This week, we've got the final three interviews with attendees from this year's US Worker Co-op Conference. Chris talks to Barry Feldman, Jay Lucien and Hunter Silvestri about their work and their co-ops.
Then Damon Orion writes about the disaster response following Hurricane Helene, and how mutual aid and community groups have been filling in the sizeable gaps left by the efforts of state and federal authorities.
Finally, we also talked to Jeffrey Brite, a veteran worker-owner and one of the first board members for the USFWC on this month's livestream. We discussed why his tech worker co-op (C4 Technology) recently merged with another co-op (Tech Collective), and the benefits they've realized from that evolution. Jeffrey also shared some of his thoughts about the direction of our national worker co-op organizations, the USFWC and DAWI.
Barry, Jay, and Hunter
Three Interviews from the 2024 USFWC Conference
by GEO Collective
Chris interviews worker-owner Barry Feldman of ChiCommons worker co-op, Jay Lucien of the Cooperation Milwaukee co-op federation, and Hunter Silvestri of Commonplace Cooperative worker co-op at the September 2024 USFWC Worker Co-op Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
What Mutual Aid Groups Are Doing to Help North Carolina’s Hurricane Survivors
by Damon Orion
While residents of those regions waited for assistance, community members and grassroots organizations stepped in. One notable example is the Flush Brigade, a project created by the human rights advocacy group BeLoved Asheville. “[P]eople are crowdsourcing buckets and trucks and delivering non-potable water to neighborhoods, especially in public housing, where people have struggled to flush their toilets without running water,” Hackett explained.
Rhode Island Worker Cooperative Alliance Launch Party
Steve Ahlquist (YouTube) — White Electric Coffee Co-op, Providence RI. Supporters of worker cooperatives celebrate the public launch of Rhode Island Worker Cooperative Alliance (RIWCA), November 14, 2024...
Co-ops help build Alaska
Anchorage Daily News — Since its inception in 2006, UAA’s ACDC has promoted the development of new co-ops in underserved sectors and introduced innovative cooperative models. Thanks to the USDA RCDG grant, ACDC provides free technical assistance and board training. This year, the center launched a statewide monthly co-op call, offering a platform for co-ops to share best practices...
Prefigurative Politics and Workplace Democracy
Upstream Podcast — In today’s episode we’re talking prefiguration and worker self-direction—and we’ve split the episode up into two parts so that we can dive deeply into both. Part one of our conversation takes a deep dive into the concept and practice of prefigurative politics, which is, simply put, the attempt to implement the world that you want to live in, now. And we’ve brought on the perfect guest to talk about it...
The Global Movement for Cooperatives with Jerome N. Warren
Democracy@Work (YouTube) — An interview with Professor Jerome N. Warren, editor of the newly published Routledge Handbook of Cooperative Economics and Management...
New on our YouTube Channel
Talking with Jeffrey Brite | GEO Live #20
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