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Co-operate
Co-operate
Like a smile owned by its teeth, Like a kiss sold to yourself, This is how your city grows. Like the tender limbs of trees Let our timber lenders breathe in, This is how your city grows. From hand to hand, a relay sport How we shape thought into word,
2 min · 958 views · 4.8 stars
Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies
Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies
 When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better.
 Michelle Chen · 22,524 views · 4 stars
Leveling the Playing Field for Worker Cooperatives
Leveling the Playing Field for Worker Cooperatives
A quiet revolution is rumbling through New York's municipal offices as they retool to support the creation of worker cooperatives as a way to fight poverty.
Abby Scher · 2,131 views · 4 stars
Worker Cooperatives Offer Real Alternatives to Trump's Retrograde Economic Vision
Worker Cooperatives Offer Real Alternatives to Trump's Retrograde Economic Vision
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...
Sarah Aziza · 3,467 views · unrated
Worker-Owned Cooperatives - A Resilient Model for Grassroots Economic Development
Worker-Owned Cooperatives - A Resilient Model for Grassroots Economic Development
The persistently sky-high unemployment in the U.S. has clouded an equally problematic trend—deteriorating working conditions and diminishing pay for unskilled and low-skilled work. Home healthcare workers, childcare providers, and housekeepers are the backbone of our...
Meche Sansores · 4,672 views · 4 stars
What Does It Take to Start a Worker Co-Op? A Practical Video Guide to Democratizing Our Economy
What Does It Take to Start a Worker Co-Op? A Practical Video Guide to Democratizing Our Economy
Would it be easier to practice workplace democracy if our media gave us as many visions of collaboration as they do of competition?
22 min · 15,128 views · 4.8 stars
Own The Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time
Own The Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time (2015)
Own the Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time is a short documentary meant to give an overview of what a worker co-op is, how it can transform lives and communities, and the realities of starting one. Watch as we go through concrete steps for building...
20 min · 12,187 views · 3 stars
5 Steps to Turn Your Business into a Worker-owned Co-op
5 Steps to Turn Your Business into a Worker-owned Co-op
Learn how to turn any business into a worker-owned cooperative with this checklist.
Cat Johnson · 6,823 views · 4.5 stars
How to Start a Food Co-Op
How to Start a Food Co-Op
Starting a food co-op takes a lot of work. But the rewards are many. This book provides an overview of the basic steps and procedures. The manual is not an exhaustive or comprehensive reference document. Groups interested in starting a new co-op are strongly encouraged to...
Patricia Cumbie and Margaret J. Goldstein · 5,798 views · 5 stars
BriarPatch Co-op - Building for the New Century
BriarPatch Co-op - Building for the New Century
Manager Paul Harton welcomes us to the newly-built BriarPatch Co-op Natural Foods Community Market. It's built to qualify for LEED™ certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and incorporates innovative design throughout. Architect Jeff Gold shows...
28 min · 4,876 views · 3 stars
I Lived in a 38-Person Co-Op in San Francisco, and so Can You
I Lived in a 38-Person Co-Op in San Francisco, and so Can You
The joy and practice of learning to share
Tommy Alexander · 4,844 views · unrated
Energy Co-op Brings Power to the People
Energy Co-op Brings Power to the People
What if a community owned its electric utility cooperatively, rather than paying a for-profit company? Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative could be a model. Energy Services manager Jessica Nelson describes how this locally owned, democratically governed non-profit serves...
28 min · 4,313 views · unrated
Union Co-Operatives: What They Are and Why We Need Them
Union Co-Operatives: What They Are and Why We Need Them
Neoliberal policies contribute to alienation, disempowerment and non-unionised jobs, but a new model for unions could break the vicious circle, argues Simon Taylor.
Simon Taylor · 3,982 views · 4 stars
From Housing to Health Care, 7 Co-ops That Are Changing Our Economy
From Housing to Health Care, 7 Co-ops That Are Changing Our Economy
1. Green Worker Cooperative’s Co-op Academy?, The Bronx, N.Y. Ideas for co-ops may flourish, but few people understand exactly how to make theirs real. The Co-op Academy is providing answers. Founded four years ago by Omar Freilla (who recently made Ebony magazine’s list...
