This week, we have an interesting paper from Nicos Moushouttas on the organizational tensions faced by worker cooperatives, and how they are addressed differently than in traditional businesses. Moushouttas interviewed cooperators and examined documents from five UK worker cooperatives, ranging in size from 11 to 295 members. 

Then, the Northwest Cooperative Development Center presents a series of webinars on the process of converting a business to a worker cooperative. This week, we're sharing the first two sessions. While the information in the introductory webinar may be old hat to most readers, the second session, which presents first hand accounts from two co-op conversions, is worth a watch by everyone.  

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Organisational Tensions in Worker Cooperatives

by Nicos Moushouttas
In Vegetarian Wholefoods, where the majority of operations were warehouse-based, labour was divided into simple, relatively repetitive tasks, accompanied by multi-skilling and role rotation. Under this type of division of labour, which left little room for operational autonomy, pressure to perform in a specific time-efficient manner was imposed through performance targets by the committee in consultation with managers. This performance-driven work intensification was particularly evident in manual labour jobs because they constituted the bulk of operational activities and because they were easier to monitor and measure...Although there were multiple suggestions and trials to impose KPI targets for marketing and administrative roles, the nature of those roles made it difficult to quantify and measure their performance. As such, the pressure to perform was disproportionately affecting labour-intensive roles. Worker-members performing those roles had, on paper, the same status and power as any other worker-member; however, the work intensification and knowing that their performance was being monitored made it difficult to realise that power.

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Exploring the Conversion Process

by Northwest Cooperative Development Center
The Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC) recently released a series of six videos on the process of converting a business to a cooperative. Below are sessions one and two, which cover the basics of conversion, and present two case studies: A1 DesignBuild, and MSA Environmental.

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Detroit’s first Black-led grocery store sends out a fundraising SOS amid financial struggles

Detroit Metro Times — While it has recorded $3 million in sales annually, the co-op is still struggling as it has been beset by issues ranging from crippling food inflation to the loss of a full-time general manager to a broad misunderstanding of the co-op model. To right the ship, the Detroit People’s Food Co-op has launched a three-pronged fundraising campaign and began making operational changes. Some of the store’s shelves have sat a bit empty, and they need to address that issue stat, while also planning for long-term stability. Read on for details on how to support it, but first a quick refresher on the cooperative model, and why it is so vital...

A Better Handmade Marketplace Launches: Beta is Over!

Artisans Cooperative — Our 2023 Marketplace Tech Plan utilized hosted e-commerce to get our marketplace launched in only seven months, using off-the-shelf technology to get us to revenue as fast as possible. Exactly three years later, today we launched A better handmade marketplace. Instead of renting our marketplace and functionality from corporations, we own it. We purchased a copy of the code, run it on a server hosted by a fellow cooperative (MayFirst), and can make feature improvements and bug fixes ourselves...

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This week, we're sharing an article from the most recent GEO Journal - an interview with GEO member Matt Noyes about his work in the union and cooperative movements in the US and Japan. 

Then, CHF Canada profiles three New Brunswick housing co-ops that are using various approaches to creating and maintaining affordable, cooperative housing.

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Greater Levels of Solidarity

by Matt Noyes and Steve Herrick
[O]ne of the interesting things they can learn from each other is that solidarity is crucial for both, in different ways. A good, strong worker cooperative has to be centered in solidarity, because solidarity is what’s going to make it work, and what’s going to make it be effective as an organization. The same is true of a union, but one of the big differences is that unions don’t own and control the workplace or the labor process. So they are structurally in a fight, they are antagonistic to the employers by their nature. If they’re functioning as a legitimate union, they are forced into a kind of solidarity. If they don’t fight, they don’t need solidarity and they degenerate.

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New Brunswick's Housing Cooperatives

by CHF Canada
The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada recently profiled three New Brunswick housing cooperatives — one that is just being built, one that was converted to cooperative ownership in 2022, and one that formed in 2016 when eight small housing co-ops merged to better ensure their long-term viability. The latter, Unified Saint John Housing Co-operative, is an especially interesting story, as the co-op now owns 294 units scattered throughout Saint John, with plans to continue acquiring and building co-operative homes.

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Does the USFWC really represent us?

MadWORC — The staff and Boards of Directors of the New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives (NYCNOWC) and the Madison Worker Cooperative Network (MadWorC) are proposing multiple changes to the bylaws of the United States Federations of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) in order to restore member control of its governance and operations. Together we represent thousands of workers and dozens of worker cooperatives, several of which are founding members of the USFWC...

JoAnn Fabrics fans seek to stitch void left by private equity with crafts co-op

The Guardian — “The ultimate big dream is to try to create an ecosystem that connects all of these people in the crafting world,” said Sandy McClenahan, 35, a legal assistant, hat maker and former tech industry relationship manager. “The model we’re investigating is how member-owned and/or worker-owned co-ops can help do that.” McClenahan published a survey last month suggesting a call to action: “A craft and fabric co-op, owned by us.” The post got hundreds of responses, including one person from every US state and 30 who wanted to be founding members...

Centennial Success: Celebrating Agricultural Cooperatives Over 100 Years Old

USDA (Zoom) — Join us for an engaging webinar dedicated to agricultural cooperatives that have thrived for more than a century. This session will delve into the rich histories of these enduring organizations, highlight the significant challenges they have faced over the years, and examine the factors behind their remarkable longevity. Discover how these cooperatives have adapted, evolved, and succeeded across generations. Whether you're a cooperative member, agricultural professional, or history enthusiast, this discussion promises valuable insights into the legacy and future of ag co-ops...

Margaret Bau enters the Co-op Hall of Fame

Cooperative Hall of Fame — Over her decades-long career with USDA Rural Development, Margaret Bau helped establish and strengthen dozens of cooperatives throughout rural America. Her work empowered communities to create locally owned solutions that increased economic opportunity and strengthened rural resilience...

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This week, Lindsay Harris of Propolis Housing Cooperative discusses how her co-op raised over a million dollars through the issuance of community bonds.

Then, Doug Ryan and Tiana Patterson of Grounded Solutions Network report on the recently passed "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act," that broadens the official definition of a community land trust, and recognizes the key importance of shared-equity housing. 

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Community Bonds: A New Way to Raise Funds for Housing Co-ops

by Co-operatives First
In this webinar, Lindsay Harris, Executive Director of Propolis Housing Cooperative, talks about how her Kamloops-based co-op raised $1.1 million using community bonds. She shares key learnings from years of hard work, including navigating the technical aspects of issuing community bonds and building community support. 

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Housing Bill Could Boost Community Land Trusts, But Implementation Is Critical

by Doug Ryan & Tiana Patterson
Congress’s decision to recognize a broader range of shared-equity models expands the tools available to communities for preserving long-term affordability. That flexibility is one of the Act’s greatest strengths, but it also shifts greater responsibility to the practitioners, lenders, local governments, and state agencies responsible for translating federal policy into local practice.

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Cooperatives as Incubators of Democracy

The Sustainable Economies Law Center — Anyone who has been part of a collectively run project —an activist group, an organizing project, a worker self-directed nonprofit, a cooperative, an intentional living community — knows that the work of deciding together is rife with disagreement and conflict.  Even when the intention is to be collaborative and share leadership, differences in power, rank, role, identity, personality and lived experience make it exceedingly challenging to create cultures and structures that truly allow everyone to contribute fully and fairly.  These differences often lead to breakdown — relational disruptions, system failures, stuff not getting done.  When stuff breaks down, and there is no boss to call the shots, we have to rely on each other to find the pathway out of the mess...

