Worker Cooperatives And Revolution

Author : Chris Wright
Publisher : Booklocker
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781632634320

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Worker Cooperatives and Revolution by Chris Wright Pdf

Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the global popular protests of 2011, more people have begun to wonder and speculate: what’s next for civilization? The economic, social, and political status quo seems unsustainable, but what can emerge to take its place? In this book, a historian examines the past and present to argue that the seeds of a more humane society are already being planted, on local and international scales. Whether they will bear fruit depends, ultimately, on grassroots initiative. Focusing on the new worker cooperative movement in the West, this study not only contains the first systematic discussion of the solidarity economy in the light of Marxist theory; it also introduces a major revision of Marxism that both updates it for the twenty-first century and illuminates our historical moment. It includes an analysis of the history of cooperatives in the U.S., showing where they went wrong and how we can correct their past mistakes. It has a case-study of the successful new worker-owned business New Era Windows in Chicago, which has been celebrated internationally for its defiance of conventional paradigms. And it shows a way out of the age-old conflict between Marxism and anarchism, arguing that both are more relevant now than they have ever been. Which is to say: a gradualist “revolution” is, for the first time, within the realm of possibility.

Author : William Foote Whyte,Kathleen King Whyte
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2014-10-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780801471728

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Making Mondragón by William Foote Whyte,Kathleen King Whyte Pdf

Since its founding in 1956 in Spain's Basque region, the Mondragón Corporation has been a touchstone for the international cooperative movement. Its nearly three hundred companies and organizations span areas from finance to education. In its industrial sector Mondragón has had a rich experience over many years in manufacturing products as varied as furniture, kitchen equipment, machine tools, and electronic components and in printing, shipbuilding, and metal smelting. Making Mondragón is a groundbreaking look at the history of worker ownership in the Spanish cooperative. First published in 1988, it remains the best source for those looking to glean a rich body of ideas for potential adaptation and implementation elsewhere from Mondragón's long and varied experience. This second edition, published in 1991, takes into account the major structural and strategic changes that were being implemented in 1990 to allow the enterprise to compete successfully in the European common market. Mondragón has created social inventions and developed social structures and social processes that have enabled it to overcome some of the major obstacles faced by other worker cooperatives in the past. William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte describe the creation and evolution of the Mondragón cooperatives, how they have changed through decades of experience, and how they have struggled to maintain a balance between their social commitments and economic realities. The lessons of Mondragón apply most clearly to worker cooperatives and other employee-owned firms, but also extend to regional development and stimulating and supporting entrepreneurship, whatever the form of ownership.

Author : Eashvaraiah Pulluru
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Producer cooperatives
ISBN : 1443829021

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Workers Cooperatives by Eashvaraiah Pulluru Pdf

The present book is an outcome of a seminar which focused on finding out the possibilities of rethinking socialism in terms of workersâ (TM) socialism vs. state socialism (or more broadly, workersâ (TM) and peasantsâ (TM) socialism vs. state managed socialism) which has been so well analysed by many scholars such as David Lane and Evan Luard. Scholars like Peter Bins, Tony Cliff, and Chris Harman have gone further and shown how the revolution was lost by the workers to state capitalism. However, there have been many instances and cases which have occurred simultaneously all over the world in non-socialist countries wherein workers have shown extraordinary zeal and commitment in forming workersâ (TM) cooperatives free of state support and intervention. Scholars like Robert Oakeshott and Sharit Bhowmik have written and documented this phenomenon extensively. The collapse of the state socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the socialist federation of the USSR stand as a testimony to, and logically confirm the above accounts. The wave of failures of socialist patterns in states like India and welfare states in Western Europe and the USA have illustrated that even their public sector enterprises with loose state control have not succeeded. Hence, the retreat of the state and the moves towards privatization and re-privatization, have been embedded in the liberal paradigm. It is interesting to note that a different kind of phenomenon of production of goods and services by different groups, with reduced control of the state and with the initiative of the workers and peasants and other groups, has been in existence parallel to the above two phenomena. This phenomenon can broadly be called â ~workersâ (TM) cooperatives, â (TM) meaning worker-owned and worker-controlled cooperatives. Naturally, one looks to such phenomena and examines the possibilities of developing it as an alternative to capitalism on the one hand, and state socialism of varied types on the other. The main intention here is to see whether these phenomena of workersâ (TM) cooperatives can be developed into socialist formations with a redefined socialism by reinterpreting and unravelling the broad Marxist, socialist assumptions like self-activity and the self-organisation of workers. It is clear from the different authors of this book that the theoretical framework and empirical experiments suggest an alternative to state-controlled cooperatives and state socialism. This volume extensively covers the conceptual and empirical aspects of workersâ (TM) cooperatives across the globe with explorations of the possibilities of linking workersâ (TM) cooperatives with socialist politics. The book is a fitting contribution to the debates currently going on in search of alternatives to capitalist liberalization and globalization on the one hand, and the failure of different kinds of existing socialisms in the former Soviet Union and different parts of Eastern Europe on the other hand. The book is interdisciplinary in nature and will be useful to scholars, academics, practitioners, and students of political science, governance, development studies, economics, and other trade union and civil society activists.

