Ten Years Since Economic Collapse Sparked Occupy Wall Street, the Cooperative Movement Is Surging

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[mehjones]

Too many trolls in these comments! Pathetic.

[haleybrown]

Coops are not a new idea. Spain's Mondragon was established in 1956 and employs as of 2015 74, 335 people. On Germany's Deutsche Welle coops are constantly mentioned. Jeremy Corbin of Great Britain promotes coops, recommending that co-operatives be supported by government through access to finance, through legal changes to level the playing field for cooperatives in the market, and through a better government procurement policy, so that public money is being used to support companies that serve the public good. There is a village in Germany which generates all its electricity through a Wind Farm. The Wind Farm is operated as a coop and like all coops received government money/support. As of yet we haven't even managed to implement universal, non profit health care system so it is difficult to imagine that the US, the bastion of capitalism, would be interested in supporting coops.

[elorrep]

Perhaps one day, when WE ALL fully understand, grasp -and most importantly, practice- the concept(s) of equality, balance, fairness, and accountability; we can look back and realize how frucked up we have made the world for EVERYONE and EVERYTHING in it. I don't agree that it is fair (or even appropriate) for one side to impose their views & morals on others to force them to think and agree on the same. I've always said that people do what they do because they can and until they can. I've also come to realize that such antagonism or "struggle" MUST always be present in every aspect of our lives (no "yin" without yan", no "cold" without "hot", etc...) reality is just a matter of balance. I just hope we were more honest about our human condition and use whatever thousands of years of human experience have taught us and not act in ways that not even the most primitive life forms are capable of.

[anairda-arte]

"Everything for everyone", that's the "para todos, todo" from the Zapatista Manifesto in Nahuatl :)

[vvsans]

I had a professor in Chicago at Loyola that wrote about the same thing. I wonder if he heard of him?

[DeadWhiteButterflies]

Co-Ops should be the norm, not the exception. CEO's barely contribute anything to their companies, yet the majority of wealth goes to them. They're dead weight. It's high time we lose them and put the workforce themselves in charge.

[ilkoderez]

Yeah, the one thing I learned from protesting at occupy wall st, was that protests don't work. There was a MASSIVE turnout and it didn't change anything...

[jnrldr]

The quality of trolls in the DN comments section has gone downhill.

[robynmasters]

Karl Marx came up with the ideate the turn of the 20th century. The Communist Manifesto really did have some beautiful ideals to it. There are lots of micro towns, Communes and Co-ops forming in places around the world including the US. The doctors care for their people. They also care for each other. The land is collectively owned and the towns income shared with small allowances for individuals. They cook and eat together in groups of 75 to 125. Just look at George Orwell, Albert Einstein, Hellen Keller, Pablo Picasso, and Martin Luther King. They were all Socialists. The system absolutely works, at least in micro communities.

[bandersnatchful]

#Ubuntu It's exactly what we need. Just bypass the bastards.

[SuperNhodge]

None of our "worker cooperatives" are not in fact worker co-ops you can take winco as an example. Do the workers vote on issues of their employment? their managers employment? They aren't any different than the safeway or wal mart hierarchies not worker co-ops at all in any way I'd wager the executives are all millionaires that pay the majority of them basically slave wages in today's economy while walking away with the majority of the company's earnings. Just like all the rest of the tyrannies that call themselves companies or corporations here in america no different in any way than uber.

[Politicalprincessprincesspolit]

Ok..I told you protesting now a day's get u..no where!!! It's been ten years where are they now?

[markmahan]

Where is this supposed co operatives? How come I see nothing of this. Show me where these fantasies are? Point me to it.

[armingoodboy]

زنده باش جنبش حیّ سّلآم لله وحی مسیح anarchy thats not invalidated by EMAM Hosaein I should there b naghi right not شیطان پرستی

[lowhydrogena]

The economy is doing very good now thanks to Trump
MEGA!