cooperatives
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The Communal State: Communal Councils, Communes, and Workplace Democracy By Dario Azzellini
The particular character of what Hugo Chávez called the Bolivarian process lies in the understanding that social transformation can be constructed from two directions, “from above” and “from below.” Bolivarianism—or Chavismo—includes among its participants both traditional organizations and new autonomous groups; it encompasses both state-centric and anti-systemic currents. Continue reading
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Capitalism in Crisis: Our Opportunity for a New System By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese
It’s time to end the era of Big Finance capitalism and an economy based on the extraction of resources, especially for energy. This statement is not an ideological proposal, but a practical one. We simply cannot continue on the present path, and as systems fail and resources become scarce, we will be forced to change… Continue reading
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Video: Venezuelan Democracy: A Tension Between Centralized Power and Local Democracy
Manuel Larrabure: The Bolivarian Revolution succeeded in developing models of community power and reduced inequality but so far has failed to diversify the economy or extend workers democracy in the oil and mining sector Continue reading
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Is There an Alternative for Capitalist Economics and Politics? Richard Wolff Says Yes
Few are better equipped than economist Richard Wolff, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, to address the massive failings and inequalities of capitalism as he does in his latest book, Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Continue reading
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Cuba, Socialism and Cybernetics By Ivet González
“It is not an option for our future development, it’s an imperative of our time,” economist Ricardo Torres told IPS. “Without the mass application of the New Information and Communications Technologies (NICT), to production processes and social life, there are no contemporary possibilities of development.” Continue reading
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Book Review: Cooperatives and Socialism in Cuba
This book arises from the urgent need for us to make a modest contribution to the healthy “birth” of the new Cuban cooperativism and its subsequent spread. Continue reading
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A Different Kind of Ownership Society By Marjorie Kelly and Shanna Ratner
Shared ownership, like local ownership, is a valuable tool for enhancing community wealth over the long term. Both represent the innovations in social technologies that must evolve alongside innovations in physical technologies—like wind turbines, organic agriculture, or sustainably managed forests—if we’re to create an economy in which prosperity is both sustainable and shared. Continue reading
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The Emilia-Romagna Coops: A Market Without Capitalists By Frances Moore Lappe
A market economy and capitalism are synonymous — or at least joined at the hip. That’s what most Americans grow up assuming. But it is not necessarily so. Capitalism — control by those supplying the capital in order to return wealth to shareholders — is only one way to drive a market. Continue reading
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Mondragón Coops: Worker-Operatives Decide How to Ride Out a Downturn By Georgia Kelly and Shaula Massena
Here’s how it played out when one of the Mondragón cooperatives fell on hard times. The worker/owners and the managers met to review their options. After three days of meetings, the worker/owners agreed that 20 percent of the workforce would leave their jobs for a year, during which they would continue to receive 80 percent… Continue reading
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Marx, Marxism and the Cooperative Movement By Bruno Jossa
One argument we intend to set forth in our analysis is that this scant attention for the cooperative movement is due at least in part to the kind of cooperative – a firm in which workers are “their own capitalists” (Marx, 1894, p. 571) – that has asserted itself in history, because this leads to… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 