Worker Cooperatives

Economic Update: Socialism And Worker Co-ops

July 23, 2019 Richard Wolff, Democracy at Work Create! Revisionism, Socialism, Worker Cooperatives

20th century socialism is now behind us. Socialists continued to evaluate both its achievements and failures via extensive self-criticism. A changed socialism has emerged, focused on a transition of workplaces from top-down hierarchical capitalist structures into democratic worker cooperatives. The powerful appeal of worker co-ops as grounding a new 21st century socialism is presented by Professor Wolff in this latest episode of Economic Update.

Marx And The Democratization Of Work

March 24, 2019 Richard D. Wolff, Roarmagazine. Create! Karl Marx, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives, Workers Rights and Jobs

Marx himself said and wrote little about the future beyond capitalism. He didn’t believe in future-gazing; no one could know how the world would evolve. Marx gave us some ideas of what might have to happen if we were going to get beyond capitalism. But he offered no blueprints or road maps. Later Marxists did not always share these hesitations, especially after Marxists came to play leading roles in what they called “socialist” societies. Marx never suggested, contrary to what so many have said, that the state — the government — had to play some sort of ongoing, central role in what this future post-capitalist world would look like.

General Motors’ Factories Should Not Be Closed. They Should Be Turned Over to the Workers

December 16, 2018 By Rich Whitney, Counterpunch Create! Employee Ownership, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives, Workers Rights and Jobs

General Motors’ November 26th announcement that it will be eliminating more than 14,000 jobs and closing seven factories worldwide by the end of next year, including four factories in the U.S. and one in Canada is an opportunity. These facilities should be condemned by government authority and turned over to the workers whose labor created the wealth and profits that General Motors’ shareholders enjoy. They could then, with government assistance, be retooled and placed under the ownership and control of their workers, organized into democratic cooperatives for that purpose.

Why The U.S. Needs More Worker-Owned Companies

August 17, 2018 Peter Walsh, Michael Peck and Ibon Zugasti, Hbr.org Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Revisionism, Worker Cooperatives

The gap in wealth in the United States between the ultrawealthy and everyone else has reached its widest point in decades. One way to narrow the divide is through the use of worker buyouts, in which ownership of a company transfers from a single person or a small number of people to the workers of the company. Currently, about 10% of Americans hold equity stakes in their workplaces. By providing more workers and employees with opportunities to buy shares, companies can help workers and communities raise their standard of living and simultaneously feel more invested — literally — in the success of the enterprise. In that way, worker buyouts also increase firms’ competitiveness: Research suggests that employee-owned companies are more durable and resilient during economic downturns.

More U.S. Businesses Are Becoming Worker Co-ops: Here’s Why

May 27, 2018 By Eillie Anzilotti, Fast Company Create! New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

Many businesses in the U.S. were founded as worker cooperatives. But a growing portion–as many as 40%–of co-ops in the U.S. are born out of traditional workplaces like A Child’s Place, whose owners decide to sell the business to their employees. As baby boomers, who own around 12 million businesses across the U.S., prepare to retire, around 70% of their companies are expected to change hands. Increasingly, children are not taking over businesses from their parents, so small business owners must look to sell or risk closing down and losing all their assets from years of investment. But instead of selling to a private owner, there’s a real opportunity amid this “silver tsunami” to radically scale the presence of worker-owned cooperatives in the U.S. A study from Rutgers found that converting to employee ownership boosts profits by as much as 14%, and doing so does not come at a detriment to wages. Rather, it’s the reverse. After A Yard & a Half converted to a coop in 2014, average wages have increased from $17.02 per hour to $19.29 per hour despite adding more employees, and revenue has grown to $3.2 million from $2 million. Worker co-ops are still a business, so the employee-owners have to learn the same management and strategy skills that enable companies to grow. The main difference: It’s the workers themselves that reap the benefits of that growth.

What Happened After 17 Employees Took Over A Beloved Maine Business

May 18, 2018 By Lauren Abbate, Bangordailynews.com Create! Maine, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

ROCKLAND, Maine — For the last two months, patrons of Rock City Coffee might not have noticed any changes when they stopped at the busy downtown cafe for their regular order. That’s exactly what the new owners — the people behind the counter — want. Two months ago, Rock City Coffee, a cafe and coffee roastery, became a worker-owned cooperative, with employees buying the business from its previous owner and founder, Susanne Ward. For Ward, selling the business to her employees was a reward to people who worked for her and a way to ensure that what she and her husband began 26 years ago would live on true to character. For the employees, the opportunity allowed them a path to business ownership and to keep Rock City as the place where they love to work.

