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There's a lot to learn from Sweden's Meidner Plan, which would have phased in worker ownership of most of the economy over 30 years. As a followup to our episode with Joe Guinan, Dru Oja Jay spoke to Shannon Ikebe about some of the new archival materials about the Meidner plan, and insights it contains for current efforts to plan beyond capitalism.

The failure of true farmers' cooperatives in China has been widely studied; the success of the few that did become economically sustainable, however, remains poorly understood. Using a sample of 70 farmers' cooperatives across the country and comparing three “extreme cases”—cooperatives that are both authentic and economically successful—with the rest, this study argues that participation in alternative agrifood systems is the key to their success.

This year is the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the USFWC. To celebrate, GEO is asking cooperators to share their experiences in the US worker cooperative movement over the last two decades (and beyond).

This is a "nuts & bolts" session on transitioning existing businesses to worker-owned cooperatives. Attendees learn about the option and process of worker buyouts and hear a wide variety of company transition stories, from initial exploration through deal structuring, financing and post-transaction support. Business owners considering a sale to employees as well as current workers exploring or engaged in a buyout will find value in the session.

The sector of small and medium-sized enterprises is lately under immense pressure due to restrictive governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the dominant issues is concerned with financial liquidity – the threat is large-scale insolvency, job losses in thousands, and disappearance of businesses from local communities. There is a time-tested solution in Spain and Italy that provides liquidity to such enterprises in a democratic manner by establishing employee ownership schemes. In addition to saving businesses, employee-owned firms proved to provide more resilient business structures that better withstand crises. Despite the concerns that such an aid scheme meets the indications of a general prohibition of State aid and is thus illegal, the doubts were scattered by the Commission's decision which offered guidance and clarification. Based on good practice, we propose a universal model that could be legislated in most EU Member States.