Humanity@Work&Life

HUMANITY@WORK&LIFE is a collective labor of earned merit, vision and determination proving how solidarity, innovation, and conviction forge sustaining local and global social economy practice on behalf of the greater common good.

Editors: Christina Clamp & Michael A. Peck.

Contributors: Ana Aguirre, Kristen Barker, Charles Chawalko, Christina Clamp, Brian Corbin, April de Simone, Imanol Olaskoaga Fernandez, Caitlin Gianniny, Roger Green, Rebecca Henderson, Jesus Maria Herrasti, John Holdsclaw, Mary Hoyer, Sara Horowitz, Esteben Kelly, Garam Lee, Sang-Youn Lee, Terry Lewis, Martin Lowery, Rebecca Lurie, Julian Manley, Sandra McCardell, Elroy Natuchu, Carmen Huertas Noble, Doug O’Brien, Kevin O’Brien, David O’Connell, Niki Okuk, Michael A. Peck, Kandis Quam, Jason Spicer, Dan Swinney, Oscar Muguerza Telleria, Jose Miguel Martinez Urquijo, Ellen Vera, Ibon Zugasti.

HUMANITY@WORK&LIFE is intended to provide hope and inspiration by serving as a resource for those interested in developing worker cooperatives, as well as an introduction for those interested in virtuous cycle, “Solidarity Dividend” alternatives to shareholder primacy capitalism practices. It is also intended to peer over incoming vision horizons and around strategy corners, “showing, not telling” how Mondragon-inspired virtuous cycles transform “humanity at work” globally and locally.  

The book was conceived in the middle of four lethal virus pandemics simultaneously threatening “humanity@work”: advancing extreme climate precarity, withering economic class inequalities including embedded racism, novel COVID-19 killing millions, and a global assault on democracy. Its twofold mission:  first, to be a resource for those developing hybrid model worker cooperatives and social enterprises as structural and cultural antidotes to a rising, inclusive, and climate-respecting Stakeholders-as-Shareholders global economy; and second, to uplift and amplify critical new voices of those doing the work. The four concurrent global pandemics have shone a harsher light on inequalities in society and offer opportunities to develop hybrid worker ownership models that seed virtuous cycles. 

This book’s core belief is that there is no sustaining worker voice without worker power communicated and demonstrated through solidarity, democracy, equality of opportunity and shared equity and wealth outcomes. Its premise is that an ineluctable foundational policy for a fair and aspirational economy working for all demands inclusive, broadened, and deepened, stakeholder worker ownership undergirded by workplace democracy practices. Like Mondragon, we believe single class equity governance is synonymous with solidarity.  Every equity share guarantees the equal right to vote for change and provides the basis for power-paradigm-changing culture combining stakeholder community and individual civic mutualism, stability, and self-reliance to innovate, defend and facilitate more fulfilled lives and dignified retirements.  

The core academic purpose of HUMANITY@WORK&LIFE is to make the case as to why Mondragon is a dynamic working and evolving model for those who see the need for replicable structural change in our economic institutions and in the proverbial “free market” economy across physical borders and cultural silos. The Mondragon case will be detailed and include both an overview of ecosystem cooperatives and discussion of global diffusion activities that the Mondragon cooperatives embrace locally and globally as well as those from other geographies inspired by close to 70+ years of Mondragon cooperative experiences. The book will include sections that examine how cooperatives inspired by the Mondragon cooperative ecosystem in the Basque region of Spain are emerging in different communities in the USA, Canada, Germany, the Republic of Korea, and the UK.  

The last section of the book is intended to provide grounded inspiration about how to develop worker cooperatives and ecosystems that scale and breathe freely in a world beset by culturally induced pandemics doing their utmost to subvert democracy, freedom, truth, and hope.

Chris and Michael have determined that the Editors’ royalties will go towards aligned social economy mission activists on a one contributor, one vote basis.

CONTENTS

Foreword: Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School, Harvard University

Introduction: Michael Peck & Chris Clamp

Part 1: Reimagining Capitalism

This section sets a theoretical framework for examining the problems of corporate capitalism, and how worker ownership and worker cooperatives address issues of equity and inequality in a free market system.

Chapter 1: Capitalism at the Coalface - Michael Peck

Chapter 2: What’s In A Name? Conceptual Frameworks for A Cooperative World – Jason Spicer, University of Toronto

Chapter 3: Racial Equity Democracy at Work: Envisioning the Racial Equity Collaborative and its Spinoffs in the US Southwest, Black Los Angeles, and Trenton/NJ – Charles Chawalko, Sandra McCardell, Elroy Natuchu, Kandis Quam, April de Simone & Niki Okuk

Part 2: Social Innovation in the Mondragon Cooperatives

This section provides an overview of the Mondragon cooperatives, the development of the networked group and the current involvement in the world.