Capitalism Got You Down? Try A Worker Cooperative

May 2, 2018 Robert Ramin Raymond, Thebolditalic.com Create! Capitalism, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

Do you ever have the feeling that your boss is ripping you off? Maybe it’s not your boss; maybe it’s a bit more abstract. Like you get home from work and feel cheated somehow. “They should be paying me more,” you might think. Or maybe you’re getting paid enough, but you still feel a bit empty. A bit hollowed out. Purposeless. If someone were to ask you, “Do you think your job needs to exist?” you think you know how you might answer, and it doesn’t make you feel any better. I posed this question to myself not too long ago, and my answer was a resounding no. After a bit of existential turmoil (which is still definitely lurking), my answer led me on a path to explore why it is that so many of us feel this way and what we could do about it.

Worker Co-ops And Happiness

April 12, 2018 Michaela Fisher, Geo.coop Create! Brazil, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

Greeting from São Paulo, the largest city in South America! I have left Argentina behind and moved onto Brazil, but I’ve been meaning to tell the story of a cooperative that left a huge impression on me back in Buenos Aires. Below is my story of Creando Conciencia and the new perspective it has given my research. The interview was conducted in Spanish, and all translations are my own. I took the wrong bus, one taxi, and then the right bus as the stormy sky grew ever more threatening, making my way slowly to a warehouse in the Benavidez neighborhood of El Tigre, a town on the delta north of Buenos Aires. I arrived just before a heavy downpour to meet the workers of Creando Conciencia, a recycling cooperative of 46 socios, or worker-owners, and realized quickly that my time there was definitely worth the journey.

Worker Cooperatives Offer Real Alternatives To Trump’s Retrograde Economic Vision

February 13, 2018 By Sarah Aziza, Wagingnonviolence.org Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Trump Administration, Worker Cooperatives

Announcing his presidency in 2016, Donald Trump promised the nation that he’d become “the greatest job president God ever created.” His plan to accomplish this rested on a retrograde economic vision that would “make America great again,” by restoring waning coal and manufacturing jobs, as well as putting an end to the alleged assault on American work by foreign immigrants and global competition. A year later, his attempts to realize this vision have largely consisted of backwards motion. In October, he rolled back the Clean Power Plan, arguing that carbon emissions regulations, rather than the widespread shift away from fossil fuels, were responsible for the decline of U.S. coal. While the striking of these environmental protections leaves the door open for corporations to exacerbate climate change, it has done little to uplift the so-called “Rust Belt,” where he garnered so much support.

Arkansas Farmers Join Cooperatives to Make Small Farming Possible

August 25, 2017 Staff, www.foodtank.com Create! Agrticulture, Cooperatives, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

By Staff for the Food Tank. In addition to providing fresh produce and meat for families in Arkansas, New South Produce Cooperative and Grassroots Farmer’s Cooperative supply financial and agricultural support for their member farms. Based in Little Rock and Clinton, respectively, these farmer-owned and operated co-ops connect members to distribution networks, provide technical assistance, and help small farmers raise capital as a collective. New South Produce Cooperative and Grassroots Farmer’s Cooperative are providing small farmers with the tools they need to keep their small farms up and running. The farmers in these cooperatives have been able to expand their businesses and reach a wider network of consumers thanks to the cooperative business model.

Newsletter – The Consent Of The Governed

January 7, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Cooperatives, Democracy, illegitimate government, Indigenous Peoples, Neoliberalism, New Economy, Nonviolence, Propaganda, Rojava, Russia, Ungovernable, Venezuela, Wealth Ineqaulity, Worker Cooperatives, Zapatistas

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Governments function because of the consent of the governed. When a government does not serve the needs or interests of the people, it loses its legitimacy and no longer deserves the consent of the people.Plutocracy defined We have argued for a long time that current governments at all levels - local, state and federal -function primarily to benefit the wealthy. Academics have proven that the United States is a plutocracy - rule of, by and for the wealthy. It is time for us to withdraw our consent. Let's consider how to do that and what protections will be needed. When a government loses the consent of the people, all it has left to wield to keep its power is repression and force. Cooperation Jackson and the Malcolm X Grassroots Organizing Movement, is calling for "a program of noncompliance and noncooperation on both the federal and state levels." We have entered a new era, a presidency of protest and an increasing illegitimate government. We have the power to withdraw our consent from hate and exploitation and build love and prosperity.

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