Worker-Owned Consumer And Electrical Cooperatives in the USA

A Dossier Prepared by Enrico Massetti

This new edition of Coop Made in the USA, first released in 2011, includes 79 videos, all active when connected to the internet, most of them realized by the cooperators. They make the content less boring, more entertaining, and lively.

There is a section on Electric cooperatives and their new role in bridging the rural divide to bring the internet to rural America, a significant issue for a large part of the population in rural America.

Also, there is a section on recent developments in cooperatives, with the Evergreen Cooperatives and the Cleveland Foundation's initiatives, and the USW's cooperation with the Spanish Mondragon cooperatives. They are models of new ways the cooperative movement takes shape outside of old established models.

I open a debate on what real innovation is in the world we live in: is it only a new model of smartphone or an idea from a country kid is equally essential for society? Who has an interest in convincing us that only a NEW PRODUCT deserves the title to be innovative? The billionaires backing the company that makes the product?

The Lusty Lady Theater gets a full video coverage; it is history now, but what they achieved stays for future memory.

Uber and Lift drivers should be employees or independent contractors? Neither should they be APP-cooperators instead, controlling their APP.

Author Enrico Massetti

Published by Massetti Publishing

Language English

With Videos: when connected to the internet, 1

Scan the QR code or tap the image to activate the videos 1

Table of Content 2

Introduction 1

Acknowledgments 1

Are you dreaming of an Italian vacation? 2

Preface 3

From "how to Start a Worker Co-op" By Mira Luna 4

How Worker Cooperatives Work 5

What do cooperatives do? 5

Comments on Worker-owned Cooperatives. 6

Cooperating APPs 7

Co-op Types 8

Worker Cooperatives 10

Democratic governance 11

Profits and Wages 12

Joining a Worker Co-op 12

Recent developments in cooperatives 13

Workers of the World, Incorporate 14

Spanish Inspiration 15

The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland, Ohio 17

Evergreen Cooperative Laundry - ECL 18

Evergreen Energy Solutions 19

Green City Growers 20

The Greater University Circle Initiative 21

About the Cleveland Foundation 22

Co-ops are on the rise also in the media. 23

The Cleveland models 25

Examples of worker cooperatives 27

BT - Big TimberWorks Homes 27

Cooperative Approach 29

Collective Copies, Amherst, MA 31

The Green Mountain Spinnery 35

Si Se Puede! 37

Cooperative Home Care Associates 39

Ecology Action 40

Firestorm Café and Books 43

Arizmendi Bakeries and Cheese Board 45

Arizmendi Bakeries 47

The Replication of Arizmendi Bakery 48

New Era Windows Cooperative 50

Equal Exchange, West Bridgewater, MA 52

Rainbow Grocery Co-op 54

The Rainbow Grocery Cooperative Mission 55

NoBAWC - Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives 57

Consumer Co-ops. 58

Berkshire Co-op Market, Great Barrington, MA 58

Seward Co-op, Minneapolis, MN 60

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op 61

Lev Tolstoy and High-Tech 63

Design Action, Oakland, CA 64

Quilted, Berkley, CA 66

Tech Collective 67

Electric Embers, Oakland, CA 68

Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing, Madison, WI 69

Electric Cooperatives 74

Cooperating sheep = Real Innovation! 76

Electric cooperatives could be the key to solving the rural digital divide 78

Lusty Lady Theater of San Francisco 79

A comparison with cooperation in Italy 87

Harnessed cooperation - Proudhon and Owen 87

The crisis of the "good comrades." 91

Financial support to cooperatives - CFNE 92

Internet cooperation 93

Housing coops 94

Readings from the Cooperative Development Institute 94

Organizations to follow on cooperative 94

Miscellaneous Articles and Studies 95