Introducing Canada Co-op: A New Name for a Stronger, More Visible Sector

Canada Co-op — For more than a decade, Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC) has served as the national voice for Canada’s co-operatives, credit unions, caisses, and mutuals. On October 11, 2026, we will begin a new chapter as Canada Co-op, adopting a name and visual identity that are clearer, more memorable, and more closely aligned with the organizations we represent...

Co-op Cincy Annual Celebration

Co-op Cincy (MailChimp) — Join Co-op Cincy on Friday, October 16 at the Woodward Theater for our annual celebration, Better Together: Powered by Cooperation. This is our night to bring together the people who make Cincinnati’s cooperative ecosystem possible:  worker-owners, community partners, supporters, friends, and neighbors, and celebrate what we’re building across our region...

6D Co-op: Bringing Big-City Services to a Small Community

Co-operatives First — In 2020, a group of wellness practitioners in Brooks, Alberta noticed residents in their small town were grappling with high levels of stress and tension. In response, they began hosting wellness classes and events as a collective, which were wildly successful. In 2024, these practitioners — who all had their own businesses based out of their homes — continued the momentum by coming together to form 6D Health and Wellness Cooperative, a co-operative that offers holistic health care resources...

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This week, Shernay Williams of the Institute for Independent Journalists interviews award-winning food writer Soleil Ho about the worker-owned newsroom she co-founded, COYOTE Media Collective.  

Then, Amarpal Singh Verma writes about the cooperatives in the North Indian state of Rajasthan that are helping migrant women support themselves through their traditional Sindhi embroidery — escaping the exploitative system of middlemen and exporters who usually capture the lion's share of the value from the women's tireless work. 

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COYOTE Media’s Soleil Ho on Freelancing and Running a Worker-Owned Newsroom

by The Institute for Independent Journalists
Soleil Ho has always had a lot of irons in the fire. For a decade, they worked as a chef while freelancing as a writer. In 2019, they joined the San Francisco Chronicle, where they served as the paper’s restaurant critic until 2025, nabbing a James Beard Award in the process. These days, when they’re not collaborating with chefs on cookbook projects, they’re helping to run COYOTE Media Collective, a Bay-area-based worker-owned newsroom. 

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Rajasthan’s Cooperatives are Helping Migrant Women Artisans Escape Decades of Exploitation

by Amarpal Singh Verma
Moomal Meghwal’s family also migrated from Meh ka Tala village in Sindh in 1971. After first living in refugee camps, they settled in Sanwa village. Her mother did embroidery and passed the skill to her daughter. Today, Meghwal’s own daughter also earns around ₹4,000 a month from the work.

“Earlier, the effort was immense, but the earnings were very low,” the 50-year-old craftswoman says. “After associating with SURE, for the first time, it felt like we were getting the true value for our hard work.

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Worker-Owner Co-op Model Thrives at Alvarado Street Bakery

Edible Marin & Wine Country — The sun rises over Petaluma’s hills as Calderon joins the team mixing dough and sending fluffy golden rings down the line to be packaged. He’s been working on the production floor for seven years. At most bakeries in the country it’s likely he would be making around $12 an hour. But his salary hovers around $60,000 per year, on top of stellar health insurance, a 401(k) and a share of the bakery’s profits...

Cooperative Childcare Solutions Webinars

University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives — The childcare crisis is straining rural communities — creating business disruptions, reducing access to affordable quality care, and causing burnout for childcare workers. Join the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives and Cooperative Development Services for a webinar on the childcare crisis. Drawing on eight months of firsthand research, this presentation will share ways rural communities and employers have addressed childcare gaps through collaboration, advocacy, and the cooperative model...

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This week, attorney Ariana R. Levinson  writes about labor negotiations in union co-ops, and how they differ from negotiations in traditional businesses. 

Then, Cathy Edwards, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Co-operatives First, gives a detailed breakdown of how to make a useful strategic plan for a co-op, and shares some tips for getting the most out of strategic planning sessions.   

And the latest issue of our print journal, focuses on union co-ops, is hot off the presses! You can receive future issues by becoming a sustaining donor.

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Are Union Co-op Negotions a Win-Win and for Whom?

by Ariana R. Levinson
Interviews with participants in union co-op collective bargaining and a review of several union co-op collective bargaining agreements suggest that many union co-op labor negotiations are more similar to interest-based negotiations than traditional labor negotiations. Those involved described these negotiations as more transparent, involving greater exchange of information, and oriented more toward cooperative problem-solving than traditional negotiations.

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Strategic Planning for Your Co-op's Future

by Co-operatives First
Every co-operative needs a strategic plan. Whether this is a formally designed, written document or notes that you’ve captured on a whiteboard, your team needs to be on the same page when determining the work your co-op will undertake. A good strategic plan will help your team chart a course for the next 3-5 years, delivering on your purpose, meeting the needs of members, and growing your co-operative. 

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Connecting Cooperatives: World Map Updates

DotCoop Newsletter (MailChimp) — The Cooperative World Map (CWM) is an interactive, up-to-date digital map that aims to unite and showcase all cooperative entities worldwide! Recently, we added some visual changes to worldmap.coop, highlighting which cooperatives on the map have been through a verification process with DotCoop to ensure that they are real, authentic cooperative businesses...

Peer Supervision: A Quiet Revolution in Support Work

Equal Care Co-op — Support work can be isolating. Even in a team, you might find yourself working alone most days, with little time or space to reflect on how things are really going. At Equal Care, we’ve been developing a different way of doing things - one that values listening over telling, and connection over hierarchy. Peer supervision is a small but important part of that shift. It’s not about checking up on people, it’s not therapy, and it’s definitely not a performance review! It’s a simple, structured conversation with someone who understands your work and is trained to support you...

Tour of a Strawbale Home at Dancing Rabbitt Ecovillage

Kirsten Dirksen (YouTube) — Dan Durica has lived at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri for two decades, in a home he built himself out of local straw bale and earth. Today his monthly costs are almost nothing: about $50/month to lease land from the community land trust, plus a few dollars to tie into the village's micro-grid, which is now itself connected to the larger utility grid, giving him a backup layer he didn't have in the early days. 

 

Rehearsing the Future: The Thought and Practice of James and Grace Lee Boggs

AK Press — Rehearsing the Future explores the work and legacy of James and Grace Lee Boggs, two of the most influential American radical thinkers of the twentieth century. Grace Lee Boggs earned a PhD in philosophy in the 1940s, though facing obstacles to an academic career as a young Chinese American woman, she left and became a political organizer in Detroit, where she met and married James Boggs, a Black autoworker and labor organizer from Alabama who had moved North during the Great Migration. Over the course of more than forty years of partnership and participation in labor, civil rights, Black Power, anticolonial, and feminist movements, the Boggses articulated a philosophy of long-term revolutionary strategy they called “dialectical humanism.”...

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This week, we've got an informative video from CooperationWorks! on understanding how a cooperative's finances work. This is a great resource for anyone learning or teaching cooperative basics. 

Then, Yavor Tarinski writes about social ecologist and political theorist Murray Bookchin's influence on contemporary social movements. From the democratic confederation of Northern Syria, to the assembly of assemblies established by the French Yellow Vest movement, Bookchin's thought and writings have had a broad influence on efforts to realize a truly grassroots democracy. 

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Financial Literacy for Cooperators

by CooperationWorks!
An introduction to financial literacy for cooperators, from CooperationWorks!

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Bookchin and the Legacy of Direct Democracy

by Yavor Tarinski
The direct-democratic foundations of the society which Bookchin envisioned, went beyond anarchist rejections of laws and constitutions. For him it was not enough to place our hopes for more just future on intrinsic human instincts for mutual aid or sharing. Instead social movements have to propose and attempt to implement in practice new political architecture, which will make possible for the whole of society to exercise power in a stateless, noncapitalist and participatory manner.

