By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 2012 (IPS) - When the International Year of Co-operatives (IYC) concluded last week, some of the overwhelming success stories highlighted at a two-day interactive session came both from developing and developed countries, including India, Brazil, China, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Italy, France and the United States.
Boone Shear and Stephen Healy, Truthout | Op-Ed
Regulation and reform might eventually manifest a kinder, gentler capitalism, but we've seen how hard it is to regulate the very people who have the most money and incentive to change the rules back in their favor. What if instead, we came together to build an economy entirely different from the one we know now?
By Hannah Miller
Beverly Bell, Other Worlds
Truthout, 08 September 2012
Beverly Bell: Can you please start by telling us how you define alternative media?
The economic collapse has effected millions of people in the critical areas of housing and jobs. It's no longer a secret that many are rediscovering the tried and true tradition of democratic worker cooperatives. "Democracy 24/7 : Living & Working Coop" talks to some great people who are members of both worker and housing cooperatives; jobs and housing that is owned and democratically run by the people who work/live there.
WINNIPEG, MB - It was a simple idea born in dire times, during the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution in 1844 England: could ordinary people pool their resources to their mutual benefit? That idea led to a global co-operative movement, with the first member-owned credit union appearing in Manitoba in St. Malo in the 1930s. Today, there are more than 350 Manitoba co-ops serving 800,000 members in all facets of life from grocery stores to financial services to gas bars.
Economists who think economics should serve people, the planet, and the future make their case in a short video.
This is a good piece on the privatization efforts in Cuba with a distinct emphasis on worker-ownership. Worth a look.
It's also worth going back to pick up Richard Wolff's interview of Gar Alperovitz from April of 2012. The transcript and audio are both available at the link.
On the last day of 2012 our 25th year as a worker cooperative (and 37th in business) ended. It was an extraordinary year – rich, full, profitable, demanding, restorative, and uplifting. It was a year of many “first-evers”. On November 1st we welcomed...
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TruthOut published a very positive review of John Curl's 2nd Edition ... discussed in Michael Johnson's interview of Curl late last year. As the U.S.
