Resources by Topic: Cooperatives
Resources by Topic: Cooperatives
This report examines the challenges and opportunities of worker cooperatives in the Chicagoland region. The paper discusses the need for worker cooperative development in Chicago, the current barriers cooperatives face to operating, and potential suggestions for local policy aimed at creating policies which would enable worker cooperatives to thrive. Supporting worker cooperative development could bring numerous advantages already proven in comparable cities - including growth of jobs, wages, and economic opportunity.
Produced through a partnership with Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance and The John Marshall Law School-Chicago Business Enterprise Law Clinic.
Local Bites is a podcast that tracks ideas and initiatives that resist corporate power, renew place-based economies, and preserve human and ecological well-being. Our goal is to feature the voices of activists and visionaries from all around the world who are driving creative grassroots initiatives that demonstrate the power of 'going local'.
A documentary episode on Worker Cooperatives, focusing on the topics of economic democracy, racial and social justice, and collectivist vs capitalistic values.
Featuring: Richard Wolff, Gopal Dayaneni, Doria Robinson, Najari Smith, and more.
Learn about: the worker co-op movement's development over the last few years newly-released data on successes and growth in employee ownership how the worker cooperative movement is raising money for the people and by the people, and exciting policy developments in the last year.
In this episode of Upstream, we explore the Solidarity Economy through expert interviews, stories, and rich sound design.
Featuring:
— Michael Ventura
— Caroline Woolard
— Michael Lewis
— Pat Conaty
— Jessica Gordon Nembard
— Biba Schoenmaker (Breadfunds)
— Stuart Field (Breadfunds UK)
— Jos Veldhuizen (Broodfonds)
A podcast interview between John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Amicus Solar Cooperative President Stephen Irvin.
Electric cooperatives have been the backbone of the nation's rural electrical system for more than 80 years. Their mission and business model now face more challenges than ever, from financial to contractual to basic member control. But the opportunity is equally great...
The Movement for Black Lives released last year a comprehensive platform, including an economic plank that discusses various opportunities for the economic development of black communities. This Transform Finance Investor Network webinar is led by Cathy Albisa, Director of NESRI, and Rashad Jamal Buni of the Black Youth Project.
This piece of research by Professor Virginie Pérotin of Leeds University Business School looks at two decades’ worth of international data on worker owned co-operatives.
These eight films are just a small sample of films documenting the sharing movement. Some are short, some are feature length. They all demonstrate that the sharing movement is growing every day.
Explore the timeline below to view key moments in the history of rural electricity cooperatives in the U.S., and learn how electricity cooperatives are now paving the way for a renewable future in the country.
We're living in a time of economic babble, where politicians and economists throw out words like "reform," "privatize," and "austerity" to prop up corrupt capitalist opportunists. So says our guest this week, economist Michael Hudson, author of J is for Junk Economics.
Socialism could have a future in America, our guests this week argue, if we just think about it differently. Joining us this week are Bhaskar Sunkara and Sarah Leonard, co-editors of of a new essay collection titled "The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century."
Under the Trump regime, we'll certainly have to be on the defense to protect the communities most likely to be attacked -- but we'll also have to build powerful, alternative models where POC, Muslim, undocumented, disabled, and queer folks have leadership.
In 1969 Shirley Sherrod co-founded a collective farm in Lee County, Georgia. At 6,000 acres, it was the largest tract of black-owned land in the United States. What happened to the New Communities land trust they planned? Let's just say they were way, way ahead of their time but their time just might be coming back
What role did economic cooperation play in the civil rights movement? As it turns out, a huge one. Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard co-founded the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops & helped that organization build lasting ties with prominent civil rights and cooperative organizations.
"Monopoly" may be a fun family night activity, but you may live in a place where you have little or no choice for Internet access. According to FCC data, most families don't have a choice in Internet access providers, especially providers they like. Nevertheless, the biggest companies keep reporting increasing revenues every year. What's going on?
It seems counterintuitive that a conservative farming community in southeastern Iowa is home to some of the most expansive solar generation in the U.S. But that's exactly what's happening in the area served by Farmers Electric Cooperative, the rural utility whose enterprising leader, Warren McKenna, saw renewables as a gateway to economic vitality.
On June 17, 2016, Director of the Energy Democracy initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, John Farrell gave a presentation at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin. The title of his talk is "The Coming of Energy Democracy."
Where are communities taking charge of their energy future? Which states give communities the most power? ILSR's Community Power Map provides an interactive illustration of how communities are accelerating the transition toward 100% renewable energy and how policies help or hinder greater local action.
Bike Ready reuses footage from Superstorm Sandy and the actual community based relief on two wheels provided to deliver supplies, communicate, evacuate and generate electricity. In the spirit of mutual aid, let's get ready, bicyclers everywhere! 4 minute video
This document is the syllabus for the Center for Family Life's 6-session "Implementers" training on worker cooperative development for other community-based organizations. This syllabus generally follows the "Planners" training.