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How Venezuela's CECOSESOLA supports communities during crisis

Cooperative Development Institute (YouTube) — In this video, CDI's Pável Uranga interviews Venezuela's CECOSESOLA, a cooperative founded in 1967 with 1,500 worker-associates and 20,000 members. This is the first in a series of interviews we will be publishing to understand how cooperatives in countries facing conflict manage to thrive and support their communities...

What Do We Mean By Solidarity Economy?

Solidarity Economy Principles — Solidarity economies emerge from movements and integrate the three common strategies for social change: personal transformation, building alternative institutions, and challenging dominant institutions. Building solidarity economy movements requires building networks, federations, and coalitions that align with SE principles and practices. This is where we become truly powerful...

How intentional communities from the 70s are changing for new generations

ABC News (Australia) — According to Tuntable Falls, it began with 40 people who pooled their funds and contributed a $200 share to purchase 80 hectares of land. Now, the co-op boasts 687 hectares of land and 280 shareholders, who are residents and members who hold or rent sites...

QA, Tooling, and Worker-Owned Game Studios (Feat. Chris Watkins)

GameReady (Youtube) — Chris Watkins spent over two decades in game QA, eventually becoming Principal QA Engineer at Amazon Games. Today he co-founded Punch Up Games, a worker cooperative building the game Dig Too Deep. In this conversation he breaks down what great QA actually looks like, how tooling saves teams from painful manual work, and why he chose to build a studio where every worker is an equal owner...

The 2026 Worker Co-op Conference, Sept 25-26, Boston, MA

US Worker Co-op Conference — We're excited to announce that the 2026 Worker Co-op Conference will be held at Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts! The theme this year's conference is "Owning Our Future.” We'll explore the ways that cooperative structures expand democratic practice and community resilience, and encourage us to think innovatively to build an economy where workers and communities thrive. You can look forward to tours of the local worker co-op and solidarity economy ecosystem, breakout sessions to dig deeper into worker co-op business development, skill-building, networking, advocacy, and more...

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This week, Kristin Ford Hurckes of the Univ. of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives talks about the ways that cooperatives can help address childcare needs, and shares stories of creative ways that communities have used co-ops to provide this necessary service.

Then, Steve Dubb reports on the work of Mondragon's Arizmendiarrieta Social Economy Think Tank (ASETT) to create an international network "centered on cooperation, social economy, and solidarity."  

And we have added a transcript to the excellent interview we ran last week, with the EMMA Technology Cooperative. 

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What Co-ops Can (and Can't) Do for Child Care

by Practicing Connection Podcast

When child care is hard to find and harder to afford, some communities aren't waiting for a fix. Kristin Forde Hurckes of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension Center for Cooperative explains how cooperative models are helping - and where they hit their limits.

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World’s Largest Worker Cooperative Network Seeks New Allies

by Steve Dubb
To date, ASETT has built a broad coalition to advance policies and practices that support businesses motivated by purpose rather than profit. In addition to government allies at the regional and national levels, the coalition includes groups such as Gureak (a Basque organization comprising businesses that seek to employ people with disabilities), the Council of Cooperatives of the Basque Country (Kooperatiben Kontseilua), the Spanish Social Economy Employers’ Confederation (CEPES), and allies from across the world (including the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and Asia).

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Igalia and Bocoup: Cooperatives Unite

Igalia — Igalia has grown steadily in recent years, expanding our cooperative with more and more people who care deeply about open source, the web, and collaborative ways of working. This union with the workers of Bocoup continues that trajectory, strengthening our collective with people whose commitments align closely with our own....

Is Pidgin Cooperative’s Worker-Owned Model the Future of Seattle’s Restaurant Industry?

The Stranger — Pidgin was built around a radically simple notion. Instead of a traditional hierarchy model—where workers get hourly wages plus tips, while owners make all the decisions and reap the profits, if indeed there are any—the whole staff is invited to be in the founder’s club. On day one, Pidgin employees are paid $25 per hour and given a clear pathway toward becoming co-owners. After 2,000 hours of service (roughly one year of FTE), workers can purchase a membership share for $1,000 that grants them voting rights in the business, visibility on its finances, and access to profit-sharing. They can invest that $1,000 through a payment plan, if they like, and prelim voting rights are unlocked after an initial investment of $200. The model also includes an equal share of the pooled tips for both front-of-house and back-of-house workers. Currently, Seth says, there are six worker-members at Pidgin, and one who’s on track to becoming the seventh...

Baltimore Ice Cream Shop Where Employees Become Owners

First Alert 6 (Youtube) — At Taharka Brothers in Baltimore, every scoop of ice cream serves a bigger purpose. The company is a worker-owned co-op — no outside investors, just employees who democratically govern the business and share in the profits...

Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives 3rd Annual In-Person Event - 9/21

Eventbrite — Please join us! VAWC's 3rd annual in-person event is for worker co-operators, supporters, and anyone interested in worker co-ops to gather and connect with one another. We will have food and beverages from Flat Iron Cooperative including refreshments, chili, co-op coffee, and more...

2026 New York Cooperative Summit

Simpletix — The New York Cooperative Summit is a one-day event brings together New York State cooperative members, leaders, organizers, and allies to share practical tools and strategies for starting, sustaining, and scaling the co-op ecosystem across the state.  In 2024, the Summit was held in Syracuse and attracted 100 attendees, and last year the event was in Albany and attracted 125. This year we are planning for up to 150 attendees in Schenectady!...

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This week, NYC's EMMA Technology Cooperative sits down with the Strange Birds podcast to discuss how their co-op operates, why they chose consensus decision making, how they survived a 10 month dry spell, and more. 

Then, David Bollier interviews two architects whose work is focused n the social and economic dynamics of co-living; from housing cooperatives and intentional communities, to co-housing and communes.

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EMMA Technology Cooperative

Businesses need more verbs

by Strange Birds
Ramsey Nassar, Gwen Pasquarello, and Andy Wallace at EMMA Technology Cooperative have spent five years as a worker-owned co-op building software and hardware for video games, theater, public installation, and media arts. And theme parks. And custom programming languages. And a nonprofit arcade collective. They're thriving.

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Taking Co-Living Seriously in Architecture & Design

by David Bollier
Steinmüller and Bhatia began to conduct in-person interviews to explore the social dynamics of co-living, discover what residents really want, and understand what types of people choose such to live in such settings. They also embarked on a more systemic study of co-living options around the world to study the range of existing options. “We looked at models in Asia and the share houses in Japan and Korea,” said Steinmüller. “We looked at Baugruppen in Germany and Austria, and cooperatives in Switzerland, to augment the breadth of purpose-designed structures. We weren't able to find as many in the U.S.”

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Power Tools for Artists: Co-ops for Creatives - 8/21

Art.coop — After years of participating in an unjust economy, artists and culture bearers are searching for viable alternatives to the traditional models of cultural production. Cooperatives and the solidarity economy are gaining traction as a values-aligned solution. But what's the difference between a worker-owned cooperative and a purchasing cooperative?...

Besties Cooperative Farm: Teaming Up to Create Sustainable Agriculture

Co-operatives First — “Cost is a big barrier for farming, especially new farmers, cost and knowledge,” Michael said. “The skill share part, if you have like a couple people in the group that have more knowledge around farming or have done farming, whereas some other people maybe don’t, really helps if you’re a co-operative… we [also always] have someone to reach out to, because we just have a bigger network of people with more of us involved.”...

