A few years back when Occupy was all the rage, the move your money campaign (https://ilsr.org/tag/move-your-money/) taught me to think about my personal values and how that interacted with my personal banking. I mean, banking sounds so neutral doesn't it? It seems like something we do outside of our daily living, where we make all of our moral decisions.
Then I realized that banking is a value-laden activity. Now it seems obvious, but before I was oblivious to this fact. I'd like to make the case for moving your money to a credit union, as our family has done. More below.

Are you tired of local communities who prostrate themselves before corporations: giving them tax breaks, handshake deals on by-law enforcement, and preferential treatment by politicians (often for cash contributions), only to see the same corporations outsource jobs overseas, pollute the environment, and send profits far away? Well, there is an alternative, one that has been growing together in Cleveland, Ohio since 2009. More below.

The cooperative is a form of organization for business or for consumers that works for the betterment of the local community - its people, environment, and its economy.
This is Part 3 in a three-part series on co-ops.
Part 1 is here http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-co-ops-101-introduction-co...
Part 2 http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-co-ops-101-introduction-co...

If you haven't noticed by now, allow me to point out that in the Resilience Group we're building a resource base for political revolution at the local community level. (And at the personal level.)

* We have a four-part series on Democratic Socialism herehttp://caucus99percent.com/content/local-resilience-democratic-socialism...
* We have this three-part series on the basics of Cooperatives, with many more specific posts planned.
* We have the concrete examples of towns that have transformed themselves into flourishing local resilience:
Totnes, England, the most resilient town in the world and founder of the global Transition Town movement. See here http://caucus99percent.com/content/local-resilience-transition-town-totn...
Wilpoldsried, Germany, which used renewable energy to transform itself into a resilient social-democratic rural town. See here http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-democratic-socialism-appro...

If we keep at it, we will collect tons of resources on c99 for folks willing and able to do the work of transforming their local communities. The Community Page will continue to raise consciousness of the iniquities of our corporate-ruled world. And the Resilience Group will continue to build resources for building resilient local communities and resilient individuals to thrive despite the corporatist rule.

As for Part 3 of Co-ops 101, see below.

Corporate capitalism has failed western societies. In the western world, inequality is at its highest on record, the environment is threatened, and local communities have become corporate dependencies. Presently, many businesses in a community are not local, but are franchises of a national or multinational corporation that pays its workers as little as possible, ruins the environment, and sends the profits to investors far away. Many consumers are left isolated individually with no bargaining power.
In order to grow resilient local economies, communities will have to develop co-operative local businesses and local organizations to break the stranglehold that multinational corporations have on them.
The cooperative is a form of organization for business or for consumers that works for the betterment of the local community - its people, environment, and its economy. This is Part 2 in a three-part series on co-ops. Part 1 is here http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-co-ops-101-introduction-co...
More below.

Corporate capitalism has failed western societies. In the western world, inequality is at its highest on record, the environment is threatened, and local communities have become corporate dependencies. Presently, many businesses in a community are not local, but are franchises of a national or multinational corporation that pays its workers as little as possible, ruins the environment, and sends the profits to investors far away. Many consumers are left isolated individually with no bargaining power.
In order to grow resilient local economies, communities will have to develop local businesses and local organizations to break the stranglehold that multinational corporations have on them.
The cooperative is a form of organization for business or for consumers that works for the betterment of the local community - its people, environment, and its economy. This is the first in a three-part series on co-ops. More below.

This series explores the outlines of democratic socialism...um, snooooooozzzze...too academic, too dry, and relevance, please. "G, your planned series needs a makeover and fast." Well, resilient people are good at troubleshooting, so here goes.

Would you like to find ways to make your local community more resilient, more viable, more self-sufficient? Have you thought about how to develop your local community more organically? Consider banning the corporation within your local jurisdiction. Seriously :=)> More below.