Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy
With customers staying at home during the pandemic, large numbers of businesses have shuttered permanently, unable to cover their payroll and rent. Emergency governmental assistance has sustained some businesses during this period of economic uncertainty, but the crisis has also stoked interest in a private sector remedy: cooperatives.
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“They’re congratulating us, but I feel like congratulating them because this was all of us together, a group community effort,” said Chloe Chassaing, co-owner and a 16-year veteran barista of the cafe.
“I just feel really encouraged to see everyone come out,” Chassaing said. “We’ve heard a lot of really kind, supportive words from people. It’s nice for us, because we know a lot of these people, either as friends or even as just customers over the years, so it feels really heartwarming.”
Before President Hugo Chávez took office in February 1999, there were 813 registered cooperatives in the country with 230,000 total members. Most of these original cooperatives are still active, tough, and resilient because they were created independent of government support or funding. The strongest of these is CECOSESOLA (Cooperatives of Social Services of Lara State). Founded in 1967, the food co-op consists of 538 worker members who sell to 60,000 shoppers each week from three locations in the city of Barquisimeto.
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Two New England farms, Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts and Temple-Wilton Community Farm in New Hampshire, have widely
David Cobb considers himself a prepper, though not in the mainstream sense. A prepper is someone preparing to survive disaster, but Cobb isn’t the Purge-style, guns-and-ammo-hoarding variety. He works with Cooperation Humboldt, a solidarity economy group in and around Eureka, California. “I’m preparing my community for the climate crisis, for the shift that’s coming, as opposed to the other preppers who are hoarding guns and hoarding food,” Cobb tells Mic.
In 2012, the International Year of the Cooperatives, the ‘Framework Act on Cooperatives’ became law in Korea. This provided a framework to establish and operate cooperatives to contribute to the social integration and growth of the country’s economy.
The impact of demutualisations in the past has been to the detriment of members, particularly over the longer term. The requirement to service shareholder capital is a drain on business and means that there will be less money for members to benefit from. Short term payments for loss of membership rights are soon recouped through higher costs and lower benefits in a proprietary firm.
...some drivers never received the control and independence they had expected. They struggled with the costs of vehicle maintenance, loans and insurance, and they questioned whether Uber and Lyft paid a fair wage. Legislative efforts to grant them employment benefits were thwarted.
But community land trusts are not only a means to homeownership. Even in the most expensive cities, they increasingly support affordable rentals in multifamily buildings, said Tom Angotti, a professor emeritus of urban planning at Hunter College. Mr.