Space battle in Birmingham

Solidfund — Solidfund members have agreed to pledge £30,000 from their cash reserve to buy loan stock in Stirchley Co-op Developments. Our financial services partner ICOF (Industrial Common Ownership Fund) agreed to match our members' commitment, making a total of £60,000. We hope and expect other organisations to contribute to this really important - perhaps once in a generation - effort to secure a new worker-led cooperative campus in Birmingham...

The Stone Soup Registry: A Modern Example of Co-operation Among Co-operatives

Ontario Co-operative Association — What if the co-operative sector could rally around new co-operatives in the same way the villagers rallied around the soup pot? The Stone Soup Registry proposes a simple idea: create a platform where established co-operatives, credit unions, professionals, and supporters can contribute the resources a new co-operative needs to get started...

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P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, we're sharing the first chapter of the new book Global Cooperative Economics and Movements: A Research Companion. In it, co-op researchers from across the globe look at how cooperative movements have developed in different parts of the world, and trace the various ways in which they have pursued a common goal: to make people's lives better. 

Then, the Working People podcast interviews two of the organizers and founding worker-members of Pittsburgh's new media cooperative, the Pittsburgh Progress. Formed by striking journalists and supportive community members, the multi-stakeholder co-op is "dedicated to looking out for, and telling the stories of, the working-class people who form the heart and soul of our diverse communities."

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Cooperatives and Social Transformation

An assessment of the global cooperative movement and its diverse trajectories

by Mark J. Kaswan, Patrick Develtere, Zhao Li, Sizwe Mkwanazi, Colombia Pérez Muñoz
We are encouraged to see the new developments, which in important ways reflect a return to the origins of the cooperative movement in seeking to transform communities to make them more just, more sustainable, and more interconnected. We also recognize three key challenges. The first is the need to involve young
people in building community capacity, networks, and connections to build toward the future.

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How Journalists and Readers Started a Media Co-op in Pittsburgh

by Working People
In this episode of Working People, we discuss the birth of the Pittsburgh Progress, and what it means for working people in and beyond Pittsburgh, with Steve Mellon and Natalie Duleba, both former strikers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and both founding worker-members of the newly launched Pittsburgh Progress.

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Cooperative Director Training

UW Center for Cooperatives — We’re excited to introduce Board Ready: A Training Series for New Co-op Directors—a revamped cooperative director training program, now expanded into a five‑part series delivered fully online. This updated format makes it easier than ever for directors from every cooperative sector to participate, learn, and grow...

Can worker control guide the world past a neoliberal crisis?

Co-op News — Worker buyouts are not new – and Co-op News’s recent interview with Bruno Roelants touched on the success of Italy’s Marcora Law, which facilitates such transfers. But Azzellini argues that WREs are transformative not just for workers and organisations, but communities and wider democracy too. He and co-author Marcelo Vieta add a class-analysis dynamic to the re-emergent labour question, drawing on a range of contemporary case studies from around the world...

The Cooperative Movement in Century 21

Academia.edu — The cooperative movement was one of the first social movements of modern times, with roots at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and was an integral part of the early labour movement. The movement for worker cooperatives, workplace democracy, and social enterprises is resurgent around the world today. The cooperative movement of the present and near future operates primarily in the spaces that the corporate system cannot and will not fill...

Worker Cooperatives, Economic Inclusion, and Structural Inequality: U.S. and Italy Compared

SSRN — This article reviews and compares the literature from the U.S. and Italy about whether worker cooperatives foster economic inclusion of marginalized workers and whether worker cooperatives challenge or enhance structural inequality. The Author categorizes the various scholarship addressing these issues and analyses the resultant themes. Two questions warranting further research are proposed. First, how can Labor & Employment Law and Cooperative Law be designed or interpreted to work in tandem to provide dignified terms and conditions of employment? Second, how can internal industrial relations of worker cooperatives best be structured to challenge rather than enforce structural inequality?...

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This week, cooperators and union members discuss the benefits of unionization for worker co-ops, and argue that "labor neutrality" should be the new standard that all types of cooperatives adopt in regards to unionization.

Then, members of Codeberg - a democratic, non-profit software development platform - discuss why their membership recently voted to ban LLM generated code, and how the boom in so-called AI is creating threats to the open-source software commons.  

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Unions, Co-ops, and Labor Neutrality

by US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
This session outlines the practice of labor neutrality — when an employer commits to taking no position for or against their workers organizing and to voluntary recognize a labor union without requiring an election facilitated by a third party (commonly through a "card check" process) — and how workers in cooperatives can benefit from their employer proactively supporting their rights.

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Protecting Our FLOSS Commons from LLMs

by Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, Otto Richter, William Zijl
The Codeberg e. V. annual assembly is the meeting that puts power into the hand of our active members. Proposals are discussed live, and later voted on asynchronously. Since Large Language Models (LLMs) are an emerging but controversial technology, it is not surprising that two of the votes were concerned with Codeberg's position about this technology. The 14-day voting period ended yesterday and both proposals were accepted.

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New media cooperative in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Progress — Welcome to the Pittsburgh Progress, a news organization forged by a team of union journalists and community members. That’s us. We own this thing. It’s a cooperative. You can be an owner, too. You should. We don’t have to live in a world dominated by media companies focused on fattening the wallets of a few at the top while workers and communities pay the price. The Progress proves that point...

Fruity Ceramics Cooperative

Co-operatives First — The studio was initially founded as a for-profit venture, but it was evident early on that that model wasn’t viable. The work of running the studio in a sustainable way was too much for one person, so this talented group of artists decided that shifting to a co-operative, where the ownership and responsibility were shared, was the perfect fit. Today, Fruity operates as a community service co-operative, which was incorporated in late 2025...

Willy Street Impacted Workers Fund

Give Lively — Our community has been directly impacted by the shooting of Corey Ruiz on Williamson Street on July 22nd. In an effort to offset the loss of wages due to the shooting, we have started the Willy Street Impacted Workers Fund. Funds raised will go directly to employees impacted by lost wages in the immediate area of the shooting. Employees impacted by lost wages can apply for funds here. Impacted employees can apply for a maximum of $500 per round of funding. We hope to secure enough donations to have multiple rounds of funding. MadWorC will verify lost wages and disperse funds to individual employees...

A 4,000-year-old city became richer by sharing prosperity

Science Daily — Researchers examined differences in house sizes across the city and found that wealth became more evenly distributed as Mohenjo-daro matured. The city also appears to have been more equal than comparable societies in Mesopotamia and Greece. Instead of producing increasingly dramatic differences between wealthy and ordinary households, Mohenjo-daro saw the size gap between its largest and smallest homes become narrower over time...

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Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Maimoona Waseem writes about her research with LGBTQ+ staff members at the UK's Equal Care Cooperative. Waseem highligts how the highly personal nature of care work requires a thoughtful approach to balancing the needs, dignity, and wellbeing of both workers and those receiving care.

Then, Dorchester Food Co-op GM John Santos talks about their multi-stakeholder model and how a decade of organizing lead to the opening of the Boston co-op, now going on three years old. 

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Negotiating Identity in Care Work

Experiences of LGBTQ+ Care Workers in Equal Care

by Maimoona Waseem
Through participants' narratives, the article examines how gender identity and sexual orientation shape experiences of care work beyond conventional discussions of workplace discrimination. Rather than presenting identity solely as a source of exclusion, it shows how care workers actively negotiate disclosure, authenticity, emotional wellbeing, and professional boundaries within everyday practice.

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Boston's Multi-Stakeholder Food Co-op

by CommonWealth Beacon
The Dorchester Food Co-op is a new community & worker-owned grocery store that aims to make healthy food accessible and advance economic opportunity and neighborhood engagement. General manager John Santos joins CommonWealth's Jennifer Smith to discuss the co-op's origins and business model.

