The federal government is currently updating regulations for programs across several departments, including a few which address access to financing for cooperatives. The USFWC has worked with partners to articulate and vet responses to these updates to ensure co-ops have continued and expanded access to financial options.
The Senate is taking steps toward passing a nearly $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package (Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023) needed before Christmas Eve to avert a partial government shutdown. This bill includes a huge victory for worker ownership through the Worker Ownership and Readiness and Knowledge Act, co-sponsored by Senator Sanders (D-VT) and Senator Moran (R-KS).
...Colors struggled as a business. Yes, it operated for 15 years, longer than most businesses, but it required regular subsidizing. Colors, in short, was never (or at best, rarely) profitable. It operated as long as it did thanks to the cost-cutting measures and creativity of ROC’s management team. After a time, it stopped running as a fully functioning restaurant, reducing operating costs. The payroll was reduced to one individual, an events manager.
In November, A group volunteers from Organic Valley traveled to Sindhupalchok, Nepal to provide a vital necessity for these fellow milk processors.
The farming cooperative, headquartered in Cashton, recognized that having consistent power is a luxury not every country can provide. So, they sent a team of 11 volunteers there for three weeks.
The group traveled over 7,000 miles to help install a renewable energy system for the Binjel Milk Producers Cooperative. Binjel collects milk from 514 Nepali family farms.
We are living in a time of multiple crises. The climate emergency seriously threatens the continued survival of humanity, exacerbating injustice, exploitation, poverty and vulnerability. And the global cost of living crisis is driving more and more people into precarity.
Note: This article is based substantially on chapter 5 of the forthcoming book, Cooperatives at Work (Cheney, Noyes, Do, Vieta, Azkarraga, & Michel, 2023), in a series entitled “The Future of Work” by Emerald Press (UK).
Self-managed and affordable, ecological and inclusive – the pioneering project Bikes and Rails in Vienna’s Sonnwendviertel stands as an alternative to real estate speculation in the increasingly pressured housing market. The concept provides for buying houses collectively through private financing, freeing them from the market in the long term and thus securing affordable housing.
