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Tenacious university students at Stucco, a low-income student housing cooperative in central Sydney, are setting a precedent for solar energy across Australia and worldwide.

In 2010, as locals found themselves displaced or divided in Oakland’s Fruitvale District, six houses took down their fences to grow food, medicine, and other surprises. Anne and Terry Symens-Bucher, two founders of Canticle Farm, didn’t stop at building rainwater catchment or restoring a creek – they started bringing soul, soil, and society together. They did this by gifting food to neighbors, hosting retreats, providing edible landscaping services, and supporting formerly incarcerated men and youth climate organizers.

I first met John in 1980, when the National Consumer Cooperative Bank (NCCB) worked with him to spread the word of co-operatives to Black leaders and communities. I was tasked with arranging John’s meetings throughout the USA and traveling with him throughout California. He was soft-spoken, a good listener and uniquely humble in everything he did. It was a wonderful, memorable journey.

More than Gen X-ers or Boomers, Millennials prioritize lifestyle and jobs that provide a good work/life balance. And far up the Pacific coast, near the southern tip of the Alaskan Panhandle, members of a consulting co-op in Haida Gwaii put lifestyle, collaboration, and independence first. 

It’s not glib to say that eradicating capitalism is the surest way to build equitable restaurants. Living in a country that provided universal health care, federally mandated paid child leave and sick leave, and a living minimum wage, as well as incentivized sustainable farming, encouraged unions, and got rid of at-will employment, would go a long way toward creating environments within restaurants (and all businesses) where workers had power over their own livelihood.

Arts co-ops have responded to the crisis in different ways. North Wales Music Co-operative, Denbighshire Music Co-operative and Wrexham Music Co-operative – a group of co-ops run by music teachers to offer singing and instrumental lessons in schools – have taken the online route. 

Supported by the Welsh government, they spent two months setting up a teaching platform – totally-music.com – which enables face-to-face lessons for pupils in their homes. 

Ed. note: This is another excerpt from the online version of Free, Fair, and Alive by Silke Helfrich and David Bollier. You can read more about the book and find more content here.

“Where Ideas Play,” is the motto of Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver.  Well now, a new idea has sprung to life; The Creative Hub Co-operative.

My mother and son both live in a co-op. My mother is 92 years old. Without the co-op, she would likely be in a long-term care facility.  In the co-op, she gets much love and support from her neighbours. Every time I visit, she is surrounded by a cluster of young handsome men, the centre of attention.  She is in her element.

For both my mother and son, co-op housing has provided safe, secure, affordable housing from which to live better lives.   Safe, secure and affordable housing is a right.  It should be available to all who need it.

Space Cooperative Inc. is a worker-owned California Cooperative Corporation focused on space expansion, crewed by a diverse global team that includes engineers, architects, futurists, artists, and software developers.

A food swapping scheme led by indigenous women in Costa Rica is combining traditional customs and modern technology to beat hunger in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The programme, launched with its first money-free food exchange in June, aims to tackle the impacts of Covid-19 on food security in the mountainous Cabécar Talamanca indigenous territory.

In this three-part video series we chat with Start.coop’s Jessica Mason about her work building coops, how coops can help advance a child care equity agenda, and how to grow the “cooperative commonwealth” in the child care industry.