Worker Cooperatives: Origin Stories and Development Strategies

Worker cooperatives are an important part of the community wealth building toolbox, and our new report Worker Cooperatives, Pathways to Scale, authored by Hilary Abell, assesses the state of worker cooperative development in the United States and suggests key strategies and policies for scaling up its impact. The infographics below highlight some of the key taxonomies in Abell’s analysis, explaining where worker cooperatives originate from ... Read more

Will Jackson, Miss., Be the New Co-op Capital of the South?

Could Jackson, Miss., become the capital of cooperative economics in the south? Mayor Chokwe Lumumba imagined it this way, championing a vision of solidarity economics to heal the city's economic wounds and move it forward into a new, more inclusive economy. Despite the mayor's untimely death in February, his work took a step forward a few weeks ago at the Jackson Rising: New Economies Conference. With the help of our viewers, the GRITtv ... Read more

Enthusiasm High for a New Economy for Baltimore

With growing recognition that the economy fails to serve the interests of most people, alternative institutions and processes based on economic democracy are beginning to pop up everywhere. This movement points to what is called by some as “the New Economy.” Throughout the country people are joining a global movement to create structures grounded in democratic control of community wealth – an economy of, by, and for the people. On May 16 ... Read more

The Cooperative Economy

IN THE MID-1960s, when author, historian, and political economist Gar Alperovitz was working as legislative director for Senator Gaylord Nelson, change was in the air. Ink had dried on an early version of the Clean Air Act, the civil rights movement had won major victories, and the first Earth Day was in the works. The U.S. still faced plenty of serious challenges, but many Americans felt their country was capable of dealing with them ... Read more

The Rise of Solar Co-ops

While many people associate cooperatives with a place for hippies to buy organic food, the cooperative movement has actually grown far and wide, creating sustainable enterprises that generate jobs and strengthen local economies. Today, there are nearly 30,000 cooperatives in the United States, with more than 100 million members. From day care centers to hardware stores, cooperatives seem to be permeating every sector of society. So it’s no ... Read more

An Inspiring Struggle to Celebrate on May Day

After one year of unfruitful contacts with the Ministry of Labor and the central trade union bureaucracies, the workers of Vio.Me, with the threat of poverty and chronic unemployment looming over their heads, announced in July 2012 their intention to self-manage production in the occupied factory, with their now famous slogan: “If you can’t do it, we can.” Read more

How NYC is Partnering with Coops to Support Democratic Businesses

In some municipalities, including New York City, local governments are partnering with worker cooperatives to fulfill government contracts. This means that government dollars, rather than going to top-heavy businesses that sacrifice employee well-being and fair compensation in pursuit of larger profit margins, are going to businesses that prioritize long-term employment, fair wages, and democratic workplaces. Read more

The Underground Railroad Was One of America’s First Co-ops: A Black History Tour of Cooperative Economics

Cooperative economics and civil rights don't often appear together in history books, but they should. From the mutual aid societies that bought enslaved people's freedom to the underground railroad network that brought endangered blacks to the north, cooperative structures were key to evading white supremacy. And there was vicious backlash when black co-ops threatened the status quo. Read more

Co-op Health Insurance Plans See Early Success

Karl Sutton is part of a food cooperative in Montana where he grows spinach. He understands the co-op model and thinks it can work for his health insurance company. Funded almost entirely by federal government loans this year, initial enrollment numbers look pretty good for a lot of co-ops, but that’s not necessarily enough to make them successful. There are definitely people out there who are stoked about being able to buy their health ... Read more

Who Needs a Boss?

Support for full-fledged co-ops has inched into the mainstream as communities have grown weary of waiting for private investors to create good jobs — or sick of watching them take jobs away. In Cleveland in 2009, hospitals and a university gave seed money to a new group of businesses, the Evergreen Cooperatives, and now contract with them for laundry, energy retrofits and fresh produce. Last month, a government commission in Wales announced ... Read more