This is the author's final report on his tour of the facilities of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of Spain.
Our first stop is another component allied with Mongragon University called SAIOLAN. It's an incubator project for helping to launch new coops and high-tech businesses.From there they attended talks regarding innovation of new technologies, and finally an overseas assistance program for coops in other countries.
In these sessions a lot of interesting questions were asked of the Mondragon spokes-people. For example:
Have you had any inquiries from those countries trying to define a new 21st century socialism, in whatever way, such as Venezuela, Cuba, China, Vietnam or even South Africa, on how they might use Mondragon's ideas and services? Do you think you have something to offer here?Those of you who have found this series of interest may want to read an academic report entitled, Commons and Cooperatives, featured in today's blog.