.

How to Create a Thriving Global Commons Economy

Not since Marx identified Manchester’s manufacturing plants as blueprints for the new capitalist society have our political economy’s fundamentals faced a more profound transformation. As structural crises beset capitalism, a new mode of production is emerging: commons-based peer production.

Why is this emerging mode of production so important in discussions about post-capitalist futures? And how can participants in commons-based peer production— the “commoners”—make sustainable livings, thereby creating a thriving global commons economy within and beyond capitalism?

Growing co-operatives on America’s east coast

Co-operative development in the USA has a unique set a challenges, largely underpinned by the sheer scale of geographies, politics and histories. On the east coast, the Keystone Development Center (KDC) has been taking on these challenges for 20 years, working across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware to sustain communities, economies, and resources through cooperatively-owned businesses.

Equal Exchange 2018 Annual Report

While the overall challenging market landscape we described last year remains, we are pleased to report a return to revenue growth along with continued profitability. Revenues grew by 5.3% to $74.7 million. Growth came primarily in tea, cocoa (helped by a new flavor initiated by our sister co-op in Canada, La Siembra), avocados, and packaged and private label coffee. Most other products saw slight declines...

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The push for city-supported worker coops is taking hold in these Bay Area cities

When Rendell “Ren” Boguiren got a job in college at a South Bay pizzeria, he wasn’t expecting it would become a career. Now, as a part-owner in the business, he can’t imagine leaving.

It was a transition made possible because co-founders Kirk Vartan and his wife, Marguerite Lee, made a decision in 2015 to sell the business they started, A Slice of New York, to their employees. Both continue to retain part ownership, along with 14 other worker-owners.

“I take a lot of pride in being an owner,” Borguiren said. “It’s something I never would have expected.”

July 8, 2019

Solidarity Economy Roads

In this chapter Razeto examines a question that has been central for the vast majority of people in the world: the question of development. Like many before him, Razeto questions the meaning of development and the objectives sought, opposing an alternative “desirable development” to the dominant model centered on industrialization, capital accumulation, and structural inequality.