Workers Co-operatives

[Brady]

Whats the general opinion on them here? Are they the best we can hope for at the moment?

Do they work? Can they compete in the likes of the UK or the US against private businesses?

Can any business be run as a co-op regardless of their size or industry?

A lot of questions I know but I'd love to find out more and possibly get involved in one if I could.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Definitely not the size, I'm afraid. :(

Direct control is OK for the small business, but for the big enterprises, they can only be controlled by one of two mechanisms: the bureaucratic state and the state of workers' councils.

[BobKKKindle$]

Co-Operatives can compete - there are several cases in the fábrica recuperada (recuperated enterprises) movement in Argentina in which factories have been managed more efficiently under workers control. Keep in mind, though, that the entire idea of a co-op is that profit - which is used as the sole indicator for success in a Capitalist enterprise - is not the only objective that is taken into consideration as a co-operative exists to serve the broader interests of the community - and so even if a co-operative was unable to compete in a market environment, that would not make a co-operative 'inferior' as a form of workplace and enterprise organisation.

A Co-operative is, for me, a model of how society might be organised in the future and I always enjoy reading about workers' experiences in working for co-operatives, especially in Venezeula. The most important aspect and advantage of a co-operative, I feel, is how it allows workers to make their own decisions and not be subject to the orders of someone situated above them in a system of hierarchy, and as such work itself is a more interesting experience.

Or, as this excellent article (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1801) puts it -


"Before we had a boss. Now we are the bosses," said Hermogenes Garcia, a longtime maintenance man at the Guaiqueri.

[Janus]

Can they compete in the likes of the UK or the US against private businesses?
Yes, they can usually manage that at the least.


Can any business be run as a co-op regardless of their size or industry?
No, I'm afraid that the larger a group or business gets, more centralization and bureaucracy is needed in order to run it effectively; that's one of the rules of management.

[People's Councillor]

The LIP watchmaking factory in France was bought by the workers from their boss, and they ran it themselves, but were crushed by the State...

So yeah. It's a good system, but workers' cooperatives aren't enough if they can't be protected from the capitalist state.

[Brady]

Originally posted by [email protected] 15, 2007 08:44 pm

Can they compete in the likes of the UK or the US against private businesses?
Yes, they can usually manage that at the least.


Can any business be run as a co-op regardless of their size or industry?
No, I'm afraid that the larger a group or business gets, more centralization and bureaucracy is needed in order to run it effectively; that's one of the rules of management.
I was thinking more of very small businesses of say just a handful of workers. Could it be run effectively along co-operative lines without the necessary capital that a normal private owner would use to get it off the ground? Where would the money come from to start up such a venture?

[Janus]

Could it be run effectively along co-operative lines without the necessary capital that a normal private owner would use to get it off the ground?
They still need the financial and labor resources necessary to start it.


Where would the money come from to start up such a venture?
The "founders" would have to pool their resources together in order to set it up.