Above: Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young producers of Shift Change.
Shift Change shows how employee ownership offers a real solution for workers and communities; and is a building block for a new economy
Note: Our colleagues in Baltimore have been using Shift Change to educate people about worker cooperatives. The documentary was produced by filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin of Seattle, WA. Margaret Flowers and I recently met them at an economic conference, Moving Beyond Capitalism, held in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and organized by the Center for Global Justice. Their documentary is a great tool for educating and organizing people in your community to move toward the new economy. Below is information about the movie and a trailer. KZ
SHIFT CHANGE is a documentary film by veteran award-winning filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin. It tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.
With the long decline in US manufacturing and today’s economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside of the box, to reinvent our failing economy in order to restore long term community stability and a more egalitarian way of life.
There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a better life.
SHIFT CHANGE encourages support for employee ownership, and provides on-the-ground experience from a variety of enterprises and locations. Screenings have already occurred, and more are being planned, in cities around the world. The film is also expected to be presented on television, as well as in academic, public planning, business and community settings.
SHIFT CHANGE – preview from Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.
At a time when many are disillusioned with big banks and big business, and growing inequity in our country, employee ownership offers a real solution for workers and communities. Shift Change is a new documentary (to have its world premiere on October 18, 2012, in Oakland, CA) that highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America and in Mondragon, Spain. The film couldn’t be more timely, as 2012 has been declared by the U.N. as the “International Year of the Cooperative.”
More information visit Shift Change.