Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy
Yesterday, on May 1st, after fourteen years of organizing, community building, and business planning, the Detroit People’s Food Co-op (DPFC) opened the doors of its store to the Detroit community. We are overjoyed for the 3,000 (and counting!) community owners, their neighbors, board, staff, volunteers, and partners.
Residents have considerable sympathy for the position that CBDOs have been put in—to carry out a lot of different kinds of work, all urgent, all at once, and without adequate funding. In particular, resident leaders recognize that CBDOs of and serving communities of color are often subject to the same adverse impacts of dominant narratives as residents.
Imagine:
A system where service providers can create digital vouchers (aka gift cards) and anyone holding them can exchange them for each other and other pooled assets.
Though the organization faced stiff competition from private developers and other mobile home park operators, in 2021, it ended up with a win and purchased the property for $5.8 million.
After assuming ownership, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy initiated a two-year land-use planning process that concluded in a decision to close the community and turn the property into public green space. The 100 families who live there—many of whom have lived in the park for decades—are now being forced to find new housing by the end of the summer.
This MCLE examines how cooperatives led by incarcerated individuals can serve as a transformative abolitionist strategy. The workshop will delve into the California Prison Industry Authority's (CALPIA) Joint Venture Program, as well as efforts to draft legislation supportive of these cooperatives. We will also examine case studies and examples from around the world of models of incarcerated-led cooperatives, illustrating their effectiveness in societal benefits, and reduced recidivism.
This paper is based on an inquiry on Italian worker-recuperated enterprises, a phenomenon that has acquired growing importance in the country since 2008, following the Great Recession that hit most of the Western economies. As reported by CICOPA (the International Organisation of Industrial and Service Cooperatives) in 2013, the practice of business transfers to employees has been increasing at a European level.
Copenhagen, 1910. Here, at the beginnings of social democracy’s ascent in Europe, the Second International passed a resolution supporting cooperatives.
A lot of people came in with a personal ethos of militancy. But there were also a lot of people who just had really strong convictions about, and anger toward, the American empire and the ongoing genocide. The camaraderie that was established in those first hours was what fueled people to act militantly, even if they hadn’t done so before. Seeing that the police were attacking a community that was joined together in an explicit rejection of something very obviously wrong, that was what empowered people to act with incredible strength and conviction.
Given the increasingly dramatic impacts of climate change, economic collapse, and social inequality, intentional communities are set to become models for how humans can live high-quality and low-impact lives together. The world will be looking at us! This scenario raises two questions for us, both as individuals and as communities:
REI’s Anniversary Sale starts on May 17th, and it’s their biggest sale of the year. We want to make a big impression on REI’s Board of Directors during this sale, as REI has been union busting for years and they need to know that Co-op members and shoppers across the country won’t stand for this behavior.