Claudia Rowe · 3,709 views · 4 stars
Vancouver Media Co-op's Round Up of G20 Resistance
Vancouver Media Co-op's Round Up of G20 Resistance
Canadian police have arrested over 900 people in Toronto in a police crackdown on protests at the G20 summit. Riot police used batons, plastic bullets and tear gas for the first time in the city's history. More than 19,000 security personnel were deployed in Toronto, and a...
10 min · 3,344 views · 3 stars
How Conservatives Co-Opted Christianity
How Conservatives Co-Opted Christianity
If you live in the United States, odds are you've encountered the distinctly American "conservative christian." It seems that these people, despite their fierce devotion to their faith, have no idea what the Bible actually calls them to do. In this episode, we're taking a...
22 min · 3,040 views · unrated
The Eco Co-Op Providing Access to Land for Sustainable Food Production and Living
The Eco Co-Op Providing Access to Land for Sustainable Food Production and Living
The Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC) was set up to address the lack of affordable sites for ecological land-based livelihoods in England. There is an enormous disconnect between the combined cost of land and rural housing, and the income that is usually derived from...
5 min · 2,547 views · unrated
Transition Towns and Beyond: The Ecological Land Co-operative
Transition Towns and Beyond: The Ecological Land Co-operative
The Transition movement is a loose network of thousands of communities (ranging from favelas in Brazil to Japanese towns; from rural villages in England to Transition Los Angeles) unified in their drive to devise and implement positive solutions that build local resilience...
Shaun Chamberlin · 2,335 views · 5 stars
Trump-Turnbull Call: Trading People Like Pawns Undermines the Goals of International Co-Operation
Trump-Turnbull Call: Trading People Like Pawns Undermines the Goals of International Co-Operation
What is the point of international co-operation in matters of shared concern? According to the UN Charter, its founding member nations were determined to achieve overarching societal progress based on human rights.
Amy Maguire & Jason von Meding · 1,537 views · 4 stars
How Worker Co-ops Are Moving Beyond Capitalism
How Worker Co-ops Are Moving Beyond Capitalism
The explosion of worker cooperatives in recent years has social justice organizers talking. Transitioning to a people-powered economy will require the work of many different social movements and worker co-ops have come to the center of the conversation due to their ability to...
David Morgan · 1,277 views · unrated
What If Uber Were a Unionized, Worker-Owned Co-Op? These Denver Cabbies Are Making It Happen
What If Uber Were a Unionized, Worker-Owned Co-Op? These Denver Cabbies Are Making It Happen
Workers at app-driven companies like Uber don’t have the rights of full employees. But with the help of traditional unions, some are banding together into worker-owned cooperatives. Wolde Gebremariam is one of more than 160,000 people nationwide who drive their own cars for...
Mary Hansen · 877 views · 4.5 stars
Shapes of Exchange in the Solidarity Economy
Shapes of Exchange in the Solidarity Economy
SolidarityNYC's animated short explains what the solidarity economy framework is and how housing co-ops and community land trusts, worker co-ops, community supported agriculture, and credit unions help to meet everyone's needs within it.
4 min · 2,580 views · 4 stars
Food Cooperatives and Garlic
Food Cooperatives and Garlic
Cooperatives are businesses owned by the people who use their services. Many communities look to their local food co-ops as a way to maintain greater control over their food. Garlic is isolated as just one of many foods that can communicate the importance of retail food...
5 min · 347 views · 4 stars
Employee-Owned Businesses Ignored by Mainstream Media
Employee-Owned Businesses Ignored by Mainstream Media
A bold new threat to the economic status quo brings on a press blackout.
Gar Alperovitz and Keane Bhatt · 5,947 views · 5 stars
Workplace Dictatorships
Workplace Dictatorships
In this episode of All Things Co-op, Kevin chats with Professor and author Elizabeth Anderson about her book Private Government, which pushes back on the myth that a free market means workers are free. Most workplaces function like dictatorships, with their own private...
