Making it Our Business: Co-ops on the Rise

2012 has been declared the year of the co-op by the United Nations. And the global economic situation is causing more people to consider how worker owned businesses might serve their employees and community better. But forming, and sustaining a co-op isn’t easy. On this edition, we go from Chicago, where workers are trying to take over the factory to save their jobs, to the Basque country in Spain, where an entire region has formed a massive co-operative society.

This show was funded in part by the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative

Featuring:
Republic Windows and Doors Company workers; Ricky Maclin, United Electrical Workers Local 10 Vice President; Armando Robles, United Electrical Workers Local 10 union President; Denis Kelleher, Center for Workplace Democracy Executive Director; Franz Vandergroen, Sampat Weerasinghe, Sarah Wells, Arizmendi Fourth Street members; Paula, Arizmendi 4th Street candidate; John Kusakabe, Arizmendi Lakeshore member, Tim Huet, Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives co-founder; Mikel Lezamiz, Mondragon Director of Cooperative Dissemination; Maria Jesus, Mondragon worker/member; Professor Fred Freundlich, University of Mondragon researcher; Ainara Uduando, Lanki Institute Director
Producers: Andrew Stelzer, George Lavender
Hosts: Andrew Stelzer, George Lavender
Contributing Producer: Tom Allen
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman
Development Manager: Juanita Carroll Young
Production Interns: Lisa Bartfai, Salima Hamirani, Eryn Mathewson
Web Editor: Irene Florez
Organizational Volunteers: Dan Turner, Alton Byrd and Barbara Barnett


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