Building Co Operative Power

Building Co-operative Power explores strategies from the Connecticut River Valley as a guide and inspiration for developing a regional co-operative economy based on a vibrant and engaged worker co-op sector. It speaks directly to obstacles and opportunities for making worker co-operatives an increasingly important part of the U.S. economy. The authors relay practical insights on co-op governance, communication, conflict and inter-cooperation. These are highlighted by cautionary tales and sagas of personal transformation.

Building Co-operative Power explores strategies from the Connecticut River Valley as a guide and inspiration for developing a regional co-operative economy based on a vibrant and engaged worker co-op sector. It speaks directly to obstacles and opportunities for making worker co-operatives an increasingly important part of the U.S. economy. The authors relay practical insights on co-op governance, communication, conflict and inter-cooperation. These are highlighted by cautionary tales and sagas of personal transformation. “They explore the problems and triumphs of cooperatives, through practical, yet visionary eyes. … In the course of their exploration, they visit a great variety of co-ops in the Connecticut River Valley region, and discuss their successes and problems unflinchingly. This type of on-the-ground regional thinking is a key to developing cooperative networks that are deep and sustainable.” John Curl, author of For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements and Communalism in America “Building Cooperative Power is a must read for anyone who wants to take back the economy for people and the planet! … The diversity of cooperatives, the ingenuity of enterprise strategies, and the humane care for self, others and environments showcased in this book is impressive, instructive and visionary.” — J.K. Gibson-Graham, author of The End of Capitalism (as we knew it) and A Postcapitalist Politics “… the behind-the-scenes look into this organizing process they offer here is a valuable and rare resource for organizers and communities engaged in the work of democratizing wealth.” — Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do? Democratizing Wealth and Building a Community Sustaining Economy from the Ground Up “A thoughtful, inspiring account of the nitty-gritty process of building a democratic economy from the bottom up. Read it and cooperate!” —Nancy Folbre, author of Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas

In Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard chronicles African American cooperative business ownership and its place in the movements for Black civil rights and economic equality. Not since W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1907 Economic Co-operation Among Negro Americans has there been a full-length, nationwide study of African American cooperatives. Collective Courage extends that story into the twenty-first century. Many of the players are well known in the history of the African American experience: Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Jo Baker, George Schuyler and the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. Adding the cooperative movement to Black history results in a retelling of the African American experience, with an increased understanding of African American collective economic agency and grassroots economic organizing. To tell the story, Gordon Nembhard uses a variety of newspapers, period magazines, and journals; co-ops’ articles of incorporation, minutes from annual meetings, newsletters, budgets, and income statements; and scholarly books, memoirs, and biographies. These sources reveal the achievements and challenges of Black co-ops, collective economic action, and social entrepreneurship. Gordon Nembhard finds that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefitted greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation’s history.

Considers proposed demonstration nuclear power plants to be built as cooperative ventures between the AEC and private companies.

Considers proposed demonstration nuclear power plants to be built as cooperative ventures between the AEC and private companies.