Consumer Cooperatives

Cooperative Possibilities for Prosperity

Ethan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:45:03 -0400

Cooperative solutions for times of crisis

Building a Community Co-op Grocery

Ethan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:21:14 -0400

People in a small North Dakota town are working to buy their local grocery store and turn it into a community-owned cooperative.

Linking the Global and the Local: Seikatsu's Vision

Ethan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:47:50 -0400

By Yvonne Poirier

Editors' note: Yvon Poirier is an editor of the International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development, from which this article is copied. The Japanese Seikatsu Club Consumers' Co-Operative Union was the subject of both the spring and summer issues of GEO (#s 12 and 13) in 1994. Seikatsu has grown since then to include 290,000 households. It is notable for its combination of worker and consumer co-ops, its insistence on high food quality, and for its direct involvement in local politics in the Tokyo area. Yvon comments that the current conservative government is doing all it can to undermine co-ops and other similar sectors.

Co-ops Unite to Support Worker-Ownership in Home Care

Ethan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:17:11 -0400

by Jim Johnson, GEO Collective

Past issues of GEO have reported on the emergence of a particular type of worker cooperative, the home care cooperative. In the 1980s, the federal government followed the lead of state governments like Wisconsin and acknowledged that elderly and disabled people who need help in day-to-day living are best served by in-home assistance. Medicare and Medicaid funding that would have otherwise been used only for nursing homes would now be applicable to home care services. With "the gray tsunami" of aging baby boomers looming, demand is only going to increase for the next few decades.

Co-op As Alternative to "Take a Leak" Economics

Ethan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:19:23 -0400

A brainstorm on strategies for local economic development

Possibilties for Cooperative Energy Generation

Ethan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:19:36 -0400

A new report from the Insitute for Local Self-Reliance explores democratic routes to energy independence.

Searching For the Next Cooperative Principle

Ethan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:52:31 -0500

By Len Krimerman

In 1995, the International Cooperative Alliance adopted seven cooperative principles to define and guide cooperatives throughout the world. Briefly stated, the "traditional seven" include: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.

Vermont: The State of Co-ops

Ethan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:11:24 -0500

The cooperative business model is very popular in Vermont. Why is that? By Stephen Morris.

Ithaca Health Alliance Celebrates Ten Years of Community Service

Ethan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:01:13 -0500

By Rob Brown, IHA office manager, and Bethany Schroeder, IHA board president

Support From the Heart: The Multicultural Health Cooperative

admin — Sat, 19 May 2007 23:04:29 -0400

By Len Krimerman

Every year the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation honors one of its members with the "Worker Co-op Merit Award"--an idea we might well want to consider for our own USA Federation. This year they selected Edmonton-based MCHB, a truly remarkable venture which is addressing, in a very special way, the otherwise unmet needs of that city's "immigrant and refugee" communities.