Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy
This symposium will provide an opportunity to actively engage in discussion and debate with organizers, public officials and other DC residents on the prospects for equitable development. The symposium, which organizers hope to make an annual event, is intended to emphasize the need for equitable development across the nation in general and within Washington DC in particular.
IN THE LAST YEAR of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. struggled with what are best understood as existential challenges as he began to move toward an ever-more-profound and radical understanding of what would be required to deal with the nation’s domestic and international problems
(EDITOR'S NOTE: We received that as an email and are passing it on to our readers. The formation of regional co-operative associations is a major development in the co-operative and solidarity economic movements. These are happening in western Massachusetts, Madison, WI, the Bay area, and elsewhere as well as in Austin, TX with the ACBA. In addition, some valuable information about financial co-operatives follows thier invitation.)
Mr. Alperovitz tells Paul Jay that the experience of Spain's Mondragon, the world's largest workers' co-op, shows that workers' ownership can go to scale, but on their own co-ops will not transform society or the economy
It is lunchtime at Suma Wholefoods' distribution warehouse. While most workers across Britain are preparing to inhale an overpriced chain-store sandwich at their desks, the 140 staff of the West Yorkshire co-operative are filing in for a plate of good, old-fashioned hot food.
The occupation of businesses by workers and their democratic self-management through horizontal decision-making processes is a centuries-old practice. More recently, however, it has reemerged as an increasingly common phenomenon — most prominently in Argentina around the turn of the century, which currently counts about 300 “recovered” workplaces employing over 15.000 workers.
By Rebecca Burns, for In These Times
Do companies like Lyft and Airbnb help democratize the economy?
By Mira Luna, for Shareable.net
"Most clients gifted me with payment, and the payment is more than I ever received in the traditional model, which was based on negotiation and the lowest bid wins, instead of the Gift model which is based on mutual respect and fairness.
Working in the gift does not mean that I work for free, or that I give my work away without care. It means that people trust me to build them a website, and I trust them to support my work as they believe fair.
It was a small cooperative store on a little known island off the coast of South Carolina. During the harshest days of the civil rights struggle, embattled black leaders came through its doors seeking inspiration.