69 min · 648 views · unrated
Cooperating to Replace Capitalism
Cooperating to Replace Capitalism
SolidarityNYC is a New York City-based group which works to create links between social movements and the "solidarity economy." The latter consists of cooperatives, small businesses, non-profits and other economic activities which "reinforce values of justice, ecological...
Dru Oja Jay · 3,438 views · unrated
How to Convert a Business into a Worker-Owned Cooperative
How to Convert a Business into a Worker-Owned Cooperative
Cooperatives are a great way to bring democracy into the workplace. They can either be built from scratch or by converting existing businesses into worker-owned cooperatives. For retiring business owners as well as entrepreneurs, selling a business to employees is a way to...
Cat Johnson · 1,636 views · unrated
We Need Our Platforms to Be Real Democracies
We Need Our Platforms to Be Real Democracies
For most of the last decade, I’ve been a reporter, covering stories on how technology is reshaping public life, from debates about God to protests in the streets. One thing I’ve noticed is that Internet culture has an odd way of using a really important word: democracy. When...
Nathan Schneider · 516 views · unrated
Converting Businesses to Cooperatives Just Got Easier
Converting Businesses to Cooperatives Just Got Easier
A coming wave of Baby Boomer retirements threatens the survival of many small businesses. This initiative is making employee-ownership a more viable option.
Isabella Garcia · 250 views · unrated
Within Reach: Journey to Find Sustainable Community
Within Reach: Journey to Find Sustainable Community (2013)
Within Reach explores one couple's pedal-powered search for a place to call home. Mandy and Ryan gave up their jobs, cars, and traditional houses to 'bike-pack' 6500 miles around the USA seeking sustainable community. Rather than looking in a traditional neighborhood, they...
87 min · 58,523 views · 4.6 stars
Worker Cooperatives: Expanding Democracy In The Workplace
Worker Cooperatives: Expanding Democracy In The Workplace
For the vast majority of people, work is miserable, tedious, and meaningless. It doesn't have to be that way. Expanding workplace democracy through worker co-ops is a step in the right direction. This video was written in part by a Second Thought patron! Big thanks to Thought...
11 min · 5,355 views · unrated
Reimagine Work: Baking Without a Boss
Reimagine Work: Baking Without a Boss
"So much in society we are bombarded with a competitive approach and it is about reimagining that and reworking it!" A glimpse into the working lives of people from the Leeds Bread Co-op who can't imagine having a boss and are bringing the values of democracy, equality and...
3 min · 2,104 views · 5 stars
Worker Cooperatives: Retooling the Solidarity Economy
Worker Cooperatives: Retooling the Solidarity Economy
Building A Solidarity Economy Under the cooperative model, workers own the business, reducing injustice because they have a stake in the community and because an individual will find it hard to exploit oneself. Workers often buy into their jobs (upfront or amortized), vote...
Sebastian A.B. · 3,784 views · 5 stars
The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy
The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy
Our little group of a dozen families was running out of time. After meeting every weekend for three years to plan our hoped-for cohousing community, and after investing much of our savings to acquire a few acres of land, it looked as though our dream would fail. We couldn’t...
Sarah van Gelder · 4,760 views · 4.5 stars
Where to Eat If You Want to Support Restaurants That Pay Their Workers a Living Wage
Where to Eat If You Want to Support Restaurants That Pay Their Workers a Living Wage
Good ole’ Costco made national news again during this year’s State of the Union. Why? Because Costco is a corporate empire that pays livable wages.
Maria Myotte · 3,303 views · 5 stars
Class Dismissed
Class Dismissed (trailer)
This is the new teaser trailer for the upcoming documentary Class Dismissed : A Film About Learning Outside of the Classroom. For more information and to find out how you can help see this film to completion please visit http://www.homeschoolfilm.com  The movie should be...
2 min · 4,633 views · 4.5 stars
The Next American Revolution: Beyond Corporate Capitalism & State Socialism
The Next American Revolution: Beyond Corporate Capitalism & State Socialism (2013)
While there's been no shortage of commentary about the structural crisis plaguing the American economic and political system, from wage stagnation and chronic unemployment to unchecked corporate and state power and growing inequality, analyses that offer practical...
