Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Republic Windows Workers Consider Employee-Owned Co-Op

Click here to access article by Laura Flanders from The Nation.
They are on an exciting track. If we are going to create an economy of justice, we need not just new popular pressure and new politicians; we need new models of production, distribution, marketing and ownership.
I'm not as excited about this development as this liberal author is. Worker coops are at best a defensive action to save jobs. They can also act as laboratories for workers to learn how to manage their own enterprises democratically. However, even the best run such enterprises must function within an economic system that treats them with actions ranging from benign neglect to hostility. The laws governing enterprises are founded on private enterprise models that emphasize hierarchical systems of authority. Thus, the real solution is to reorganize the entire economic system so that democratically run enterprises can flourish.