Act: Inspiration

Chicago Workers Open New Cooperatively Owned Factory Five Years After Republic Windows Occupation

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Workers at the New Era Windows Cooperative are celebrating the grand opening of their new unionized, worker-owned and -operated business. Almost a year to the day after their window factory closed, a group of former workers have launched their own window business without bosses. They successfully raised money to buy the factory collectively and run it democratically. In 2008, some of the workers were involved in a famous six-day sit-in after Republic Windows and Doors gave workers just three days’ notice before closing the factory. The sit-in drew national attention and union workers reached a settlement where they each received $6,000 each. About 65 workers occupied the factory after their jobs came under threat again in 2012. We speak to two worker-owners of the just-opened New Era Windows Cooperative and a labor organizer who helped with their fight.

Shrewsbury opens its green doors

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The UK Government is committed to cutting 80% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – since 50% of our energy is used by our buildings, and 25% by our homes, the target is for every home to be ‘carbon neutral’ by 2050. In Shrewsbury this equates to 2,000 homes being refurbished each year for the next 37 years, saving 60,000 tonnes of CO2e each year in the process.

Open Tech can empower local production

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Open source hardware could be a revolutionary tool for unlocking the shackles that currently tie us to profit motivated, proprietary innovation. The concept springs from a vision to alleviate poverty through empowering decentralized and affordable, small-scale production. Participants anywhere in the world can use the internet to access, improve, or adapt designs for local manufacturing and drastically increase the rate of innovation.

Lessons from Basque Country

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In the 1950s Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, the village priest of Mondragón in the Basque region of Spain, inspired the development of a series of cooperatively owned industries to employ youth in his parish. His vision was that, through ownership by the workers, the wealth created by new industries would be distributed to the workers and to the larger community that nourished and supported them.

Announcing the Power of Just Doing Stuff!

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There are now just over six weeks until the publication of The Power of Just Doing Stuff: how local action can change the world. I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you a bit more about it and why you might want to start building into a fever pitch of excitement. It will be published second week of June, will have 160 pages, will sell for £7.95, will be a thing of great beauty, and an inspiring introduction to what Transition is and the ‘Big Idea’ that it represents.

Practicing Commons in Community Gardens: Urban Gardening as a Corrective for Homo Economicus

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“In these times of ever more blatant marketing of public space, the aspiration to plant potatoes precisely there – and without restricting entry – is nothing less than revolutionary,” writes Sabine Rohlf in her book review of Urban Gardening.1 Indeed, we can observe the return of gardens to the city everywhere and see it as an expression of a changing relationship between the public and the private. And it is not only this dominant differentiation in modern society that is increasingly becoming blurred; the differences between nature and society as well as that between city and countryside are fading as well, at least from the perspective of urban community gardeners.

Print your own money

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The economy is big news, and a big worry. But there are as many economies as we need. There are global, national, regional, and neighborhood economies. There are economies for greed, destruction, and exploitation, as well as for generosity, creativity, and love. And there are as many types of money as we need to operate these economies.