This document is the syllabus for the Center for Family Life's 6-session introductory "Planners" training on worker cooperative development for other community-based organizations.
This Cooperative Curriculum Overview includes the description and objectives of fundamental trainings for worker cooperative founding members, based on the Center for Family Life's development approach.
This document describes the activities needed to develop a worker cooperative, based on the Center for Family Life's 4 stages of development.
Shortly after the economic meltdown of 2008, Korten fleshed out a vision of an alternative to the corporate Wall Street economy. He offers his analysis and guidance on mounting a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on shared prosperity, ecological stewardship, and citizen democracy.
This is a collection of resources to plan and teach a pop-ed workshop on starting a worker cooperative. The workshop provides an overview of the content contained in Sustainable Economies Law Center's Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business manual.
Policies for Shareable Cities is the first policy handbook of its kind. It includes over 30 recommended policies for how cities should regulate the true sharing economy in the areas of food, work, housing, and transportation.
An Operating Agreement created by the Sustainable Economies Law Center for a worker‐owned cooperative popsicle company (hence, the popsicle‐shaped people). Please note that it was written to conform with California law and with the particular preferences and needs of that cooperative. Originally written in Spanish, then translated into English.
National and NYC based resources on the solidarity economy containing reports, audio recordings and podcasts, books, articles, films, how to guides, and relevant national and local groups.
Recycling-based economic development is a powerful tool for any community looking to revitalize its economy.
A veritable choose your own adventure through the New Economy, Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth is a book that allows multiple entries into a vision for a new system by exploring the possible building blocks for that system.
A new investment co-op model lets communities own and develop their commercial spaces. Though new, this model holds potential for the many neighborhoods whose business districts are decaying, controlled by distant landlords or faraway retail chains.
In this TEDx talk, Stacy Mitchell argues for a new phase in the local economy movement. She notes that there's been a resurgence of support for small farms, local businesses, and community banks, but argues that now: "What we really need to do is change the underlying policies that shape our economy."
A growing body of research is proving something that many people already know: locally owned businesses create communities that are more prosperous, connected, and generally better off across a wide range of metrics. This is a roundup of the findings that are putting numbers to the harms of bigness and the benefits of local ownership.
We have unique CED resources - websites, publications, case studies, videos, and more - in our CED toolbox.
Worcester Roots, Boston Center for Community Ownership, Toolbox for Education and Social Action, and Cooperative Development Institute collaborated on forming this curriculum for start up worker cooperatives.
Based on Project Equity's interview with Dan Rosenberg, founder and current worker-owner of Real Pickles, in the summer of 2014
A blog post from Cutting Edge Capital incorporating the lessons learned from marketing Real Pickles DPO.
How a small local food business in western Massachusetts preserved its social mission through transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative and using an innovative financing strategy.
Shareable's "How To Share" Library is growing collection of guides that can help you save money, reduce waste, and build community through sharing. The library features dozens of resources on housing, food, family, community, cities, neighborhoods, transportation, technology, work, entrepreneurship, travel, education, the commons, money, and more.
In this video, produced by Democracy Collaborative staff working with Softbox Films, Gar Alperovitz sketches the major institutions of a systemic alternative based in plural forms of democratic ownership, oriented around community at various scales—what he has called “The Pluralist Commonwealth.”
In one of the best english-language explorations on Quebec's incredible Social Economy movement, Nancy Neamtan, President-Executive Director of the Chantier de l'économie sociale, provides the keynote address to the assembly of participants of the 2014 Manitoba CD/CED Gathering in Winnipeg and answers the question: 'What have we learned and what can we build on in advancing the social economy across Canada?' In this address Nancy covers the history of the social economy in Québec, it's challenges and successes, and what we can learn from this experience.
The Beautiful Solutions Gallery and Lab is an interactive space for sharing the stories, solutions and big ideas needed to build new institutional power and point the way toward a just, resilient, and democratic future.
Developed by Beautiful Solutions in partnership with This Changes Everything, this is an open-ended project that will continue to evolve based on the ideas you submit to the Lab, and the ongoing contributions of the thinkers and practitioners on the forefront of building alternatives.
A “silver tsunami” of retiring business owners is coming, and with it, one of the biggest changeovers of privately held companies in U.S. history. Here’s how we can help owners pass on their legacies—to their workers. This originally appeared as part of New Economy Week 2015.
It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity: Selling to employees can yield a better price, preserve a legacy, keep jobs and profits local—and maybe even eradicate inequality. This originally appeared as part of New Economy Week 2015.
For nearly 20 years, the residents of this mostly African American Greensboro community had nowhere to shop for food. They tried to attract a big-box grocery store; when that didn’t work, they started their own. This originally appeared as part of New Economy Coalition 2015.
Today, the need to empower people left out of our investor-owned economy is greater than ever before, and co-ops are once again the engine of change. Electric co-ops, in whole or in part, serve over 90 percent of the poorest U.S. counties, making co-ops key to both energy democracy as well as creating an economy that works for all. (From New Economy Week 2015).
