Jobs and the Future of the US Economy: Possibilities and Limits
Date: Oct 1, 2010
Location: HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Armour J. Blackburn University Center
Room: Hilltop Terrace
Washington, DC 20059
Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Solidarity Economy News
News and ideas from the global solidarity economy movement
On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - Page updated at 12:51 PM
DOUG BEGHTEL / AP Bob Moore, standing in his retail store, had his 81st birthday this week
and celebrated by transferring his business to his workers. His
successful whole-grain production business mills grains, operates a
retail store and restaurant, and ships products internationally.
and celebrated by transferring his business to his workers. His
successful whole-grain production business mills grains, operates a
retail store and restaurant, and ships products internationally.
On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees
The Oregonian
MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.
Moore, whose mutual love of healthful eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own — the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan that Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.
"This is Bob taking care of us," said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business' retail operation. "He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return."
Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004, however, one business publication estimated that year's revenue at more than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that Bob's Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20 percent and 30 percent every year since.
Solidarity University in Vienna, Austria open now
A few minutes ago, the Solidarity University (kritische und solidarische Universität = KriSU) was founded inVienna, Austria. KriSU-activists revitalized rooms which are vacant since 2 years for the public. KriSU reacts on the fundamental social, ecological and economic crisis of capitalist society. It sees itself as a part of the global university protests. Elfriede Jelinek, famous Austrian writer, declared her solidarity: „I am glad to support this action, since I would support any critical initiative weakening those encrusted university structures.“
Cleveland invests in cooperatives
Cleveland invests in a network of cooperatives, starting with Evergreen Laundry. Check out this short video.
Elinor Ostrom Breaks the Nobel mould - celebrates the commons
The economics profession needs to be shaken up. Ostrom's Nobel prize should encourage us to take a fresh approach
Kevin Gallagher,guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 October 2009 17.00 BST
Elinor Ostrom (front) with members of the Irrigation Management
Systems Study Group during field work in Nepal.
Photo taken in March, 1993. Copyright © Arizona State University
The economics profession is in such disarray that one of the Nobel prizes in economics this year went to political scientist Elinor Ostrom – the first woman to be awarded the economics prize. This is an excellent choice
(in any year) not only because of what Ostrom has contributed to social
theory but also because of how she goes about her work. 
In a nutshell, Ostrom won the Nobel prize for showing that privatising natural resources is not the route to halting environmental degradation.
Festival of Grassroots Economics asks: Where’s That New Economy?
“Let’s
take back our economy. Let’s decentralize and democratize it,” Heather
Young said, kicking off the panel called “Building the Alternative” at
the Festival of Grassroots Economics, held September 26 at the Humanist
Hall in Oakland.
Heather Young was one of the main organizers of
the festival, a free, day-long gathering of several hundred Bay Area
people who gathered to meet and discuss how to evolve alternative
economies that benefit working people, support local small businesses,
support pay equity, and address work through the framework of race,
class and privilege. Young, a co-founder of Bay Area Community Exchange
wanted to make sure everyone arriving for the day understood that
finding new economic models was the essence of the festival, whose
slogan was “Building an Economy for the People and the Planet.”
United Steelworkers and Mondragon Internacional announce collaboration!
PITTSBURGH - The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”
“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants. We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”
Josu Ugarte, President of MONDGRAGON Internacional added: “What we are announcing today represents a historic first – combining the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative with one of the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking manufacturing unions to work together so that our combined know-how and complimentary visions can transform manufacturing practices in North America.”
Cooperative Laundry Brings Hope to Distressed Workers
Workers to get share in business that aims to revive poor
neighborhoods
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter
Civic and city leaders are invest ing several million dollars in a unique, employee-owned business model to drive more wealth and jobs into the struggling neighborhoods around University Circle.
Several hundred people will gather on East 105th Street near St. Clair Avenue today to celebrate the opening of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a $5.8 million commercial venture featuring the latest in energy-efficient laundry equipment.
Building a Solidarity Economy- YES! Magazine
How can one small Brooklyn-based co-op help create an economy founded on teamwork, social justice, and democracy?
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Photos courtesy of Annie McShiras.
Members of Beyond Care, a childcare cooperative based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, advertise at a street fair.
Jackie Amezquita isn’t your typical nanny. During the workday, she cares for her clients’ young children, educating and nurturing them. But as president of Beyond Care, a 19-member childcare cooperative based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, her reach extends far beyond those individual families.
World's Biggest Corporations Claim to Be Local
How the World's Biggest Corporations, From Starbucks to Wal-Mart to Barnes & Noble, Claim to Be 'Local'
By Stacy Mitchell, New Rules Project
Posted on September 8, 2009, Printed on September 8, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142379/
HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself "the world's local bank." Starbucks is un-branding at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea." Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, "Local flavor since 1956." The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars into television ads urging people to "Shop Local" -- at their nearest mall. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the act, hanging bright green banners over its produce aisles that simply say, "Local."
