Episode 152: Cooperation Now More Than Ever: Grocery Cooperatives At Scale - Part 2

The Checkout looks at how cooperativism can be achieved at scale as an alternative to both free market and autocratic economies.

The myth that small is beautiful pervades alternative economic models. Small is small. Scale, particularly the ability to replicate and expand successful models, is necessary to achieve a just and sustainable economy. There are lessons from cooperatives around the world that scale is possible. While even Karl Marx recognized that cooperatives can replicate the problems of capitalism, there is a new generation of cooperators who are learning from the past and building the beginnings of a solidarity economy.

Sources available upon request.

The Cooperative Sector School: from Alex Laidlaw, 1974

Its philosophy: cooperative is a distinct economic sector in its own right. Cooperatives are essentially different from both capitalism and public enterprise, though they have some features of one and some of the other and thus may be considered a "middle way" between the two. The ideal economy is one that has a good balance of public, cooperative and private sectors.

Chief features: it sees cooperatives as co-existing with the other two sectors (public and private or capitalism) and all three complementing one another in building a strong economy and a good social order.

Proponents: numerous in Europe, esp. Scandinavian countries; strong in Canada, Israel, Japan; Georges Fauquet, Moses Coady, Alexander Laidlaw.

“The peaceful endeavor of the underprivileged to improve their lot by their own efforts, joined together.” -Hannes Gebhard, Finnish Cooperative sector founder and theorist. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/dec/17/finland-co-operative-economy-ed-mayo

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