There just doesn’t appear to be any in-between. Except that there is.
This year and each subsequent one, we can avoid supporting the big box corporations that exploit people, communities, and the planet as a whole while enriching an elite few without being self-righteous or abetting exploitation ourselves. Cooperatives and self-directed enterprises, democratically owned and controlled by their workers, are a great way to improve labor rights and inject money into a local economy. Best of all, the gift you give benefits more than just the recipient.
Purchasing from a Workers’ Self-Directed Enterprise (WSDE) is casting a ballot for a community. Free of the burden of compensating Board members and expensive CEOs, WSDEs pay their workers more, give them better benefits, and give more to charity than their traditional capitalist counterparts.
Because the workers live where they work, they provide twice as much money into the local economy through taxes and purchases. This also makes them far less likely to move their operation (and selves and families) to a different country to save a buck or two.
if you’re considering going WSDE but you’re not quite sure where to start, below is a partial list of progressive businesses that make up a handful of what’s out there. (You can use these three resources to find more.)
Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange is a worker-owned co-op that offers fair trade products from small farmer cooperatives across the world. Whether you’re looking for high-quality chocolate, tea, bananas, olive oil, hot cocoa, and a score of other products for a loved one, the taste of Equal Exchange’s gifts are only enhanced by their flavor for justice. Equal Exchange works with farmer cooperatives and food cooperatives (consumer-owned) to connect people who grow the food to the people who buy and enjoy it.
Co-op 108
Co-op 108 is a worker-owned co-op that prides itself on being a safe alternative to the chemical- and preservative-based skin care products otherwise flooding the shelves. They are dedicated to using local and organic ingredients whenever possible and are always 100% preservative free.
Co-op 108 is focused on helping create a more co-operative economy by interco-operating with other co-ops, by contributing a percentage of their surplus to a co-op development fund, and by creating a more humanized workplace for the owners.
Food For Thought Books
Looking to avoid Amazon.com? Their deals may seem tempting, but the online giant is doing everything it can to shut down small bookstores across the country and their labor practices have been absolutely horrid.
Over the years, Food For Thought books, a worker-collective in Amherst, MA, has certainly felt the pressure from Amazon’s onslaught. Yet, where many bookshops have had to shut down, Food For Thought has stayed open—in large part thanks to its collective structure in which the worker-owners share the burden amongst each other.
In addition to its neighborhood bookstore, you can purchase books on their website and have them delivered straight to your home.
TESA
The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) is a worker-owned producer of resources for social and economic change, from the cooperative movement itself to community organizing, people’s history, and beyond..One of their most popular items is the well-reviewed Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, which last year sold in more than 20 countries. Full disclosure, two of us work for this outfit, so we obviously think we’re pretty neat. But if the above organizations appeal to you, TESA is most-likely up your alley as well.
By Brian Van Slyke, Taliesin Nyala, and John Burkhart. Brian and Taliesin are worker-owners at The Toolbox for Education and Social Action. John is the Research Director at Democracy at Work, a social movement for a new economy.
]]>The role of labor was crucial in Egyptians’ popular efforts to oust Hosni Mubarak, perhaps the bale of straw that broke the U.S.-supported dictator’s back. Naturally, organizers and activists are glowing. But will [...]]]>
The role of labor was crucial in Egyptians’ popular efforts to oust Hosni Mubarak, perhaps the bale of straw that broke the U.S.-supported dictator’s back. Naturally, organizers and activists are glowing. But will it last?
With continued military rule in Egypt, at least until elections in the fall, the recent kingbreakers find themselves at odds with the newly-elevated junta, who have asked them to calm things down.
Here’s an excerpt of Mekay’s report from Egypt’s textile hub El Mahalla, home to a long-oppressed labor movement:
]]>[Organizer Hamdi] Hussein was all smiles as he announced that he was heading to Cairo to attend a meeting to chart out future labor demands after the stunning success of the Egyptian revolution.
“Yesterday, this meeting would have been secret and I would have been forced to sneak in and out of El Mahalla,” Mr. Hussein said during an interview.
“Now, the labor movement that helped topple Mubarak will take its rightful place in protecting the revolution.”
But will it? This newfound labor empowerment has startled the interim government, which was originally appointed by Mr. Mubarak, and challenges the efforts by the military, which is effectively in charge, to protect Egypt’s existing institutions and return the country to a more normal life.
“All ministers here are displeased with the strikes,” Magdy Radi, the cabinet’s spokesman, said by telephone. “It is hampering our work as a caretaker government. But it is an issue for the supreme council to take care of, not us.”
The military council, despite initial reports that it would move to ban strikes altogether, has so far taken a more measured approach. On Tuesday, it issued a communiqué urging Egyptians to tone down their labor protests, citing the consequences for the economy and the supply of everyday needs.
The new government and the military may have a more profound reason to be worried about a new wave of strikes, which played a critical role in bringing down the Mubarak regime.
Earlier this month, as the world was riveted by the young “Internet generation” demonstrating in huge numbers in Tahrir Square, Mr. Hussein and 20 other labor leaders were busy using their mobile phones to plan a nationwide series of strikes and sit-ins.