Why the cooperative model is a revolution | Melanie Shellito | TEDxIWU

[SydneyHumanismGroup]

That's amazing! Melanie's journey is truly inspiring and showcases the power of whole foods for one's health. Exploring the cooperative business model is a fantastic way to empower the community and promote sustainable food practices.

[whoahitcurvesup]

As a prospective small business owner, I am looking into how to apply the co-op model to businesses outside of the typical grocery store. I would love to see more examples of how this can be applied to a wide variety of small businesses in different industries.

[robinhoodstfrancis]

So glad to find someone else who links all these things and interrelates them. A former member of a NYC food co-op here, and I recommend Will Greider´s The Soul of Capitalism and Marj Kelly´s Divine Right of Capital. Michael Moore´s film Capitalism was amazing. Not for profits like Greenpeace and Oxfam are also good angles.

[philiprock]

I come from Clitheroe originally, not that far from Rochdale, and I I can testify that it is "Rot-ch-dai-l" and not "Roach-dai-l" !
Great talk, and the co-operative is happening in many different levels and areas.

[ajayskumar]

The human instinct is to co-operate and contribute. To compete and deprive one another are learned instincts... Taught to us by Milton Friedman and his Chicago Business School boys...

[Rose_Harmonic]

I have a new LLC that I can run by myself for now, but I plan to turn it into a worker co-op if I have some success.

[commonwealthharmlessbee]

Thank you for being the source of inspiration to build people..

[bettyannvillasenor]

Excellent presentation, after experiencing the affects of this economic downfall of covid19 such as not being eligible for unemployment compensation after losing my job at the fitness club, just getting by with my pt job as a cashier hence my falling behind on debt payments just like the majority of others, a co-op is the answer!

[Dan-zzjb]

Any thoughts on the best way to find people to start a worker co-op? And especially how to vet people? My concerns are power grabs & in-fighting (e.g. cliques forming, destructive ways of discussing, etc), very different vision (e.g. steering away from ethical, sustainable vision), handling turnover of members. I have these concerns as I'm just a group of one person at the moment and am interested to start a worker co-op for something in engineering or tech, a space that seems to have a lot of competitive type working models which people may be overly used to...

In general, I'm struggling to find good resources to handle these nuts & bolts type questions... Any suggestions would be helpful

[SenTimMathern]

Thank you for the continuing inspiration!

[garrettcole]

EDUCATION is a must. A co operate type model simply works. It has been tried. The Chicago school model have failed.

[alexxx]

Only collective effort is able to efficienty solve collective problems, not the profit motive.

[trishahopkins]

Here in the UK we also have the John Lewis Partnership which is owned by the people who work for the partnership. It was set up by John Spedan Lewis along the socialist model.

[MrMuzahuzi]

Can I start a local grocery store and own 50% and invite locals to take the other part and still call it a coop?

[rizmacadillac]

I studied American Market Economics in College both through the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Business School. My University asked me to do research on Co-ops during my Sophomore year and this was during America's Cold War with the USSR (Russia) and allegedly against communists. TO be perfectly honest, despite the propaganda saying that co-ops empower Americans and all I think most American Cooperatives are organized and for all practical purposes "owned" by families and certain individuals. Most of us have real, regular jobs and need real and regular income. After a year or two doing research for the University I began to meet people who organized and were involved with co-ops. I was doing my research from a free-market perspective and trying to work my way around co-op ideas and such. Quite honestly some of what they say seemed impossible while other things they said seemed to be Orwellian double speak and double think type propaganda. Have any of you read Animal Farm? In any case, over time I was
interviewing Communists and basically people who were hiding Communist ideas behind Labor Unions and other organizations. I finished my University research with an American Textbook and all my research was "normal" from an American Academic perspective but I was haunted talking to Communists and such. About a decade after leaving College I ran across some reading released by the former Soviet Union and Cooperatives were the form of business recommended by the Communist Government if people weren't working for State-Owned Corporations. I "get it" and by that I mean I "understand" that some Americans don't like the concept of Private ownership of corporations and all
and some people even consider it slavery. I don't have answers to all of the economic issues that are raised with Cooperatives and such. But I don't think they can cure cancer or end poverty. In America we are told that to get a good job and have a good income you need a good education. I believe educated people are going to want to earn as much money as possible and have as much free time and as many opportunities to grow and develop as possible. For me my research on Cooperatives was another assignment I completed in school, like spelling lessons or Matrices or Math or science or the many Economics lessons I learned over time and I never found in a Co-op any epiphany. I figure there are unhappy people working for Co-ops just as there are people who have not found happiness owning their own business or working for a large Corporations. If you have the money, Americans can invest in corporations and own a piece of the American Economy. And quite frankly, I think the most common state of relations with a human being is family, perhaps, but also being alone. If an individual needs an income and can't hook up with employment then the most
common way to change this would be starting a business. Actually a group of Union Communists were following me around after my research and when I attempted to start my own business they ganged up on me and tried to prevent it. Life is short and the pleasures of life are the most important and valuable experiences we have as human beings. It is sad that life can be ruined by meddling collectivists who think they should control and ruin everyone's life "for the common good". Freedom is complicated and elusive in my experience but other people often cause more harm than good.

[rw]

There is a another term for this... it's "Democratic Socialism".

[spotlessmind]

if residents of the communities truly owned the economic base and infrastructure of their community, you could speak of true communism - a community based society!

[ohkfilms]

I have this playing in 2x speed and she’s sounds like she’s talking normal speed. It’s good to annunciate and speak clearly in public speaking, talking at a good speed is also important but talking this slow and dramatic takes away from the speech and the message.