By Jeffrey Howard, Shareable
In the foothills of western North Carolina, the small town of Morganton is home to a growing co-op movement that’s reinvigorating the region’s once-struggling textile and furniture manufacturing industries, and refashioning them around egalitarianism and localism.
By Heira Hardiyanti, Post-Growth Institute
Cooperatives are social and economic organizations that strengthen communities — especially in times of hardship.
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
If future historians wish to find some silver lining in COVID-19, the rise in mutualism in response to the shut-downs and dislocations it made necessary may be a good candidate.
By Mira Luna, Shareable
Although problems can come up as in any housing situation, the issue most likely to destroy the co-op is internal conflict. Finding the right people and teaching others willing to learn how to get along is key.
By National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Staff, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Discussion about how cooperative farming and racial equity in federal food policy can create economic sustainability in Black communities.
By David Bollier, David Bollier blog
How can cooperatives serve as vehicles for social change, especially in online spaces? What practical interventions could check the anti-social behaviors of Big Tech? These are two questions that I explored recently with Nathan Schneider...
By Rebecca Fisher-McGinty, Grassroots Economic Organising
Workers should be in charge. People who have their life on the line should make the decisions. Because those that have their livelihood on the line are more likely to make decisions that would benefit the company as well as themselves because the decisions that are made impact them and beyond.
By Robert Raymond, Shareable
But if there’s a silver lining to the PG&E disaster, it’s that — in the midst of filing for bankruptcy — they’ve opened up the space for conversations about alternatives. And perhaps one of the most interesting of these conversations is based on the idea of transforming the utility into a network of cooperatives: utilities owned and managed by the ratepayers themselves.
By Matt Cropp, Grassroots Economic Organizing
While being keenly aware of the importance of CDFIs, I had only the barest inkling of their origins, and so I was thrilled to recently have the opportunity to read Clifford N. Rothensal’s newly published Democratizing Finance: Origins of the Community Development Finance Movement.
By Della Duncan, Mark Phillips, Kosmos Journal
Recognizing that the pursuit of right livelihood is a lifetime journey with no final destination, we can begin by taking the time to look deeply into our own life, asking: where does my greatest hunger meet the world’s deepest need?
By Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian blog
And for those desperate to preserve a spark of hope in a political system that feels so hopeless, let me suggest this: watch Preston.
By Alex Jensen, Local Futures
This is one of the signal lessons of the inspiring work of Tosepan: that a culture of solidarity — fortified by cooperative(s) providing for material and cultural needs — deepens democracy, and that this in turn makes it very hard for predatory capital to enter.