Worker Co-ops Take Over Wall Street
Nearly 300 worker co-op members and their allies met in Manhattan last weekend. The occasion: the First Annual Meeting of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the Second National Conference on Workplace Democracy.
The conference attracted delegates from Argentina, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Canada and across the U.S. Attendees were of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and wore everything from high heels to combat boots, dreadlocks to Mohawks, jeans and tees to suits and ties.
“We brought together the most diverse group of cooperators I’ve ever seen to talk about worker cooperatives as vehicles for economic justice,” said worker co-op conference organizer Melissa Hoover. “That’s why we held it in New York.”
(Juhandryn Dessames, our Office Manager, is on the right)
There are at least several hundred worker cooperatives in the United States, no doubt many more. But until recently they have made little attempt to organize. Part of the reason is, while housing, electric and other types of co-ops share many interests and issues in their industry sector, worker co-ops span the entire business spectrum.
For example, among those present at Millennium High were member-owners of Union Cab in Madison, Wisconsin and Citybikes in Portland, Oregon; Inkworks Press in Berkeley, California and Collective Copies in Amherst, Massachusetts; Long Island Home Enterprise and Ithaca Biodiesel in New York; Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and Langdon St. Café in Montpelier, Vermont.
The mission of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives is to pursue their common interests and to grow the worker co-op sector, as well as to support the regional workplace democracy associations (the oldest is the Western Worker Cooperative Conference that meets each year in Breitenbush) and a growing number of local alliances of worker co-ops and cross-sector cooperatives.
Building solidarity among worker co-ops began about a decade ago on the West coast, and slowly made its way East. By 2004, three strong regional associations had formed, and in the
Spring of that year they met in Minneapolis to create the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. As recently as last summer, there were not quite 20 paid-up Federation member organizations. In New York City last week, more than 50 co-ops and cooperative development non-profits convened the founding Annual Membership Meeting.
It was not a scripted presentation, but an earnest work session where member delegates hammered out the language of the documents that will enable the Federation to grow and prosper. Observers noted that it should come as no surprise that worker-owners of successful businesses would be ready, willing and able to move even such an ambitious agenda as theirs forward.
Not content to just wind down to some fond farewells, the weekend concluded with a screening of ‘The Take’ at Anthology Film Archives. The award-winning documentary is about the 2001 collapse of Argentina’s economy and the subsequent emergence of a worker co-op movement which has played an essential role in helping thousands of Argentines rebuild their lives.
The film was shown by its Canadian producer Avi Lewis, who made it with a crew that included his wife, author-activist Naomi Klein. Rather than answer questions afterward, Lewis deferred to a trio of audience members who have lived the reality described in the film. The Argentine contingent was at the conference to share their experiences and insights in the formation of a powerful cooperative movement.
Afterward, Lewis described the event as emotional and extraordinary. “I think the endless applause for the Argentine workers was absolutely pregnant with possibility,” he said. “I know I cried. The spirit they brought with them invaded the room.”
One of the workers, Soledad Bordegaray, who is involved with the unemployed worker movement in Argentina, affirmed this connection. “We are coming from different situations, but finding common issues and a strong coincidence of our objectives,” she said.
“The world we live in,” added la cooperativista argentina, gesturing to include all present, “doesn’t have an economic response for our hearts and spiritual needs.”
This weekend’s conference was an important and hopeful step toward the creation of a new world, one that can respond to all of humanity’s needs, as worker co-ops of the world unite.
As they left Millennium High for the last time, about 100 participants walked up the street for a group photo in front of the New York Stock Exchange. “If not here, where?” the unlikely-looking group seemed to say as they threw their fists in the air. “If not now, when? If not us, who?”