In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country have come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda.
Fostering resilient communities and building wealth in today’s local economies is necessary to achieve individual, regional, and national economic security. A community wealth building strategy employs a range of forms of community ownership and asset building strategies to build wealth in low-income communities. In so doing, community wealth building bolsters the ability of communities and individuals to increase asset ownership, anchor jobs locally, expand the provision of public services, and ensure local economic stability.
How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise? This report draws on case studies of 11 different community economic development initiatives from across the United States to highlight a diverse set of powerful answers to these critical questions.
In an era of persistent urban inequality and chronic unemployment disproportionately impacting historically marginalized communities and communities of color, new alternatives to the traditional economic development strategies that have failed to bring broad and evenly distributed prosperity to America's cities are clearly needed. The Democracy Collaborative's new report, Cities Building Community Wealth, responds to this challenge by highlighting best practices in inclusive innovation from twenty cities across the country, and offering a unified vision of the underlying new paradigm of community focused economic development.
How can ordinary community members begin catalyzing a local conversation around building a stronger, more equitable local economy? How can you leverage volunteer power, public resources, and in-kind sponsorships to convene a community wealth building summit? In this new whitepaper from the Democracy Collaborative's Community Wealth Innovators Series, Justine Porter maps out how she and her grassroots team pulled this kind of powerful event together in Poughkeepsie, New York—and highlights the lessons learned so that you can benefit from their experience in planning your own community wealth building summit in your community.
Cuba has been transforming its economic model since 2011, and re-established relations with the U.S. in 2014. By engaging in an active question and answer format this CommonBound 2014 workshop explores what these profound changes mean for a socialist economy and the challenges of protecting the social gains of the Cuban revolution while creating a more robust, efficient economy.
What will an anti-imperialist, economy look like? What will it take to decolonize economic structures in pursuit of liberation? After introducing frameworks for building a movement for sustainable business, community and worker ownership, workplace democracy, and thriving family businesses, we go local. We hear lessons from Boston, where grassroots organizations, small businesses and investors are working together to model an alternative to the capitalist economy at a local level. Participants learn from leaders of the Boston Ujima Project about their efforts to fight poverty and displacement through the formation of a community capital fund, a Good Business Certification, and an alternative local currency. Participants learn about Boston's unique new economy project and engage in the opportunities and limits of this community development strategy.
Community Development Credit Unions have long been working for racial justice and innovating in economic justice. Part of the larger community development finance institution (CDFI) movement, these institutions are today boldly lending to undocumented immigrants, fighting predatory lending, preserving historic Black and farmworker CUs, financing worker coops and land trusts, and building partnerships to fund the new economy. Part history lesson, part show and tell, and part participatory debate, three practitioners from the field lead a session to engage participants in how they might access, build, challenge and partner with CDFIs in their own geographies to sustain the new economy.
How can we assure that the material resources and tools are available to communities to meet their needs and elevate the quality of life? This panel explores the movement to create democratic sources of financing to enable communities to build a democratic, just and sustainable economy. Leaders discuss the role of finance, fundamentals of non-extractive finance, and principles being used to develop a financial cooperative nationally, in close connection to grassroots front-line communities.The panel will use concrete examples of existing models.
Planet Local is Local Futures' project to highlight and catalog the diverse examples of localization springing up all over the planet. Our examples listed range from local business and finance to local food, health, community rights, place-based education, energy, eco-communities, and more.
This plenary panel from CommonBound 2016 features leaders in Buffalo, NY's vibrant New Economy Movement discussing their work and vision for a just and sustainable city.
As the online "sharing economy" devolves into poor labor conditions and monopolistic practices, the concept of "platform cooperativism" offers a hopeful vision for a more democratic online economy. This new wave of entrepreneurs, investors, and business developers are merging offline cooperative economics with the Internet in creative ways. In this CommonBound 2016 workshop, leaders discuss how far this emergent movement has come, and explore some of the challenges it faces in the struggle for the future of the online platforms we increasingly depend on.
This panel features leaders from across NYC sharing stories of communities building powerful bottom-up solutions like worker co-ops, community land trusts, and community development credit unions that model economic democracy, sustainability, and social justice.
This panel, held at NEC's 2017 Member Gathering in Chicago, features leaders from across the country sharing how their communities have organized to simultaneously fight back far-right attacks and build powerful bottom-up solutions that model economic democracy, sustainability, and social justice as cornerstones of a new world in waiting.
Wondering what kinds of businesses and organizations are part of New York City’s solidarity economy? SolidarityNYC recently finished a series of short films, Portraits of the Solidarity Economy, featuring the stories of solidarity economy leaders and the projects they serve.
Few Americans are aware of the steady build-up of innovative community wealth building strategies throughout the United States. Community-Wealth.org is a resouce library which brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity.
In America Beyond Capitalism, Gar Alperovitz's expert diagnosis of the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system is accompanied by detailed, practical answers to the problems we face as a society.