In France there are two cases of recuperated factories occupied by workers during the current crisis. One is the Pilpa Ice Cream Factory, which just started producing organic ice cream and yoghurt as a worker-owned and administered company after a long-lasting struggle. The other is the Fralib Tea Factory. Both were closed by their huge multinational owners to relocate production.
In The Tragedy of the Private | The Potential of the Public, a new booklet co-published by Public Services International and the Transnational Institute,
The consumer is beginning to understand that corporate ag is not anybody’s friend. We need to see to it that we aren’t seen as “corporate ag, only smaller.”
What is the answer? We have to promote food policy that benefits the family-sized producers, not just corporate agriculture.
In reading online commentary I have come across many schools of thought on credit union strategy, focus, branding, marketing, and the like. A disappointing theme I see more and more is the idea that cooperative values don’t matter and therefore should cease to be a concern to credit union leaders.
A movement is emerging in many places, under many guises: New Economy (or Economies), Regenerative Economy, Solidarity Economy, Next Economy, Caring Economy, Sharing Economy, Thriving Resilience, Community Resilience, Community Economics, Oppositional Economy, High Road Economy, and other names.
Compared to the second quarter of 2013, membership declined at 54% of the nation’s credit unions in the second quarter of this year, according to the NCUA.
GRITtv has teamed up with TESA (the Toolbox for Education & Social Action) to make a short "how-to" video for people curious about co-ops. Own the Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-Op At a Time is the exciting result of that work!
Watch more videos from GRITtv on their website
The village shop is a cornerstone of rural communities – but they are closing at the rate of 400 a year. Thankfully, the co-op movement is filling the gap, in the form of the village-owned store. There are now more than 300 in operation, compared to 27 just 20 years ago – but how do these small community co-ops engage such a small membership?
Whatever its form, worker ownership should appeal to both liberals and conservatives for very different reasons. For liberals, worker ownership is a way for workers to increase their earnings while dispersing ownership in companies and possibly inch toward some semblance of economic democracy.
Earlier this month, the small city of Somerset, Kentucky drew national attention when it opened a municipally-owned and -operated fuel center in an effort to drive down gas prices for local residents.
On remote Deer Isle, Maine, the movement for a more just and democratic economy won a major victory this summer.
Over the past decade, the Riverwest neighborhood has incubated a handful of small but exemplary cooperatives. People's Books (804 E. Center St.) converted from a sole proprietorship to a consumer-owned cooperative in 2007. In addition to selling books, it is home to an after-school program for neighborhood kids. The Riverwest Co-op & Cafe (801 E.
Since the first community supported agriculture program was established in western Massachusetts in the 1980s, the concept of buying food directly from local farms has taken off. There are now thousands of CSAs across the country.
A documentary on the work of the Women's Awareness Center, Nepal (WACN).
Watch more videos from the International Development Exchange (IDEX) on Youtube
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