Solidarity Economies

 

United for Hire worker Jorge Funes paints the exterior of Greenfield Gardens in Springfield, Mass., one of the housing complexes owned by Alliance to Develop Power. Photo courtesy of ADP.

When Cecilia Pastor greeted us at the door of an empty unit at Spring Meadow Apartments in Springfield, Mass., she was surrounded by the harsh smell of paint and the cleaners she had used to scour the space to make it presentable for a new tenant. A petite 30-year-old woman, she was working for United for Hire, a worker-controlled landscaping, snow removal, and cleaning firm operated by the innovative nonprofit Alliance to Develop Power (ADP). 
“One thing I have learned and really like in United for Hire is we work in a community economy, and the money circulates,” she said. “And we have good salaries where we can support our families.”

The MONDRAGON Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Euskadi. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters.

Cross-posted from LaborNotes

By Jane Slaughter

Part 2 of a two-part series on the TRADOC workers' cooperative in Mexico. Part 1 is here.

A tire is not just a piece of rubber with a hole in it. I learned this when I visited the workers’ cooperative that makes Cooper tires in El Salto, Mexico. A tire is a sophisticated product that comes about through a chain of chemical processes, lots of machine pounding, and still the intervention of human hands.

A fervent inspection worker pointed out that every single tire is tested under road-like conditions: “If not, it could kill people,” he noted. And, he added practically, “keeping the tires safe saves our jobs.”

Two workers of the 1,000-member TRADOC cooperative, which builds tires in Mexico for the U.S. market. The hiring of women in the plant was one of the many gains of worker ownership. Photo: Bob Briggs.

Cross-posted from LaborNotes

By Jane Slaughter

Part 1 of a two-part series on the TRADOC worker cooperative in Mexico. Part 2, about how the co-op is functioning today, is here.

“If the owners don’t want it, let’s run it ourselves.” When a factory closes, the idea of turning it into a worker-owned co-operative sometimes comes up—and usually dies.

On the 879th day of their strike, Mexican tire workers sought help in Germany, where the multinational that wanted to close their plant was based. After a determined 1,141-day campaign, the company sold them the plant, which they now run as a cooperative.

Cross-posted from Common Dreams

By Jordan Flaherty

Cross-posted from Al Jazeera

By Yasmine Ryan

Activists say global finance undermines democracy as participants meet to discuss economic and social problems.

As tens of thousands of activists from around the globe converge on Tunisia for the World Social Forum (WSF), the annual counter-hegemonic meet where opponents of neo-liberalism, free trade and austerity rally together, there will doubtless be some hard questions asked about what more ordinary citizens can do to push for greater social justice.

Cross-posted from Common Dreams

By Andrea Browner

We live in a time of heavy fog. A time when, though many of us dissent and resist, humanity seems committed to a course of collective suicide in the name of preserving an economic system that generates scarcity no matter how much is actually produced.

Cross-posted from Occupy Wall Street.

By Beverly Bell

As a native New Orleanian and as someone who has lived and worked in Haiti off and on for more than three decades –since the earthquake, mostly on– I offer some recommendations on catastrophe aid and solidarity. The suggestions come from my own experience and observations, as well as critiques from communities in Haiti and New Orleans about their experiences after their epic disasters.

By Beverly Bell
November 1, 2012

While all eyes and ears are trained on the elections, Woody Guthrie, whose 100^th birthday we celebrate this year, offers up another perspective on politics. In his poem “This Is Our Country,” he wrote, “I seen the pretty and I seen the ugly and it was because I knew the pretty part that I wanted to change the ugly part. Because I hated the dirty part that I knew how to feel the love for the cleaner part.”