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This week we've got chapter 10 of Cooperative Enterprise and Market Economy in which author Luis Razeto considers theoretical and practical tendencies towards under-investment and under-employment in worker cooperatives, and show how both are often off-set in practice by cooperatives' larger, non-economic, goals and commitments.Â
Then we have a session on music cooperatives from the recent AmericanaFest, featuring speakers from a cooperative music platform and two cooperative bands.
Cooperative Enterprise and Market Economy: Chapter 10
by Luis Razeto Migliaro, trans. by Matt Noyes
Our analysis has shown that, in the final instance, the aforementioned inefficiencies are rooted in an internal logical contradiction between the objective sought by members of the cooperative (increase in individual income based on work) and the form of ownership of equity, which is social and collective. It is the existence of this unresolved mix of the individual and the social that generates the tendencies toward underinvestment and self-extinction that we have described, because while the enterprise is based on social benefit, the members make decisions based on individual benefit. In this sense – but only in this sense – many cooperativists are right to blame the limitations or failures of certain cooperatives on insufficient values and failures of cooperation and generosity.
Reshaping the Music Industry through Solidarity
by EatMe.Land Production House
The music industry doesn’t have to be exploitative. What if artists owned the platforms we depend on? What if musicians shared resources, power, and profits—together? Recorded live at AmericanaFest 2025, this panel explores how music cooperatives are reshaping the industry through solidarity, not exploitation.Â
Trunk of My Car Co-op Aims to Revolutionize Self-Publishing
Trunk of My Car Co-op (MailChimp) —  This is a call to: all independent, solo-, self-publishing authors (be it books, zines, or audio recordings, and all the creative souls who support – the cover designers, the editors, the readers, the listeners who not only want to but are willing to create a system that is equitably owned by the many, instead of extracted from by few. A community owned and operated enterprise. Just one of a million ways we can be the change this world. Roll with us...
Resonance Games worker co-operative
Co-operatives First — In Vancouver, BC, a group of video game developers was looking for a way to work together that would allow them to share profits, be transparent about their salaries, and implement democracy into their workplace. Forming a co-op was a natural fit...
With public spaces disappearing, working people are building their own
Working Class Storytelling — The third spaces Sheurle, Kirk, Warren, and Caroline are creating in their hometowns are places of belonging where people don’t necessarily have to be a worker or a consumer to be there. They are public leisure spaces where everyone is welcome. While their pretense may be on art or job training, or books, they thrive by not being strict about their purpose. Instead, participants help shape the space as it grows. In this way, I’m reminded that third spaces are just good for public leisure, but they are also great equalizers—places where people with different perspectives and ideas can mingle and overlap...
Neighborhood Co-op Grocery celebrating 40 years
The Daily Egyptian — The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery traces its roots back to the early 1980s, when a handful of friends formed a buying club that gathered in living rooms to split bulk orders of food. Francis Murphy, now the general manager, was part of those early days. A three-time SIU graduate, Murphy has been involved with the Co-op for more than three decades...
SSG: Worker co-op leading climate planning in North America
Co-op News —Their work emphasises meaningful community engagement, ensuring that climate strategies are not only technically robust but also socially inclusive and equitable – and centred around principles of justice and collaboration. Do believes such meaningful change has to be modelled from within. “As society transitions to decarbonisation and centres justice, we really have to think about transforming how we work with one another,” she says. “For us, being a worker co-op is one way we’re practising new ways of interacting and collaborating.”...
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