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.

Corporatist economics creates giant, global business organizations and concentrates property ownership into the hands of oligarchs. Corporatist economics creates massive obstacles to property accumulation for ordinary individuals.
"True dat, G, but how does that relate to local or personal sufficiency? Such topics seem to be more macro-economic in nature, rather than local or personal. What gives?"
Well, I have little hope of democratic-socialism ever being imposed from the top down. Nor should it. Democratic-socialism should be built from the bottom up. We need to work democratic-socialist principles into the social fabric of our local communities and spread the good news from there.
Very, very few progressives know anything about democratic-socialist principles; we've been immersed in corporatist culture all our lives. We know what we're against, but we struggle to imagine the alternative and how to implement it. This series presents the alternative; you can find it in the Resilience Group's essay queue. Part 4 starts below.