What obligation do #platformcoops have to operate at the same scale as or even outperform their venture capital funded corporate counterparts? If a #platformcoop does not succeed in having a similar reach as major corporations with comparable features, should it be considered "low quality" or are there other standards of success worth considering?
#Funkwhale does the streaming but they are designed around users hosting their own music, much more so than musicians. it's just very confusing design imo.
the payments need to be addressed by something like a new open protocol ala the @w3c.
#Cooperatives#Coops#Socialism#SolidarityEconomy#WorkerOwnedFirms: "Fast forward to 2024. Once again, the Left is discussing strategies for political advance. It is clear that electoral campaigns on their own and short-lived protests are not enough to win durable victories. But unlike socialists of the past, the contemporary left’s discussions have largely ignored the strategic role that cooperatives — and the solidarity economy more generally, i.e., enterprises geared to serving the needs of workers and achieving broader social goals — can play in building up the Left’s power.
This is a mistake. History shows that a flourishing solidarity economy can provide a distinctive set of material and social benefits for the Left, benefits that can play a key role in socialism’s broader political revival. This is not to say that supporting cooperatives and other kinds of worker-owned firms should supplant our other political tactics — but neither should they be ignored. Rather, cooperatives can and should complement the Left’s other strategic efforts, as the Second International recognized long ago."
When I was assembling my last book (Corporations: A research agenda), I became quite interested in Mondragon in Spain as an alternative way of organising businesses (and featured them in the book).
Somehow I missed this recent profile on the Spanish Cooperative conglomerate. It make for an interesting read when we are told there is no other way of running firms in capitalism.... because clearly there is!
@ChrisMayLA6
I am in favor of worker's coops. However I noted some weeks ago the following about Mondragon:
In order to become an owner-worker, you have to invest in one of the worker coops;
A large portion of the employees are not owner-workers; and
They have a problem having international workers because of their business model.
I think a part of what makes Mondragon successful is that it is a Basque enterprise. I note that, recently, about 10,000 workers split off from Mondragon.
This community has been going strong for over 50 years.
Neither is a form of socialism although they accomplish results similar to that of socialism. Further, neither of these economic systems are workers cooperatives.
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@lukemartell@seachanger “But the goal is more about creating “rich societies, not rich people”. That means looking after workers during not only the good times but the tough times, too.”
It gives me a glimmer of hope to see that this mentality can not only survive but thrive in the current corporate world. We need more of it!
:TwinPines: "People do not know about cooperatives because of two things. First, a lack of information concerning cooperation, and second, the fact that its principles are opposed to privilege. Cooperatives have two things working against them; ignorance and selfishness." ~James Peter Warbasse (quoted by Cathy Statz). #cooperatives#coops
@thepoliticalcat
That quote is from a very successful co-op organizer speaking in the 1920s. It's even more true now than it was then, but even way back then lack of knowledge and desire for privilege were the main obstacles to the spread of cooperativism.
Tolerance + #Cooperation = Peace
“It feels like mine,” she says. “We work hard, but it’s a totally different feeling from working for someone else.”
That sentiment is echoed by Mondragón’s 70,000 other workers. Made up of 81 autonomous #cooperatives the corporation has grown since its creation in 1956 to become a leading force in the Basque economy.
More than its economic success, though, Mondragón has become a beacon for the co-operative model, as a more humane and egalitarian way of doing business that puts “people over capital”. Every worker has a stake in the company’s fortunes and a say in how it is run, and receives a share of the profits. But the goal is more about creating “rich societies, not rich people”. That means looking after workers during not only the good times but the tough times, too." https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/24/in-the-us-they-think-were-communists-the-70000-workers-showing-the-world-another-way-to-earn-a-living?CMP=share_btn_url
"Internal growth is not an absolute and universal imperative for entities in the SSE. There is an appropriate size for every market and every business model. Internal upsizing may sometimes be needed, as is the case with many small worker cooperatives or large supply cooperatives (energy, telecommunications, credit, etc.), while in other instances it is merely an option, and an often dangerous one at that."
ATELIER COOP ET ÉCONOMIE CIRCULAIRE: L’IICADD en collaboration avec la Coop HEC, organise un atelier autour d’un business model canevas créé spécifiquement pour les coopératives qui souhaitent intégrer des stratégies d’économie circulaire. Le but de cet atelier de réflexion en groupe est d’identifier comment la coop HEC pourrait circulariser ses activités des cafétérias. L’atelier à lieu le jeudi 28 mars à 14:00 plus d'info: https://institutcoop.hec.ca/evenements/atelier-ccrabe-avec-la-coop-hec/#cooperatives#iicadd#CircularEconomy#coop