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"We never would have come up with this solution if we hadn't been talking to our neighbors"

Working Class Storytelling — People everywhere in Roswell were living doubled up, on each other’s couches, and even in the dry river beds. They’d tried working with the city, but had been told that this was a “charity issue,” not one for the government to figure out. They disagreed, but set out nonetheless to find a solution. And they did. The solution they came up with is one of the most efficient, cost-effective, and locally sustainable concepts I’ve ever heard-- and it’s working...

Review of Cooperatives in the Global Economy

Academia.edu — Cooperatives in the Global Economy is a much-needed series of essays that demonstrate the concrete realities of cooperative economics across the globe. After a foundational chapter on the meaning of cooperative enterprise and its distinction among the endless models and forms of economic activity, the rest of the book essentially looks at geographic profiles. Readers learn about the thriving cooperative movement in Tanzania, India, Philippines, Argentina, South Africa, Armenia, ‘Post-Yugoslav Space’ and others...

Online Workshop: Strengthening Online Communities, July 29th

How To Rise Against Big Tech — Different tools have created different community cultures. Mailing lists invite slower, more reflective exchanges and build up an email archive over time. Forums like Discourse organise conversations by topic and tag, making it normal to return to older threads and turn discussion into shared reference. Real‑time chat tools—Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp and their open‑source cousins—create fast, conversational spaces where people feel close and responsive, but where decisions and insights often vanish into the scroll. In “Strengthening Online Communities,” an online workshop on Wednesday, July 29th from 3:00–4:30 pm UTC, we’ll explore how to design digital spaces that balance these cultures while aligning with the values at the heart of Rise Against Big Tech: collaboration, transparency, and community control...

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Our mailing address is:

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P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, we're happy to share a short introduction to a new on-line directory of worker cooperative products, workerowned.info, a free, searchable index of products from US worker-owned businesses. 

Then, members of four worker co-op game development studios talk about why they choose the cooperative structure and the many benefits of the cooperative model for game developers.

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A New Directory for Worker Co-ops Products

 

by workerowned.info
The marketplace currently indexes 22,000+ products across eleven categories: coffee and tea, food and pantry goods, apparel, books and media, beer and brewing, art and prints, home goods and services, personal care, music, games, and tech and software. The stores range from long-established co-ops like Equal Exchange and AK Press to newer operations like Soapbox Co-op in Chicago and Means Workwear in Minneapolis.

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Game Worker Cooperatives

by Game Workers Conference
The Game Workers Conference is an entirely new game industry event made by and for the countless workers who make this massively influential industry and artistic medium succeed. All programming for this completely free & online conference was made by workers, for workers. 

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Baltimore City Budget Advances Worker Cooperative Conversion

Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy — On June 24th, Baltimore’s final fiscal year 2027 budget was approved by City Council—including, for the first time, money designated to support the conversion of businesses to worker cooperatives when the owners of those businesses wish to retire or sell. The city’s $250,000 commitment will enable an expansion of the work of Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy to facilitate cooperative conversions to retain jobs, empower workers, avert commercial vacancies, and preserve locally-owned businesses...

Solidfund: Strengthening international worker co-operation

Co-op News — Raising capital has long been a challenge for worker co-ops, who often lack the backing of external investors or the grant funding available to community-run ventures. One organisation is working to change that by pooling co-operators’ resources and distributing them democratically: Solidfund. As a co-op itself, Solidfund operates on solidarity principles, including open membership and collective decision-making, with members deciding together how resources are used...

Linking Immigrant, Worker, and Tenant Struggles to Build Community Power

Shelterforce — Building solidarity across unions and the community is rarely easy. María Moreno, a Jobs with Justice San Francisco leader, notes that it has not been easy to get the mainstream labor movement to ally with JWJ’s coalition of immigrants, workers, and tenants. “One of the biggest challenges this year was aligning labor to march with [the Jobs With Justice] coalition,” she says...

Cooperatives: Prefiguring a Post-Capitalist Good Life?

Arena — The 26th issue of Arena Quarterly has a special section on cooperatives. Post-capitalist work, social engagement and new forms of housing are the centrepiece of this issue—how to cooperate with others to get all manner of things working for you, your communities, your comrades. This is the promise of the cooperative movement. Practitioners and researchers in this special section provide crucial leads for thinking about and enacting new forms of meaningful association. The section seeks to look at the possibilities, limits and structural conditions that shape cooperatives in today’s context of converging crises...

The Heat Stupids and How to Prevent Them

Farm to Taber — Have you ever driven by a group of people up on a roof, paving a road, or bent over in a field in the blazing midday sun and wondered, "how do they stand it?" Are you one of those workers, or someone doing hours of physical work in the summer heat? If so, you have probably heard that you should drink lots of water and take regular breaks in the shade. Maybe you have been told about the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and what to do if they occur. But in reality, you may have brought along one water bottle and you may feel driven to knock out one more task before taking a break...

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Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, we have a short video from Mari Nishitani introducing the Green Halcones worker cooperative, based in Los Angeles, California.

Then David Bollier interviews English photographer, writer, and filmmaker Leah Gordon about a new book she has co-authored on the history of the English commons.

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Introducing Green Halcones

by Mari Nishitani

"Hi, we are Green Halcones, a social cooperative owned by formerly incarcerated individuals based in Los Angeles, California. We are working to make neighborhoods beautiful, grow healthy food, and protect the environment for future generations."

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English Land Commoners and Their Folk Culture

by David Bollier
It quickly becomes clear that Common People is not just a history of commons. It is also about how memory of the commons persists through a shared culture, shaping contemporary life and politics. The book contains a photo of the Travelly Well, which has been used to water livestock for thousands of years; it is near an ancient route used by travelers. In Longmead, England, commoners host a spectacular event twice a year in which herding dogs escort large flocks of sheep back from common fields in the highlands. 

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Learning From Recent Efforts to Create Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives

Center for Housing Studies — As the unflagging challenge of housing affordability spreads to all corners of the country, novel efforts to increase the prevalence of limited equity cooperatives (LECs) are getting underway. Long a model most associated with a handful of Northeastern markets, this new interest spans an array of cities in many different parts of the country, with projects taking shape in places as diverse as Missoula, Nashville, Seattle, and Portland, Maine...

Ownership, Participation, and Leadership in Worker Cooperatives

Academia.edu — This thesis attempts to broaden the understanding of workplace democracy and worker cooperatives particularly focusing on ownership, participation and leadership. Four cases are reviewed: the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of Spain, the national worker self-management system of the former Yugoslavia, and political and labor histories of Argentina and the United States of America. Representatives of five cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina and three in San Francisco, USA were interviewed...

Cooperate, or Perish

Manzanita Interactive (Steam) — Before Dandelion Void, the founding members of Manzanita Interactive were rank-and-file employees at different companies in the video game industry. After witnessing many of the biggest problems in the games industry – layoffs, crunch, loss of credits, and harassment to name a few – we realized that we deserved better.

Most of us met each other as members of the movement to unionize the game industry, through an organization called Game Workers of Southern California. Dara and Robin helped unionize the indie company they were working at, and eventually bargained our country’s first-ever union contract for game developers. Roland and Brian helped cofound the United Videogame Workers-CWA, an all-inclusive direct-join union spanning across all roles in the industry...

 

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
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Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Caroline Hossein and Ilhaam Ladha write about a recent international symposium held in Toronto: Worlding Feminist Economics: Political Art, ROSCAs, and the Law. Hossein and Ladha argue that rotating savings associations (ROSCAS) are properly viewed as a type of cooperative organization — and one of the most common types of co-op in the world.