Author : Mary Mellor,Janet Hannah,John W. G. Stirling,John Stirling
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : UOM:39015014648466

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Worker Cooperatives in Theory and Practice by Mary Mellor,Janet Hannah,John W. G. Stirling,John Stirling Pdf

Author : Nathan Schneider
Publisher : Bold Type Books
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2018-09-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781568589602

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Everything for Everyone by Nathan Schneider Pdf

The origins of the next radical economy is rooted in a tradition that has empowered people for centuries and is now making a comeback. A new feudalism is on the rise. While monopolistic corporations feed their spoils to the rich, more and more of us are expected to live gig to gig. But, as Nathan Schneider shows, an alternative to the robber-baron economy is hiding in plain sight; we just need to know where to look. Cooperatives are jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprises that advance the economic, social, and cultural interests of their members. They often emerge during moments of crisis not unlike our own, putting people in charge of the workplaces, credit unions, grocery stores, healthcare, and utilities they depend on. Everything for Everyone chronicles this revolution--from taxi cooperatives keeping Uber at bay, to an outspoken mayor transforming his city in the Deep South, to a fugitive building a fairer version of Bitcoin, to the rural electric co-op members who are propelling an aging system into the future. As these pioneers show, co-ops are helping us rediscover our capacity for creative, powerful, and fair democracy.

Author : John Restakis
Publisher : New Society Publishers
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2010-09-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781550924619

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Humanizing the Economy by John Restakis Pdf

How the largest social movement in history is making the world a better place. At the close of the twentieth century, corporate capitalism extended its reach over the globe. While its defenders argue that globalization is the only way forward for modern, democratic societies, the spread of this system is failing to meet even the most basic needs of billions of individuals around the world. Moreover, the entrenchment of this free market system is undermining the foundations of healthy societies, caring communities, and personal wellbeing. Humanizing the Economy shows how co-operative models for economic and social development can create a more equitable, just, and humane future. With over 800 million members in 85 countries and a long history linking economic to social values, the co-operative movement is the most powerful grassroots movement in the world. Its future as an alternative to corporate capitalism is explored through a wide range of real-world examples including: Emilia Romagna's co-operative economy of in Northern Italy Argentina's recovered factory movement Japan's consumer and health co-operatives Highlighting the hopes and struggles of everyday people seeking to make their world a better place, Humanizing the Economy is essential reading for anyone who cares about the reform of economics, globalization, and social justice. John Restakis has been active in the co-op movement for 15 years. He is the Executive Director of the BC Co-operative Association and has been a consultant for co-op development projects in Africa and Asia. A pioneering researcher on co-operative economies, he writes and lectures on economic democracy and the role of co-operatives in humanizing economies.

Author : Peter Ranis
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
Page : 126 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2016-08-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781783606528

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Cooperatives Confront Capitalism by Peter Ranis Pdf

Cooperatives the world over are successfully developing alternative models of decision-making, employment and operation without the existence of managers, executives and hierarchies. Through case studies spanning the US, Latin America and Europe, including valuable new work on the previously neglected cooperative movement in Cuba, Peter Ranis explores how cooperatives have evolved in response to the economic crisis. Going further yet, Ranis makes the novel argument that the constitutionally enshrined principle of 'eminent domain' can in fact be harnessed to create and defend worker cooperatives. Combining the work of key radical theorists, including Marx, Gramsci and Luxemburg, with that of contemporary political economists, such as Block, Piketty and Stiglitz, Cooperatives Confront Capitalism provides what is perhaps the most far-reaching analysis yet of the ideas, achievements and wider historical context of the cooperative movement.

Author : John Curl
Publisher : PM Press
Page : 781 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2012-07-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781604867329

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For All the People by John Curl Pdf

Seeking to reclaim a history that has remained largely ignored by most historians, this dramatic and stirring account examines each of the definitive American cooperative movements for social change—farmer, union, consumer, and communalist—that have been all but erased from collective memory. Focusing far beyond one particular era, organization, leader, or form of cooperation, For All the People documents the multigenerational struggle of the American working people for social justice. While the economic system was in its formative years, generation after generation of American working people challenged it by organizing visionary social movements aimed at liberating themselves from what they called wage slavery. Workers substituted a system based on cooperative work and constructed parallel institutions that would supersede the institutions of the wage system. With an expansive sweep and breathtaking detail, this scholarly yet eminently readable chronicle follows the American worker from the colonial workshop to the modern mass-assembly line, from the family farm to the corporate hierarchy, ultimately painting a vivid panorama of those who built the United States and those who will shape its future. John Curl, with over forty years of experience as both an active member and scholar of cooperatives, masterfully melds theory, practice, knowledge, and analysis, to present the definitive history from below of cooperative America. This second edition contains a new introduction by Ishmael Reed; a new author’s preface discussing cooperatives in the Great Recession of 2008 and their future in the 21st century; and a new chapter on the role co-ops played in the Food Revolution of the 1970s.

