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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Manufacturing

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March 14, 2024

An Interview with Ukraine's ReSew Coop

Summary

ReSew sewing cooperative – Швейний Кооператив (Chveïniï kooperativ), exists politically and ecologically without bosses or subordinates and is united by the love of their work-sewing.

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February 8, 2024

How Workers Bypass the Blockade: Voices from Indorca (Part III)

Summary

Industrias del Orinoco, C.A. (Indorca) is a factory without bosses in Puerto Ordaz in Bolívar state, the home of Venezuela’s basic industries. Indorca’s workers carried out a heroic three-year struggle to gain control of the factory after the former owner brought it to a halt. Since 2015, when Venezuela’s Ministry of Labor extended a mandate giving the workers control over Indorca, the enterprise has been democratically managed by the women and men who produce here day in and day out.

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January 16, 2024

Worker Control in a Capitalist Environment: Voices from Indorca (Part II)

Summary

Industrias del Orinoco, C.A. (Indorca) is a factory without bosses in the industrial city of Puerto Ordaz in Bolívar state, the home of Venezuela’s basic industries. Indorca workers carried out a heroic three-year struggle to gain control of the factory after the former owner brought it to a halt. Since 2015, when Venezuela’s Ministry of Labor extended a mandate giving the workers control over Indorca, the enterprise has been democratically managed by the women and men who produce here day in and day out.

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November 30, 2023

Artisans Cooperative: An Etsy alternative, owned and run by artists and makers

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Summary

This is a story of how the makers who create a living off their hard-earned skills, banded together to challenge this dominant business ethic, and about the cooperative they built that’s just now getting off the ground. It is a venture that aims to grow at the speed of trust to serve the makers, the customers, and the staff who run it.

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February 16, 2023

Building, Here and Now, The World We Yearn For

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Summary

Cecosesola is established in Barquisimeto, capital of the state of Lara, located in the central-western region of Venezuela, as a cooperative integration organization that has been established since 1967. It is a meeting space where we make active life of more than 50 organizations, integrated into a network for the production of goods and services that brings together more than 20,000 associates from popular sectors. Through this network, we develop a wide variety of activities such as: agricultural production, small-scale agro-industrial production, funeral services, transportation, health services, financial services, mutual aid funds, distribution of foods and household items. We are made up of about 1,300 associated workers who manage daily activities through participation that is open to everyone, without hierarchical positions.

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January 23, 2023

Mountain Equipment Catastrophe

Summary

Dru Oja Jay is joined by Kevin Harding, one of the organizers of a spirited hail-mary attempt to save Mountain Equipment Co-op from being sold off to a US private equity firm.

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October 20, 2022

Worx Printing: A Union Co-op

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In this special episode in honor of National Co-op Month, Kevin speaks with Kevin O’Brien, co-founder of the union co-op Worx Printing.

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June 30, 2022

This Southern Appalachian town uses co-ops to build new communities around old industries

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In the foothills of western North Carolina, the small town of Morganton is home to a growing co-op movement that’s reinvigorating the region’s once-struggling textile and furniture manufacturing industries, and refashioning them around egalitarianism and localism. 

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March 7, 2022

Isthmus Engineering: A Case Study on Worker Co-op Governance

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This webinar brings to life a case example of a worker-owned co-operative in a technical field.

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January 3, 2022

Workers' Self-Management at Vio.Me

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An interview with a worker-owner at the Vio.Me worker-occupied factory in Greece.