Cecosesola of Venezuela Wins Right Livelihood Award!

By David Bollier, David Bollier blog

You could say that Cecosesola has learned how to ignore the market and set its own terms for providing goods and services.

This Southern Appalachian town uses co-ops to build new communities around old industries

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.

How Cooperatives are Building Solidarity and Resilience in Indonesia

By Heira Hardiyanti, Post-Growth Institute

Cooperatives are social and economic organizations that strengthen communities — especially in times of hardship.

Regarding Mutualism, Cooperativism, and Other (Interstitially) Anti-Capitalist Alternatives

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.

How to start a housing co-op

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.

Black Farm Cooperatives: Tangible Solutions

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.

Nathan Schneider’s Bounty of Fresh Ideas for Cooperatives

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...

A Visit to Mondragon

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.

Power for the People: How PG&E’s Failures are Spurring a Movement Toward Electric Cooperatives

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.

The History of Community Development Financial Institutions: Review

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.

Cultivating Right Livelihood

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?

In an Era of Brutal Cuts, One Ordinary Place has the Imagination to Fight Back

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.