More on Mondragon & the USW

http://www.companywekeep.net/an-historic-alliance/

Posted by Tom Laney at 11/11/2009 09:51:00 AM

3 comments:

Besorge,  Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 1:47:00 PM CST  

It is interesting and to their right to practice such methods, I am glad they are successful as it is showing a competitive alternative to the limiting "capitalistic" view of commerce.

Are cooperatives that similar to distributists? I for one fear large owned Democratic cooperative corporation just as I do large corporations? Dependence on someone's hand while still in quicksand may be a safer place, meaning a way of getting out. But I still see quicksand in these foundations' premise.

Chris Campbell,  Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:33:00 AM CST  

Thanks for link, posted on my site as well....

P.M.Lawrence,  Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 7:55:00 PM CST  

Besorge, those aren't really co-operatives because they are corporations distinct from the owners, not an expression of those owners.

Co-operatives are simply enterprises - activities - carried on by or on behalf of the upstream suppliers (to add value to their products and collect profits that would have gone to others), downstream consumers (to save on purchases by getting back upstream profits that would have gone to others), or by all or most of those working there (to add to wages by getting back what would have gone as dividends to separate owner-investors), or some combination. Once a corporate layer separates the ownership from the people who actually carry out or cause the activity, you get back all the risks of its functioning as a distinct thing with distinct interests, just like any other corporation. It is as much a cheat as things belonging to "the people" in communist states. If a corporate structure is the only one practical at a particular time and place, that shows the legal and institutional obstacles that have been put up that stop other approaches being viable on most scales - an underlying problem. (From observing track records, I believe that supplier-run co-operatives are the most practical of the three types in other respects, and consumer-run ones the least - though they have sometimes survived with the help of corporate structure, to no great benefit.)

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