Interlinking the Cooperative Economy for Growth

Introductions

  • Carla: The Data Commons Co-op greases the flow of data between
    communities in the cooperative, solidarity, new, call-it-what-you-will
    economy. The co-op not only serves these communities, it is owned by
    them.

    • How do we share data? (technical question)
  • Brel: Expand housing cooperative & raise awareness
    • Madison’s housing cooperative sector is growing & interlinking with other coops (worker, grocery / food)
    • Housing cooperative sector is a good generator of other cooperatives
      • E.g. baker, bicycle, food coops generated from housing cooperatives
      • Then housing cooperatives do business with these other cooperatives to bolster the cooperative sector
      • Advocacy for the cooperative sector — Madison is a hotbed of cooperative development, with city support to set up the groundwork for stronger social support & community development benefits
  • Daniel: Working on map & list of cooperatives!
    • Everyone who’s a this conference is here because we want to link cooperatives
    • Worker / owner at an accounting firm, Rogers Park, disaster relief
    • Everyone can learn about all the ways we an come together outside silos of particular focus
    • E.g. Housing co-op vacancy board, member discounts across worker co-ops
    • Vertical integrations, public / private partnerships — rarely impact working class lifestyle as much as the community driving its own cooperative development
    • Lead with “What does the community need?” — “the Chicago way”

Discussion

  • What does linking the cooperative economy mean?
    • Mapping the resistance
    • Defining terms
    • Creating alliances
    • How do we take over enough of the economy to tip?
    • Accounting for needs
    • Reaching out to people who would benefit but aren’t aware of cooperative options
    • Application across industries
    • Building a sustainable socialist economy from the bottom up (not top down)
  • Growth
    • Scalability
    • Taking over the world
    • Success
    • Sustainability
    • Making the economy cooperative in general — keeping control local, instead of scaling (federated)
      • Not a hierarchical economy, top down
    • Awareness & education
    • Lifting the community as well as members — not driving out others
    • Measurement:
      • % of economy that is cooperative
  • Solidarity vs. classical economy — the true sharing / informal economy
    • Countering capitalist hegemony — growth outside the capitalist framework
    • Reject that capitalism is the classical economy, and sharing economy is the new economy
      • There are a lot of cooperatives around the world, not in the West
      • Cooperation is not a concept born in Europe
  • Building a database of information — what are the key information?
    • Relationship-building / conferences / coalitions
    • Peer-rating system — e.g. the co-op scorecard (from Canada)
    • Capital flows — investment in / divestment from extractive economy
    • Education about cooperation & other cooperative sectors
    • Incentivize collaboration across co-ops (e.g. member deals)
      • Lots of points of failures between co-op cooperation because of cash limitations (cheaper to patronize other businesses)
  • Do co-op prices squeeze out those who are economically disadvantaged?
    • Yes, the market is fucked (says Daniel) — market prices don’t account for externalities
    • Co-ops that are doing okay should re-invest in other cooperatives (e.g. Shared Capital cooperative, co-ops reinvesting in co-ops)
    • Co-ops should have discounts for other co-ops / volunteers / social sector employees (this idea has been repeated a lot a lot)
    • Tension between pragmatism & idealism
    • Can we beat capitalists at the pragmatic game?
  • Who should be involved in interlinking cooperatives?
    • Ideal is everyone to have some sort of involvement
    • Everyone should steward this — should not be tasked to a specific group
    • Co-operate or die — the current economic structure is indeed fucked
    • Make a bat signal so that people can reference it later
  • Interesting that the conversation has included a lot about capital / pricing / marketing (capitalist concepts), and less about democratic participation
    • How to scape democratic structures, etc?