Then Cherry Haynes and Siôn Whellens of the Calverts worker cooperative in East London discuss how their co-op survived the collapse of the London print industry, their commitment to wage equality, and why they are happy to hire people who are skeptical of co-ops.

And finally, Josh Davis makes the case against using generative AI in cooperatives and solidarity economy projects.

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Wake Up World: ROSCAS are Part of the Co-op Family!

 

by Caroline Shenaz Hossein & Ilhaam Ladha

While bringing together a community of activists, scholars, community leaders, students, and artists, this symposium raised a crucial point: Formal cooperatives must recognize and protect informal membership institutions like ROSCAs as part of the core of the social economy, or risk compromising the entire solidarity economy movement. 

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The Worker Co-op that Outlasted the Collapse of London's Print Industry

by Changing the Narrative
Clerkenwell and the East End were once full of print shops. Most are long gone. Calverts is still standing — and it's a worker co-operative, founded in 1977, with no managers and complete pay parity: everyone earns the same, no matter the job. 

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The Cooperative Case Against AI

by Josh Davis 
This technology is burning vast amounts of resources, stealing work from artists, making up lies constantly, and promising to create mass unemployment: is it any wonder that everybody hates it? 

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The Workers’ Owned Sewing Company

Facing South — Six a.m. Already the women driving into the grassy field that is the parking lot for the Workers’ Owned Sewing Company can feel the 95-degree heat of August days in Windsor, North Carolina. Six had not always been the hour the day shift began, but the Workers’ Owned factory has no air conditioning. So, at the beginning of the summer, the board of directors “called a meeting” at which the workers voted to start their day early in order to finish when the heat of the day became unbearable...

A century of ULCCS: A worker co-op success story from Kerala

Co-op News — The Uralungal Labor Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS) is one of the most celebrated worker co-operatives in India. It’s also the oldest. Founded in Kerala in 1925 under the guidance of the social reformer Vagbhatananda, it began with 14 members and 36 paise (roughly US$0.13 in 1925 currency). Today, the co-op has 19,272 workers, 13,174 worker-members and a turnover of ₹2,400 crore (US$300m, £220m)...

Inside a Worker-Owned Business in Raleigh

City of Raleigh (YouTube) — Employee owners at Weaver Street Market share how employee ownership strengthens workplace culture, supports business continuity, and builds stronger community connections in Raleigh. Learn more:Employee owners at Weaver Street Market share how employee ownership strengthens workplace culture, supports business continuity, and builds stronger community connections in Raleigh...

 

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This week, Matt Noyes travels to Canada for a conversation with Heather Pritchard who shares a wealth of practical wisdom gleaned from her nearly 50 years as a co-op member (of several co-ops) and active participant in British Columbia's cooperative movement. 

Then, the Right Livelihood Center hosts cooperators from three continents to share the ways their cooperatives - all past recipients of the Right Livelihood Award - work to build community power through cooperation and solidarity. 

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“Start by forming a group.”

Heather Pritchard on fifty years of cooperation and commoning in British Columbia

by Heather Pritchard & Matt Noyes

Over the course of the conversation, Heather mentioned many cooperative organizations and key figures in the cooperative movement in British Columbia...Some of the key players are:

• Fraser Common Farm Cooperative...a 20 acre farm in Aldergrove, British Columbia that is home to several cooperatives...
• Community Alternatives Cooperative...a housing cooperative and urban garden in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver...
• FarmFolk/CityFolk, a non-profit organization created by Community Alternatives and Fraser Common Farm Cooperative to strengthen ties between farmers and city dwellers...
• Glen Valley Organic Farm Cooperative, a 50 acre farm cooperative in Abbotsford, BC, founded in 1999...
• Foodlands Cooperative of British Columbia, “a provincial, non-governmental, community-based land trust incubated and stewarded by FarmFolk/CityFolk.”

Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union for supporting this research

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Cooperatives in Action

by Right Livelihood Center at UC Santa Cruz
This session will explore the power of cooperatives working across three very different contexts: Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative, Cecosesola and Ventures. It will explore how the cooperative economic model provides benefits both for employees and the communities they serve.

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4th Annual Accessible Virtual Pride 2026

San Francisco Disability Cultural Center — Accessible virtual pride was born from our disabled queer community members not being included in local in-person prides. Whether that was due to the lack of Covid precautions or inaccessible venues, many events let go of their accessible initiatives. We listened to our community members and decided to work together to put together this event. It has been a resounding success, with many saying it was the first Pride they had ever been able to attend!...

The 2026 Worker Co-op Conference will held on Sept 25-26, 2026 in Boston, MA

Worker Co-op Conference 2026 — We're excited to announce that the 2026 Worker Co-op Conference will be held at Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts! Get ready to join us on September 25th through 26th for new connections, inspiration, and collective learning...

US co-ops apex works with Arizona State University on co-op education

Co-op News — NCBA says the programme combines its co-operative expertise with the “academic excellence” and workforce education capabilities of Arizona State University, “creating a flexible learning experience that helps participants build practical knowledge while balancing the demands of their day-to-day responsibilities”...

Creation of a network of journalists to promote the social and solidarity economy

Seneweb — A new network of journalists and communicators dedicated to promoting the social, solidarity and environmental economy (SSE) was officially established this Saturday in Bambey, during a general assembly that brought together media professionals from several regions of Senegal...

Building Our Missing Care Infrastructure: Elevate's New "Coop of Coops"

Solidarity Hall — After several years in development, the ICA Group recently announced the launch of Elevate Cooperative, a national network and membership organization designed in partnership with caregiver-owned home care agencies and development partners in the field. Elevate aims to strengthen, scale, and unite home care cooperatives to build quality jobs and improve the lives of caregivers...

How Honduras coffee cooperatives are stepping up

International Trade Centre — When María Antonia Ponce Perdomo from the Honduran COCABEL coffee cooperative  boarded a flight from Honduras to Peru, she had never attended an international Fairtrade forum before. By the end of the week, she had walked through Peruvian coffee farms, watched two fellow Honduran cooperatives take home a Golden Cup award, and come home with ideas to bring back to COCABEL...

 

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Mari Nishitani writes about the first time bank, Japan's Volunteer Labour Bank. Started by Teruko Mizushima in 1973 as a way to empower women and the elderly, the organization grew to over 200 branches exchanging hundreds of thousands of hours.

Then, Enrique Cal of Uruguay's Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM) shares the history of the federation and the lessons they've learned about successfully organizing cooperatives over the last half century. Enrique addresses how the larger political climate effects co-ops, the place of ideology in co-op organizing, and the many benefits of training children in cooperative practices and values.

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Japan's Volunteer Labour Bank

by Mari Nishitani
Mizushima’s Time Bank functioned in neighborhood-based branch units to ensure that each branch kept a small enough scale to maintain the convenience of members to travel to other members to provide or receive services, as well as to maintain the close-knit, trustworthy community. Each branch had staff who helped people with onboarding, troubleshooting, and matching their needs and resources.

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How Uruguay's Co-op Federation Tackles the Country's Housing Shortage

by Cooperative Development Institute
Uruguayan Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM), founded in May 1970, embodies the spirit of community and support. Serving 35,000 families through 760 cooperatives...With a cooperative school for children and numerous consumer, distribution, and worker cooperatives linked to their vision, they are shaping a brighter future.

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Land deal aims to boost agricultural co-ops in Jordan

Co-op News — Jordanian agri co-ops will gain access to 4,000 dunams (400 hectares) of land under a new agreement between the Jordan Valley Authority and the Jordan Cooperative Corporation. The agreement marks one of the largest land allocations to co-operatives in Jordan in recent years, following a cabinet decision to designate land in the Ridan al-Aqiliya area of Aqaba Governorate for development projects led by agricultural co-operatives...

