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Mansib Rahman, CEO of Montreal-based food delivery and logistics startup Radish.coop, joins Dru to discuss cooperative governance, member allegiances, equity and IPOs in cooperatives, and how we can transform the food system.

Union organizer and activist Aminah Sheikh (@simplyaminah) join Dru Oja Jay to discuss the elements of organizing a workplace, the transformative process that results, and how that could open onto international solidarity and an anti-capitalist imagination.Sheikh currently works as an organizer with PSAC, and is Vice President of the Canadian Freelancers Union.Follow HPC Blue Sky (https://bsky.app/profile/halfpastcapitalism.bsky.social) Tik Tok (https://www.tiktok.com/@halfpastcapitalism)

There's a lot to learn from Sweden's Meidner Plan, which would have phased in worker ownership over 30 years. As a followup to our episode with Joe Guinan, Dru Oja Jay spoke to Shannon Ikebe about some of the new archival materials about the Meidner plan, and insights it contains for current efforts to plan beyond capitalism. Read Shannon's dissertation on Sweden's wage earner funds here: https://escholarship.org/content/qt4sk7w0r0/qt4sk7w0r0.pdf

Yuill Herbert, a co-founder and long-time worker member at Sustainability Solutions Group, joins us to talk about life in an expanding co-op, and the 100-acre land trust he also helped start. Sustainability Solutions Group: https://www.ssg.coop/ Podcast links: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/halfpastcapitalism Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/halfpastcapitalism Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/druojajay

Esteban Kelly, Executive Director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, joins Dru Oja Jay to discuss the state of the worker cooperative movement, the ecological approach to organizing, the evolution of equity discourse and its neglected revolutionary origins, and more. The USFCW: https://www.usworker.coop/en/ Unlikely Advocates: Worker Co-ops, Grassroots Organizing, and Public Policy: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/unlike...

The Meidner Plan was a transformative plan proposed by Swedish trade unions in the mid-1970s to gradually transfer ownership of mid-sized and large businesses to their workers, and subsequently to workers at large. Dru Jay is joined by Joe Guinan, the President at The Democracy Collaborative and co-author of The Case for Community Wealth Building and of People Get Ready! Preparing for a Corbyn Government. They discuss some of the historical context and some of the plans shortcomings. For more about the Meidner plan, read articles in The Peoples Policy Project, Jacobin, and The Socialist Register.

-- Recorded July 2023 -- Amrita Wassan is the Senior Director Programs at Center for Economic Democracy (CED), and they are an educator, organizer and solidarity economy practitioner. Francisco Perez is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Utah and he’s director of the Center for Popular Economics. They are both part of the team that teaches Economics for Emancipation, which is “A Course on Capitalism, Solidarity and How We Get Free”. Find out more at https://economics4emancipation.net/ Subscribe to Half Past Capitalism on the podcast service of your choice. Find out more about the Solidarity Economy Incubator for Zero Emissions (SEIZE) at solidarityeconomy.ca

Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House, the Cush Vlog, and Hell on Earth joins Dru Jay to discuss the tyranny of the self, fear of death and horizons of post-capitalism. Check out Matt's vlogs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl5ddgvszig&list=PLhxUDrMFUqyMQSozC1ES-Q4BkT8MJbY_1

Moving a city, moving an economy w/ Cheyenna Weber A bit over a decade ago, it was just a handful of people speaking the phrase "solidarity economy" in New York City in an intentional way. Today, the concept has gained considerable traction, but obstacles loom as successes accumulate. Cheyenna Layne Weber has been at close to the heart of that trajectory. Here, she shares insights, lessons and observations from the journey so far. Cheyenna is involved a number of organizations, but we focus here mainly on her work with Solidarity NYC, the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City, and the Solidarity Economy Principles Project. Links: http://solidaritynyc.org/ https://gocoopnyc.org/ https://solidarityeconomyprinciples.org/

The global food crisis is—according to most available indicators—just getting warmed up. Shylah Wolfe has participated in many cooperatives in the food sector, and with the Concordia Food Coalition, is involved in the establishment of a non-profit food institution at Concordia University. She spoke to Dru Oja Jay about what kinds of cooperative systems for food production, distribution and processing are already being built and how we'll probably have to expand them pretty rapidly to feed ourselves.Show less

