Manufacturing

Bernard Marszalek joins us to discuss the history of the Hawthorn Works and his new book: Jobs, Jive, and Joy: An Argument for the Utopian Spirit.

How a group of metalworkers ended up creating an alliance with farmers is a fascinating story. Drawing on anthropological and sociological approaches to work, political economy, and social movements, this article uses the RiMaflow case to understand recovered enterprises in Italy and to shed light on the conditions under which solidarity against capital—conflict—and solidarity among the oppressed—mutualism—emerges when workers attempt to secure their livelihoods.

ReSew sewing cooperative – Швейний Кооператив (Chveïniï kooperativ), exists politically and ecologically without bosses or subordinates and is united by the love of their work-sewing.

Industrias del Orinoco, C.A. (Indorca) is a factory without bosses in Puerto Ordaz in Bolívar state, the home of Venezuela’s basic industries. Indorca’s workers carried out a heroic three-year struggle to gain control of the factory after the former owner brought it to a halt. Since 2015, when Venezuela’s Ministry of Labor extended a mandate giving the workers control over Indorca, the enterprise has been democratically managed by the women and men who produce here day in and day out.

Industrias del Orinoco, C.A. (Indorca) is a factory without bosses in the industrial city of Puerto Ordaz in Bolívar state, the home of Venezuela’s basic industries. Indorca workers carried out a heroic three-year struggle to gain control of the factory after the former owner brought it to a halt. Since 2015, when Venezuela’s Ministry of Labor extended a mandate giving the workers control over Indorca, the enterprise has been democratically managed by the women and men who produce here day in and day out.

This is a story of how the makers who create a living off their hard-earned skills, banded together to challenge this dominant business ethic, and about the cooperative they built that’s just now getting off the ground. It is a venture that aims to grow at the speed of trust to serve the makers, the customers, and the staff who run it.

Cecosesola is established in Barquisimeto, capital of the state of Lara, located in the central-western region of Venezuela, as a cooperative integration organization that has been established since 1967. It is a meeting space where we make active life of more than 50 organizations, integrated into a network for the production of goods and services that brings together more than 20,000 associates from popular sectors. Through this network, we develop a wide variety of activities such as: agricultural production, small-scale agro-industrial production, funeral services, transportation, health services, financial services, mutual aid funds, distribution of foods and household items. We are made up of about 1,300 associated workers who manage daily activities through participation that is open to everyone, without hierarchical positions.

Dru Oja Jay is joined by Kevin Harding, one of the organizers of a spirited hail-mary attempt to save Mountain Equipment Co-op from being sold off to a US private equity firm.

In this special episode in honor of National Co-op Month, Kevin speaks with Kevin O’Brien, co-founder of the union co-op Worx Printing.

In the foothills of western North Carolina, the small town of Morganton is home to a growing co-op movement that’s reinvigorating the region’s once-struggling textile and furniture manufacturing industries, and refashioning them around egalitarianism and localism.