Hello colleagues,
Shareable just published an interview with Chuck Gold of ICA about the Int'l Year of
the Coop:
This follows a recent Shareable feature story about cooperatives, "Meet the New Boss: You"
We commissioned these articles to help educate the general public about the value of
cooperatives in creating democratic societies. Many of you probably share the idea that
coops have special relevance in the age of Occupy, mounting financial crisis, and
increasing employment precarity, especially among youth.
I hope that you will share these articles in your communities, and perhaps more importantly
with those on the boundaries of your communities who are seeking new ways to be in the world.
I think they make good introductions to coops and also correct common misconceptions
about them, like that they are small and counter-cultural (a US bias, at least).
Shareable is working informally with other groups, including the P2P Foundation, to raise the
profile of coops as a solution (albeit an imperfect one) and get cooperative development into
policy discussions. The US has systematically supported cooperative development in the past
to address market failures (the Rural Electrification Administration in The Great Depression).
Perhaps we will return to this and join many other countries with cooperative economic strategies.
I also invite you to share with us any media that you're doing around coops. We'd like to share your
media with our community, which you've helped us to grow to 50,000 unique visitors a month.
Thank you!
-Neal