Venezuelan communes—where productive activities are controlled by a range of community assemblies—are fascinating examples of socialist forces experimenting with the creation of new social forms.Venezuela's communes are an attempt to address some of the shortcomings of cooperatives and state-owned socialist factories by addressing not just economic production but other social relationships like parenting and gender relations at the grassroots level.Chris Gilbert, author of the forthcoming book Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project and co-author (with Cira Pascual Marquina) of Venezuela, the Present as Struggle, joins us from Caracas to explain the theoretical basis for communes. --- Mentioned in this episode: -- Five Factories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8uUJPPST7s Communard Union https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/08/a-milestone-venezuelas-communard-union-stages-its-foundational-congress/ István Mészáros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istv%C3%A1n_M%C3%A9sz%C3%A1ros_(philosopher) Venezuela: The present as struggle (book) https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15045 Commune or Nothing! (book) https://monthlyreview.org/product/commune-or-nothing-venezuelas-communal-movement-and-its-socialist-project/

Cuba’s thousands of agricultural cooperatives are responsible for about 56% of Cuba’s growing land, and employ an estimated 300,000 cooperative worker members. Some observers say the cooperatives more efficient than the state-owned parts of Cuba's agricultural production. Federica Bono is an Assistant Professor of Human Geography at Christopher Newport University joins Dru Oja Jay to discuss her observations of Cuba's vast network of agricultural cooperatives. Dr. Bono has written about food access, the concept and practice of solidarity, and border relations. In 2015, she spent time living with agricultural cooperatives, and interviewed dozens of worker-members. Two interviews with Camila Piñeiro-Harnecker https://geo.coop/articles/cubas-new-cooperative-legislation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpgM80xLF9I Spatializing Solidarity: Agricultural Cooperatives as Solidarity Transformers in Cuba, by Federica Bono and Maarten Loopmans https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ruso.12386 * * * Half Past Capitalism is a show about alternatives to capitalism as if they were possible. Produced with the support of the Solidarity Economy Incubator for Zero Emissions (SEIZE): http://www.solidarityeconomy.ca Podcast links: https://anchor.fm/halfpastcapitalism Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/halfpastcapitalism⁠ Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/halfpastcapitalism Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/druojajay Half Past Blog: http://halfpast.dru.ca/

Dru Oja Jay is joined by Kevin Harding, one of the organizers of a spirited, hail-mary attempt to save Mountain Equipment Co-op from being sold off to a US private equity firm.  Before its assets were sold (and the member list apparently destroyed), the outdoor supplies cooperative had reached an estimated 6 million members and $700 million in annual revenues. Kevin is a public policy professional who works with cooperatives and community enterprises. In this episode, he shares about how tens of thousands of members mobilized to stop MEC's sale, and came very close to being successful.  Dru and Kevin also discuss the situation that led to the co-operative's demise, what could have prevented it, and what became of the effort to save MEC.   * * *   Podcast links: https://anchor.fm/halfpastcapitalism  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/halfpastcapitalism  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/HalfPastCapitalism  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/druojajay  Half Past Blog: http://halfpast.dru.ca/

Dru Oja Jay is joined by Mo Manklang of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives to discuss recent changes to federal legislation championed by various cooperative organizations, and how laws can be changed further. Mo is the Communications Director and Policy lead at the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, a board members of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance and the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia. CHIPS act update: https://www.usworker.coop/blog/the-usfwc-applauds-the-spotlight-on-worker-co-ops-in-the-chips-and-science-act/ Other policy updates from USFCW: https://www.usworker.coop/blog/category/policy * * * Podcast links: https://anchor.fm/halfpastcapitalism Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/halfpastcapitalism Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/HalfPastCapitalism Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/druojajay Half Past Blog: http://halfpast.dru.ca/

Dru is joined by Carmen Marcuello and Anjel Errasti, authors of some interesting publications about Mondragon's expansion abroad. We talk about why the cooperative model hasn't taken root in Mondragon's overseas operations, and what makes Mondragon different from multinational conglomerates of similar size that are not owned and democratically managed by their workers.   Carmen Marcuello is a professor of Business Management at the University of Zaragoza. Anjel Errasti is a professor at the Institute of Cooperative Law and Social Economy, University of the Basque Country.   Read their 2018 paper here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0019793918779575   * * *   Podcast links: https://anchor.fm/halfpastcapitalism   Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/halfpastcapitalism   Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/druojajay   Half Past Blog: http://halfpast.dru.ca/