47 min · 2,383 views · unrated
Ownership as Social Relation: Nonprofit Strategies to Build Community Wealth Through Land
Ownership as Social Relation: Nonprofit Strategies to Build Community Wealth Through Land
Ownership is often seen as a very simple concept. “Mine, not yours,” a two-year-old might tell us. The reality, however, is far more complex, as the rights of owners are far from fixed. Indeed, the concept of what ownership means is itself subject to change. For this reason...
Steve Dubb · 890 views · unrated
Can a Corporation Thrive Without Bosses? Valve's Innovative Management Structure says Yes
Can a Corporation Thrive Without Bosses? Valve's Innovative Management Structure says Yes
You have read Valve’s survival manual for new employees. You have read Michael Abrash’s wonderful account of working at Valve. Now read my political economy analysis of Valve’s management model; one in which there are no bosses, no delegation, no commands, no attempt by
Yanis Varoufakis · 6,056 views · 5 stars
Iran (Is Not the Problem) (2008)
Iran (Is Not the Problem) (2008)
IRAN (Is Not The Problem) is a feature length documentary film responding to the failure of the American mass media to provide the public with relevant and accurate information about the standoff between the US and Iran, as happened before with the lead up to the invasion of...
79 min · 26,482 views · 4.5 stars
The Key to Global Prosperity: Worker Ownership
The Key to Global Prosperity: Worker Ownership
Shared ownership helps to diversify rather than concentrate wealth and roots the value it generates in communities.
Jeffrey Hollender · 3,043 views · 5 stars
How Norway Avoided Becoming a Fascist State
How Norway Avoided Becoming a Fascist State
Instead of falling to the Nazi party, Norway broke through to a social democracy. Their history shows us polarization is nothing to despair over.
George Lakey · 75,350 views · 4.8 stars
The People's Supermarket: Communal, Cheap and Democratic
The People's Supermarket: Communal, Cheap and Democratic
Would you be willing to spend four hours stacking shelves in a supermarket? Regularly? For nothing? And do a spot on the tills, and quite a lot of floor-mopping? Well, it certainly makes a change from hanging out at Starbucks, I suppose.
Rosie Millard · 3,393 views · 5 stars
The Power of Three Words: 'Not-for-Profit'
The Power of Three Words: 'Not-for-Profit'
Ever since we started writing and speaking about our current book project, How on Earth: Flourishing in a Not-for-Profit World by 2050, we have been amazed by one phenomenon in particular. When we have a chance to explain to people what not-for-profit (NFP) enterprise...
Jen Hinton and Donnie Maclurcan · 5,181 views · 5 stars
5 Reasons to Build a Network of Small Groups, Rather Than a Mass Movement of Individuals
5 Reasons to Build a Network of Small Groups, Rather Than a Mass Movement of Individuals
We’re currently touring through the US, meeting with activists: from urban neighbourhood organisers, to black bloc anarchists, back-to-the-land communalists, and progressive mega-campaigners.
Richard D. Bartlett · 26,213 views · 4 stars
Planet Local Short Film Series - Part 3: Local Food Webs, Exploring Systems of Distribution
Planet Local Short Film Series - Part 3: Local Food Webs, Exploring Systems of Distribution
When it comes to helping people and planet, the way we grow our food is important. But building a healthy “food web” — healthy connections between producers, retailers and consumers — is also key.
53 min · 11,557 views · 4 stars
Labor: the New Gold Standard
Labor: the New Gold Standard
This article proposes issuing Hour-denominated currency nationwide, to stimulate creative and ecological economies, make grants to community groups, and make interest-free loans. Twenty years ago I started printing money.  Soon after, residents of Ithaca, New York, began...
Paul Glover · 4,820 views · 5 stars
These Neighbors Got Together to Buy Vacant Buildings. Now They're Renting to Bakers and Brewers
These Neighbors Got Together to Buy Vacant Buildings. Now They're Renting to Bakers and Brewers
The intersection of Central and Lowry Avenues in northeast Minneapolis is bustling. On the northwest corner is a trifecta of local businesses: A bike shop, a cooperative brewery, and a bakery, in buildings with eye-catching exteriors of rough-hewn wood and silvery porcelain...