A Training with Dean Spade! Working Together Joyfully: Preventing and Addressing Patterns of Resentment in Collaborations

Sustainable Economies Law Center — Many collaborative relationships and group projects, as well as personal relationships, become mired in toxic resentment. In this session, we'll look a what resentment is, why it is so common, how it is formed, how it can masquerade as empowerment, and how we might work through it in order to reconnect to authentic choice in our work and relationships...

10 Lessons We’ve Learned in 10 Years of Creating Co-ops

Co-operatives First — In 2026, Co-operatives First turned 10! And over the past decade, our team has learned a lot about entrepreneurship, policy, governance, and so much more. In that time, we’ve worked with nearly 400 groups and helped create over 160 co-operatives. We’ve helped our clients overcome challenges and learned valuable lessons. We learn from each group we work with and create new tools and resources to help future co-ops learn from their peers. Thanks to all the people who have persevered and created co-ops with us, here are 10 things we’ve learned about the process...

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Ebony Gustave writes about visiting some of the many cooperatives in New York City and the Hudson Valley as part of the Cooperative Leaders and Scholars Fellowship.

Then, Steve Dubb writes about how the city of Eugene, Oregon is considering adopting an act giving tenants right to collectively purchase their homes when multi-family rental properties are put on sale. The move comes as the city, like most places across the US, is struggling to maintain an adequate stock of affordable housing.

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A Glimpse Into New York’s Cooperative Ecosystem

by Ebony Gustave
In the Hudson Valley, we visited the workspace and showroom of Found and Fixed, a worker-owned cooperative that reclaims and repairs wooden furniture. We saw and listened to the behind the scenes of running their business. One of the challenges they shared was retaining members due to the physical strain and low margins. This hasn’t deterred them from their mission of diverting furniture from the landfill, they will be working with a reuse center to discern what furniture can be upcycled and refurbished on a larger scale.

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In Eugene, Housing Advocates Call for a Tenant Right to Purchase Act

by Steve Dubb
If adopted, a policy concept outlined by advocates would give tenants in multifamily buildings with five or more units that are up for sale 45 days to exercise a right of first refusal to purchase. Under the proposed provisions, if a tenant majority wished to acquire a building, they would need to form a tenants association, secure a financing letter of interest within 120 days, and close within 240 days...As is typical for TOPA, the purchase price would have to be consistent with market rates.

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Creating Place-Based Systems Change (w/Matt Biggar)

LIFT Economy — The conversation explores why awareness alone rarely changes behavior, and how physical infrastructure, social relationships, and cultural norms shape the choices people make every day. Matt and Kevin discuss the levers for systems change outlined in Matt’s book, including shifting power, transforming land use, resetting culture, and building collaboration across sectors. They also examine examples from cities like Paris and San Francisco that show how changes to streets, public space, and local infrastructure can influence broader social and economic transformation...

Draft Changes to Cooperative Identity Statement

International Cooperative Alliance — This second, and final, consultation phase is focused on the Identity Statement itself. To support it, the Cooperative Identity Advisory Group is releasing a series of discussion drafts setting out possible changes to the Statement. Comment on the drafts is invited from ICA Members and Associates at large, the ICA's Regions, Sectoral Organisations and Thematic Committees and any other interested parties...

Spring Forum 2026 Brings Members Together

Co-operative Housing Federation of BC — On May 24, co-op members, leaders, staff, and sector partners from across British Columbia gathered for CHF BC’s Spring Forum 2026. Guided by the theme Community Starts Next Door: Where neighbourly connections build community, the day explored how everyday connections between neighbours create stronger, more resilient co-op communities...

A Crushed 1891 Strike by Black Farmer Cooperatives Holds Keys to Economic Justice Today

Nonprofit Quarterly — Houston County, TX, December 11, 1886. Sixteen Black men gathered on a farm and started something that would grow into one of the most ambitious economic organizing efforts in US history. They called it the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union (CFNACU). Within five years, it had spread across the South and claimed 1.2 million members. Then, in 1891, it was violently destroyed...

 

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Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Aasa Marshall of Co-operatives First, shares some important lessons from a decade of co-op education and development, and Marc-Andre Pigeon and Stan Yo of the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives present the results of their survey gauging the long-term impacts of co-operative youth education programs.

Then, David Bollier writes about the Italian community organization Brave New Alps, and interviews co-founder Bianca Elzenbaumer. Brave New Alps is using creative organizing methods in remote rural areas to create community projects that meet the needs of residents, often in unique and surprising ways. 

And if you are a member of a worker co-op, please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey about if and how your cooperative is us "AI" tools. 

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Engaging New Audiences In Co-operatives

by International Centre for Co-operative Management
Co-operatives First was founded in response to falling awareness about co-ops and how they can be used. They've learned some key lessons about how to reach people who could benefit from co-ops, but are not familiar with their structure and benefits. With useful, practical tips for practitioners and co-op leaders, this session will draw on lessons learned from years of helping new audiences discover the value of co-operatives. 

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New Forms of Rural Resurgence Through Commoning and Care

by David Bollier
While Elzenbaumer and Franz started their project in Franz’s parents’ home, they later found and co-created an improbable space for experimentation – the valley’s main railway station, Rovereto, in Vallagarina, Trentino. Stores and restaurants had already abandoned the station, but the building itself was sturdy and habitable, and indeed, lots of railway passengers still pass through it every day. With permission from the Italian rail service and a grant from the European Union, Brave New Alps converted the station’s spaces to host its many research and public-facing projects.

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How CLTs are Powering Co-op Growth in Canada

Shelterforce — The federation is also leading an innovation in the use of the CLT model by forming a land trust as a directly owned subsidiary. By pooling the land holdings of a group of co-ops, the land trust can borrow against the existing co-op housing equity, and leverage those funds to rapidly develop more co-op housing...

Rwandan cooperative helps members improve livelihoods

The Cooperator — “Before joining this cooperative, something was missing in my life and my life was not good. When I joined in 2015, we were trained on soil and water conservation and vegetable production. An idea came into my mind that I can grow vegetables for my family but also for selling,” Nyirabaligira says. “Now I have a vegetable garden business. Later I joined the village savings and loans association, and to be part of this group makes me happy because I managed to save money and buy a cow. I later got a loan and renovated my house...”

Dan’s Co-op Adventures – May 2026

Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada — The next stop was Fireweed Food Community Service Co‑operative Inc., where Ralf Sawatzky, Fireweed’s Market Coordinator, provided a tour and shared insights into the organization’s work. Established in 2016 as a multi‑stakeholder co-operative, Fireweed was created to address challenges within Manitoba’s food system, including supporting consumers in accessing food that reduces the overall ecological footprint...

Brazil's Largest Meat Co-op Argues Against Reduced Work Week

The Cooperator — Aurora Coop, considered the largest meat cooperative in Brazil, estimates it would need to hire an additional 11,000 workers on top of the current 51,000 just to produce slightly less than today, should Congress approve the end of the 6×1 schedule and the reduction of the workweek to 40 hours. This calculation comes from the cooperative’s president, Neivor Canton...

Before the State Showed Up: Black Mutual Aid as the Infrastructure of Our Democracy

Nonprofit Quarterly — During the nineteenth century, free Black communities built mutual aid societies across cities such as Philadelphia, New Orleans, Charleston, and Baltimore. Organizations like the Free African Society, founded in 1787 by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, collected dues from members and redistributed resources to widows, sick residents, unemployed workers, and formerly enslaved people trying to build stable lives...

