Cooperative Ownership Gaining Attention

The flowering of new worker-owned cooperatives and other innovative forms of economic democracy is slowly gaining more attention in various cities and through diverse media channels. One such brief but thoughtful report appeared in the May 29, 2012 issue of “In These Times.” Although one would hope that such a politically progressive publication's readership would be familiar with such concrete manifestations of economic justice as cooperatives, that is probably not the case.

Are Co-ops the Answer? was written by intern Rebecca Burns and can be found at the In These Times website.

A more substantial discussion of prospects for cooperative economics appears occasionally in the columns by Gar Alperovitz. Alperovitz and The Democracy Collaborative have been mentioned here before, and I recommend his e-newsletter as a way to receive some of the best thinking and reporting about the practical and theoretical work of building economic democracy.

Another good thought piece, more focused on public ownership of key services and resources, is Beyond Corporate Capitalism: Not So Wild a Dream, by Alperovitz and Thomas M. Hanna, appears in the May 22 issue of The Nation.