Olivia LaVecchia · 11,807 views · 4.5 stars
The Worker Self-Directed Enterprise: A "Cure" for Capitalism?
The Worker Self-Directed Enterprise: A "Cure" for Capitalism?
Dr. Richard Wolff is no shy flower when it comes to provoking thought; more "Thorny Rose" than "Sweet William."
Jerry Ashton · 4,741 views · 5 stars
Solutions After Disaster: How Worker-Owned Cooperatives are Generating Real Wealth and Community
Solutions After Disaster: How Worker-Owned Cooperatives are Generating Real Wealth and Community
One year ago, when Hurricane Sandy pummeled the East Coast of the United States with its high tides and winds stretching a 900-mile span, it hit communities in 24 states. Damage estimates range from $50 billion to $68 billion. In New York, loss estimates exceed $19 billion...
9 min · 3,206 views · 4 stars
Can We Do It Ourselves?
Can We Do It Ourselves? (2015)
Within modern life exists a paradox: we celebrate democracy as a political system, but not as an economic system, even though our workplaces have a far greater impact on our day to day lives. It's fair to say that most workplaces under capitalist management are organized in...
59 min · 53,220 views · 4.6 stars
Displacement Battles on Two Continents Show How We Can Reshape the Politics of Housing
Displacement Battles on Two Continents Show How We Can Reshape the Politics of Housing
Communities can do more than just put a Band-Aid on the problem of gentrification and displacement, and a panel of researchers who held a forum at the Democracy Collaborative’s offices in Washington discussed the best thinking and work happening on both sides of the Atlantic...
Isaiah J. Poole · 2,547 views · unrated
Stop Shopping, Start Living
Stop Shopping, Start Living
This national retail co-op is doing its part to preserve the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Jim Hightower · 1,166 views · 4.5 stars
"The Awakening That's Happening": Local, Sustainable Food
"The Awakening That's Happening": Local, Sustainable Food
“People are realizing that we can’t rely on the industrial food system much longer. The awakening that’s happening is our greatest opportunity,” says New Mexican farmer and activist Miguel Santistevan. This awakening has sparked the revival of local, sustainable food systems.
Tory Field and Beverly Bell · 7,413 views · 4.5 stars
Food Fascism in the Land of the Free
Food Fascism in the Land of the Free
The food industry is no longer a free market.  In fact, I'd go as far as saying it's becoming the most glaring example of corporate-government fascism in America. Actual monopolies fully control the basic building blocks of the food that makes up the majority of the...
Eric Blair · 9,346 views · 5 stars
No Single Project Is the Magic Acorn: How All Our Efforts are Working Together
No Single Project Is the Magic Acorn: How All Our Efforts are Working Together
My interview with Tiziano Bonini has ben published in Italian at Che Fara. Here is the English version:
John Thackara and Tiziano Bonini · 1,758 views · unrated
Richard Wolff: Beyond Universal Basic Income
Richard Wolff: Beyond Universal Basic Income
Prof. Richard Wolff presents an in-depth analysis of UBI, showing its advantages over most welfare, safety net systems. An even better alternative would avoid capitalism's unnecessary production of unemployment because it utilizes technical progress (rising productivity) for...
30 min · 1,369 views · 4.8 stars
Yes, There Is An Alternative to Capitalism: Mondragon Shows the Way
Yes, There Is An Alternative to Capitalism: Mondragon Shows the Way
There is no alternative ("Tina") to capitalism?
Richard Wolff · 54,098 views · 4.7 stars
The Case for a "Jazz Revolution" Against Corporate Capitalism
The Case for a "Jazz Revolution" Against Corporate Capitalism
Bottom up? Top down? Improvisation is the key to a middle way.
Keith Harrington · 4,087 views · 4.5 stars
A “Political” Program for Anarchists
A “Political” Program for Anarchists
Many anarchists oppose in principle such use of the political process for anarchist ends. It is unethical, they say, for anarchists to participate in the political process. Voting entails selecting a representative to exercise coercive force in our name; and appealing to such...
Kevin Carson · 986 views · unrated