Author : John Curl
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 72 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1980
Category : Associations, institutions, etc
ISBN : STANFORD:36105037738254

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History of Work Cooperation in America by John Curl Pdf

Author : Denise Kasparian
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2021-11-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789004468641

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Co-operative Struggles: Work Conflicts in Argentina’s New Worker Co-operatives by Denise Kasparian Pdf

In Co-operative Struggles, Denise Kasparian expands the theoretical horizons regarding labour unrest by proposing new categories to make visible and conceptualize conflicts in the new worker co-operativism of the twenty-first century in Argentina.

Author : Camila Piñeiro Harnecker
Publisher : Springer
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-11-29
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781137277756

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Cooperatives and Socialism by Camila Piñeiro Harnecker Pdf

This book demonstrates that the cooperative model is based on principles essential to building a more just and democratic society. It is argued that this is the best economic reform alternative to neoliberal capitalism and authoritarian socialism in Cuba, and that this model can also radically transform other economies around the world.

Author : David Schweickart
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2011-08-16
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780742564992

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After Capitalism by David Schweickart Pdf

Since first published in 2002, After Capitalism has offered students and political activists alike a coherent vision of a viable and desirable alternative to capitalism. David Schweickart calls this system Economic Democracy, a successor-system to capitalism which preserves the efficiency strengths of a market economy while extending democracy to the workplace and to the structures of investment finance. In the second edition, Schweickart recognizes that increased globalization of companies has created greater than ever interdependent economies and the debate about the desirability of entrepreneurship is escalating. The new edition includes a new preface, completely updated data, reorganized chapters, and new sections on the economic instability of capitalism, the current economic crisis, and China. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical research, Schweickart shows how and why this model is efficient, dynamic, and applicable in the world today.

Author : Gar Alperovitz
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2013-05-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781603584920

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What Then Must We Do? by Gar Alperovitz Pdf

Never before have so many Americans been more frustrated with our economic system, more fearful that it is failing, or more open to fresh ideas about a new one. The seeds of a new movement demanding change are forming. But just what is this thing called a new economy, and how might it take shape in America? In What Then Must We Do? Gar Alperovitz speaks directly to the reader about where we find ourselves in history, why the time is right for a new-economy movement to coalesce, what it means to build a new system to replace the crumbling one, and how we might begin. He also suggests what the next system might look like—and where we can see its outlines, like an image slowly emerging in the developing trays of a photographer's darkroom, already taking shape. He proposes a possible next system that is not corporate capitalism, not state socialism, but something else entirely—and something entirely American. Alperovitz calls for an evolution, not a revolution, out of the old system and into the new. That new system would democratize the ownership of wealth, strengthen communities in diverse ways, and be governed by policies and institutions sophisticated enough to manage a large-scale, powerful economy. For the growing group of Americans pacing at the edge of confidence in the old system, or already among its detractors, What Then Must We Do? offers an elegant solution for moving from anger to strategy.

Author : Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2015-06-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780271064260

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Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard Pdf

In Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard chronicles African American cooperative business ownership and its place in the movements for Black civil rights and economic equality. Not since W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1907 Economic Co-operation Among Negro Americans has there been a full-length, nationwide study of African American cooperatives. Collective Courage extends that story into the twenty-first century. Many of the players are well known in the history of the African American experience: Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Jo Baker, George Schuyler and the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. Adding the cooperative movement to Black history results in a retelling of the African American experience, with an increased understanding of African American collective economic agency and grassroots economic organizing. To tell the story, Gordon Nembhard uses a variety of newspapers, period magazines, and journals; co-ops’ articles of incorporation, minutes from annual meetings, newsletters, budgets, and income statements; and scholarly books, memoirs, and biographies. These sources reveal the achievements and challenges of Black co-ops, collective economic action, and social entrepreneurship. Gordon Nembhard finds that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefitted greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation’s history.

Author : Robert Jackall,Henry M. Levin
Publisher : University of California Press
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2021-01-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780520366473

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Worker Cooperatives in America by Robert Jackall,Henry M. Levin Pdf

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.