Worker Cooperatives

Chamois Holschuh tells the worker co-op conversion story of Austin Design Cooperative

Solidaristic principles prove great in theory, but how do they hold up in practice? Specifically, in communities facing historical divestment and disenfranchisement, can mutualism and cooperativism serve as building blocks for crafting more equitable, sustainable economies and societies? 

Laura Flanders speaks to founder of the Community and Worker Ownership Project Rebecca Lurie, CEO of One Brooklyn Health LaRay Brown, and New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse about the recent enthusiasm surrounding worker cooperatives throughout the country, and what they can offer workers that traditional employment cannot.

By providing an alternative to extractive or exploitative practices of profit and growth focused business models, cooperatives provide an off-ramp to a sustainable economy.

Ellis from New York State of Pine discusses the Christmas tree business and how he became a worker-owner.

A Venezuelan cooperative network that recently received the “Alternative Nobel Prize” tells its story.

A theoretical model of the "Labor Enterprise."

Bret Keisling is joined by worker-owners Alex Fischer and Andrew Stachiw who discuss USFWC's (US Federation of Worker Cooperatives) efforts to network and grow worker co-ops in Vermont to further societal goals including economic, racial, and social justice, and working in business as anti-capitalists.

Nathan Brown of Co-op Culture discusses some common types of business model.

Essence, economic objective, and characteristics of the cooperative enterprise.Essence, economic objective, and characteristics of the cooperative enterprise.