 

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, Bernard Marszalek reviews the new book Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy: Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below by Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams, and details a few of the many cooperatives profiled in the book.

Then, P.J. Christabell and Caroline Shenaz Hossein write about the many types of informal member-owned institutions in India's Kerala state, based on surveys of over 1,200 members of such groups. Their findings underline the value of citizen engagement in improving social equity and creating inclusive economic development. 

And if you are a member of a worker co-op, please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey about if and how your cooperative is us "AI" tools. 

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Book Review: Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy

by Bernard Marszalek
In their travels [Satgar and Williams] witnessed a diversity of projects that transformed extractive economics by creating a common benefit economics embedded with values of democratic participation, care, and ecological sensitivity. The insights of the participants arose from their real-world experiences, not from ideals promulgated by movements or political parties. A new subjectivity materialized in the daily lives in this way, that is, a new culture formed – one that contended with the old hierarchical and miserabilist one, and superseded it.

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What Kerala’s Member-Owned Institutions Can Teach the World about Social Economics

by P.J. Christabell & Caroline Shenaz Hossein
Informal MOIs, known as sanghas (collectives), along with mutual aid and self-help groups, have been at the core of women’s liberation across caste and class, with innovations such as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) known as panapayattu or kuri. We argue that localized membership institutions, especially informal MOIs, are at the root of the social and solidarity economy (SSE)—as the Kerala case shows.

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New York’s Park Slope Food Coop votes to boycott Israeli goods

Co-op News — Members of Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, New York City, have voted to boycott products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine after a contentious, decade-long debate. Of the co-op’s 17,000 members, 6,753 cast votes on the issue during a three-hour virtual meeting on 27 May, with 4,551 (67%) in favour, 2,083 (31%) against and 119 (2%) abstaining...

Where Do Dairy Cooperatives Stand Amidst Financial Crisis in India’s Cooperative Societies?

Local Samosa — A report by Grain highlights how, after a long-time dominance of the cooperatives, the private companies and premium dairy brands are now commanding a nearly 50% split in organised milk handling. The major reasons cited for their growth include brands focusing heavily on high-margin items like cheese, paneer, probiotic drinks, and yoghurt, which are seeing soaring consumer demand. Post the deregulation in the 1990s, it has been observed that they have also pressured cooperative margins by intensifying competition for raw milk and largely neglecting rural farmer support services, Grain highlights...

Cooperation vs Authoritarianism in Spain

Lauar Flanders' Substack — I first went to the Basque region, during Donald Trump’s first term, to learn about the Mondragón Federation. Created in 1956, it’s now the world’s largest industrial co-op with about 70,000 employees, including thousands overseas. “Business became viewed, for a generation or more, as a place for progressive people to express their values,” explained Fred Freundlich, a professor at Mondragón University, a university funded by the Federation. “It’s not enough on its own as a response to fascism or authoritarianism anywhere, but it is a significant part.”...

A Co-operative Approach to End-of-Life Planning and Care

Co-operatives First — Across Canada, people have created both funeral co-ops and memorial societies, which play different roles in supporting loved ones. A funeral co-op is a member-owned business that operates its own funeral home and provides services. A memorial society negotiates fair funeral pricing with trusted providers and offers tools and guidance.  One successful example is the Cooperative Memorial Society in Alberta, which has been around since 1966...

 

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115

This week, retired USDA Economist Bruce Reynolds writes about two of  the main tactics that investor owned firms have historically employed to compete against cooperatives offering superior products and services: lobbying for policies unfavorable to co-ops, and undermining solidarity by targeting co-op members with selective pricing. Reynolds traces these practices from mid-19th century ag cooperatives up to the present day, and warns that non-agricultural co-ops should expect to face similar efforts whenever they gain significant market share.

Then, Penn Loh recounts the last fifteen years of solidarity economy organizing in Massachusetts, and shares some stories and lessons from the numerous projects that he has been a part of.

And if you are a member of a worker co-op, please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey about if and how your cooperative is us "AI" tools. 

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How Investor Owned Firms Compete With Cooperatives

by Bruce J. Reynolds
In addition to the policy arena, IOFs [investor owned firms] have also used various marketing strategies in attempts to weaken solidarity and divide cooperative members. These tactics for weakening solidarity have persisted from the early period of farmer cooperatives to the present day. Two case studies demonstrate these strategies that were examined during recent decades by USDA/Cooperative Service.

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Solidarity Economy Movements in Massachusetts

by Cities@Tufts
Loh traced how these movements, many of which he has been involved with, have been fighting for and building over the past fifteen years, [finding] various ways of living in interdependence and collective care, around projects such as worker-owned cooperatives, community land trusts, community investment funds, mutual aid, and more.

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Quebec co-op members rally against Bill 20

The Montreal Gazette — Introduced in February by then housing minister Caroline Proulx, Bill 20 would overhaul the income thresholds generally used to determine who can enter affordable housing and co-operatives. Now, residents are not forced out if their financial situation later improves. But Bill 20 would change that, introducing financial penalties for some residents whose income rises above thresholds that have not yet been determined...

How LaSuite.coop Is Building a New Model for Digital Sovereignty

Free Knowledge Institute — LaSuite.coop is a multi-stakeholder cooperative being established in France by a consortium of long-standing cooperative actors in the digital space...The service is already operational (join as member and/or access their demo)....LaSuite.coop offers organisations a complete collaborative workspace built on the tools developed and integrated by DINUM...

REI Union workers launch boycott over dispute with co-op

Co-op News — The union claims that REI “failed to offer a single proposal until the final day of bargaining, and failed to send its own vice president of labor relations, or any key decision-maker, to the table”. Campaigners hit out at “outlandish, bad faith proposals” from the co-op, including a moratorium on the REI Union’s organising activity, which would prevent it from supporting workers at other REI stores hoping to unionise for the duration of the contract...

#CoopsDay highlights cooperatives as bridge builders

NCBA CLUSA — The theme also highlights the role of cooperatives as bridge-builders, bringing communities together, fostering dialogue and democratic decision-making, and strengthening stability and resilience in an increasingly fragmented world. At a time when many people are navigating conflict, deepening political divides, economic instability and growing distrust and loneliness, cooperatives can build bridges that rebuild trust and strengthen social cohesion...

Argentina’s co-operativas escolares: A case study in co-op education

Co-op News — The country’s cooperativas escolares (school co-operatives) have a long history, which can be traced to 1946 legislation that formally established the teaching of co-operativism and the creation of school co-operatives. Rather than being a fringe or extracurricular activity, these initiatives are recognised as a pedagogical tool integrated into the curriculum across subjects. The explicit goal is not profit or practical skills, but the development of citizens, democratic participation, and an education based on values. Students genuinely run these co-operatives, which can range from food production and recycling to technology, media, and community commerce. They elect boards, manage finances and hold assemblies, with teachers acting as advisors...

All Hands On Deck! Everyone Has a Role to Play in the Movement

Sustainable Economies Law Center — Help us raise $40,000 this month  to support this important work. 10% of your support  will go directly to our Solidarity Partner, Huitlaco Mushrooms – a worker-owned, agroecological mushroom and compost farm in North Richmond, CA that produces food, medicine, and soil amendments for community resilience. Huitlaco Mushrooms is an inspiring example of land stewards creating sustainable food systems, while also building people power through collective ownership...

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Like what you find on GEO?

Make a Donation Today!

Your tax-deductible contribution ensures that GEO can continue to provide independent grassroots content about the cooperative and solidarity economy movements.

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Got something to say?

Let us know. Send your comments, suggestions, rants and article submissions to editors@geo.coop.

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Our mailing address is:

Grassroots Economic Organizing
P.O. Box 115
Riverdale MD 20738-0115