Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy
ALR: In the book, you write that you hope worker cooperatives can help address a number of crises of our times. Let’s start with the crisis of democracy. When people think about worker cooperatives, one of the first things they think about is that it should be run democratically by workers. How does it work in practice?
What has been the response of milk federations of other states?
I have taken up the issue because other federations will be similarly affected. We made achievements because of the system developed by Verghese Kurien. If there are fissures in the system it won’t be beneficial for cooperatives.
This is the right class for you if you want to be that weathered facilitator that sees a way forward, no matter what happens. You want to be the person who brings loving clarity to the group work while actively inviting all voices in. Your vision is that everyone feels safe, heard, held, and empowered in your meetings. This class is geared towards people who have already done our facilitation training (or a comparable experience level) and want to improve their facilitation dramatically.
In this episode of the State of Power podcast, we explore three examples of cooperative finance: How a Cooperative Bank in the Basque region of Spain fueled the local economy, how local employee-owned businesses in the United States are experimenting with democratic ownership, and leveraging existing “Anchor institutions”, and how a state government program in Kerala, India, has enhanced economic prospects from more than four million women through support for cooperatives.
The longest-ever factory occupation in Italian history is taking place in Florence where the 300 workers are now making progress at turning it into a non-profit community cooperative that would pay the employees and produce products that would benefit the community. Should the workers succeed, it could provide an inspiration for others.
Read the rest at Naked Capitalism
TimeRepublik is today based in both Lugano, Switzerland and New York, and says it has more than 100,000 users around the world. It makes money by selling the service to companies who then offer it to their staff via their internal websites.
The concept of time banking has been around since the 19th Century. Mr Donati says that he wanted to bring it to a younger, and more digitally-savvy audience.
Quebec’s worker co-ops are much more closely integrated through government support provided to them (and indeed, non-governmental organizations which deliver the programming funded by the Province) than in the rest of Canada. Futher, there is the Chantier de l’ économie sociale, an independent, non-partisan organization whose main mandate is the promotion and development of the social and solidarity economy in Quebec.
Date / Fecha May 11th, 1:00PM ET - 4:30PM ET / 11 de mayo, 1:00PM ET - 4:30PM ET Cost / Costo
Save The Date!
The 2023 California Co-op Conference will convene in San Jose on June 2-3. Mark your calendars and join us!
Together We'll:
- DISCOVER the cooperative difference
- SHARE the latest developments in cooperatives
- GAIN INSIGHTS to strengthen your cooperative
- NETWORK with other cooperators
Read more and register at the California Center for Cooperative Development
Although its intellectual handmaidens love to insist otherwise — capitalism is not a system that truly embodies freedom. We all feel it, of course — that nagging sense that we lack any agency over the choices that shape our lives, the frustration we feel at our bosses, the tension we feel with our landlords, the sense that we’re all just stuck in a rat race. We might lack the language to articulate it, or a framework within which to situate it, but we all know, deep down, that this ain’t it. That there’s something deeply wrong.
On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, Governor Inslee signed into law SB 5096, expanding employee ownership in Washington State. This bipartisan legislation led by State Senator Mike Padden (R-Spokane) and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) is among the most ambitious state employee ownership legislation to date, and it passed both chambers unanimously with no opposition.
