Worker Ownership

Gar Alperovitz' recent Op Ed in the New York Times highlights ways in which systems of worker ownership are already existent, and growing, in the US. See the original article here, and his recent interview about it on Democracy Now here.

By Gar Alperovitz
New York Times

THE Occupy Wall Street protests have come and mostly gone, and whether they continue to have an impact or not, they have brought an astounding fact to the public’s attention: a mere 1 percent of Americans own just under half of the country’s financial assets and other investments. America, it would seem, is less equitable than ever, thanks to our no-holds-barred capitalist system.

Here at Other Worlds, we're always interested in new ways to bring democratic practices and economic justice into the workplace.  Ricardo Semler, a Brazilian entrepreneur, has discovered that increasing worker control over his business is not only the right thing to do, it has also led to increased profits.

Writer Gar Alperovitz believes that a radical transformation of the U.S. economy is taking place all around us, with very little fanfare. He points to the 11,000 worker owned enterprises in this country as proof that the economy can be run, and increasing is already being run, in a more just and democratic way.

Other Worlds collaborator and radio journalist Daniel Denvir has been traveling across the rust belt this summer, exploring how the communities hardest hit by the economic crisis are creating innovating economic alternatives that can be a model for the nation.

The workers at Argentina's occupied ceramics factory, FASINPAT (Factory Without a Boss), won a major victory this week: the factory now definitively belongs to the people in legal terms.

In many ways, the rust belt is the future of America, for better or worse. It represents all of the most extreme swings of the American economy over the last half century: the decline of middle class union jobs, the flight of families into the exurbs, the foreclosure crisis. At the same time, rust belt cities are creating some of the most exciting new economic and environmental alternatives in the U.S. today.

 Many of the alternatives we document here at Other Worlds are flourishing in the global South. But individuals and movements across the U.S. are also hard at work, creating just alternatives to the dominant economic model. Immigrants in the U.S. have a long history of creating alternatives, bringing traditions of struggle and social justice from their home countries and adapting them to their new lives in the U.S.