Chapter 4: Social Innovation in the Mondragon Experience – Christina Clamp, Southern New Hampshire University

Chapter 5: “Own The Metrics” – ESGs & SDGs Meet Their Port Alegre Moment – Ibon Zugasti & Michael A. Peck, 1worker1vote

Chapter 6: Footprints of the Catholic Church’s Social Doctrine in Mondragón’s Experience: Future Projection – Jesus Maria Herrasti, former (and first) Mondragón International President

Chapter 7: Mentoring Best Practices from Spain’s Basque Region: Two Case Examples – Oscar Muguerza Telleria, Gatzenpresa Foundation interview / Jose Miguel Martinez Urquijo, Ahalbidetu

Chapter 8: Mondragón Team Academy and TAZEBAEZ – Ana Aguirre

Chapter 9: The Erreka Coop Reimagined: Industrial Screw Case Study – Imanol Olaskoaga Fernandez, former Division Manager

Part 3: Mondragon’s Global Influence

Chapter 10: Paying It Forward: Moral Populism Advancing America’s “Solidarity Dividend” Culture Purpose-driven Faith in Civic Renewal: Pope Francis, Catholic Social Justice & Mondragon – Brian Corbin (EVP Catholic Charities USA) & Michael Peck

Chapter 11: From Mondragón to Preston: How the Basque experience has influenced the Preston Model – Dr. Julian Manley, Preston Cooperative Development Network

Chapter 12: As German Unions Struggle to Save Jobs, Worker Buyouts Are on the Rise – David O’Connell

Chapter 13: Mondragon’s Influence in Korea – Sang-Youn Lee (Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea) & Garam Lee (Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea)

Part 4: Worker Ownership in America

The focus in this section is telling the stories of efforts around the USA generating new worker cooperative development, influenced by global models for which Mondragon is baseline.

Chapter 14: Mondragon: A Model for a New Paradigm of Development – Dan Swinney, Manufacturing Renaissance (MR)

Chapter 15: Interview with Doug O’Brien, President & CEO, National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA)

Chapter 16: “Co-op Cincy” – living lab prototyping launch center of gravity for the 1worker1vote movement – with Co-op Dayton as an example of nationally recognized spin-off innovators in their own right – Kristen Barker & Ellen Vera, Coop Cincy & 1worker1vote co-founders

Chapter 17: Citizen Share Brooklyn: Addressing Structural Racial and Economic Inequality via Economic Democracy – Roger Green, Executive Director of the Dubois-Bunche Center on Public Policy at Medgar Evers College and founding board member, Citizens Share Brooklyn

Chapter 18: Building Mondragon In Detroit: An Interesting Context for an Interesting Translation – Terry Lewis, LIA Advisors Part 5: Resource Challenges for New Worker Cooperative Development

Chapter 19: Our Humble Harvest: Gathering the Right Lessons from Mondragon to build a North American cooperative ecosystem – Esteban Kelly, Executive Director, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Chapter 20: Labour Unions and Worker Co-Ops: Democratizing The Economy – Mary Hoyer, University of Massachusetts & Rebecca Lurie, CUNY School of Labor & Urban Studies (Sidebar: WORX Printing Cooperative, A Union Worker Co-Op Case Example - Kevin O’Brien, CEO)

Chapter 21: Placing Where We Place Value: Cooperatives, Cultural Norms, and Challenges Co-Ops Face in the United States – Caitlin Gianniny, cofounder of Samira Collective

Chapter 22: Worker-Owned and Unionized Worker-Owned Cooperatives: Two Tools to Address Income Inequality – Carmen Huerta Noble, CUNY Law School Clinic Dean & cofounder, 1worker1vote (Reprint: 22 Clinical L. REV. 325 (2016))

Chapter 23: Financing Worker Cooperatives: Challenges and Opportunities – John Holdsclaw, founding CEO, Rochdale Capital & Executive Vice President, National Cooperative Bank (NCB)

Chapter 24: Reflections: Building the New Mutualism – Sara Horowitz, Author of Mutualism and founder of https://www.build-mutualism.net/, Freelancers Union founder, former board chair, NY Federal Reserve

Conclusions: Transcript of a virtual round table discussion between book contributors, hosted by Dr. Julian Manley of the University of Lancashire/UK, the Preston/UK Cooperative Education Center and the Preston Cooperative Development Network, the latter two inspired by Mondragon. In addition, this section will benefit from the reflections of Dr. Martin Lowery – NRECA EVP Emeritus, former NCB board chair, currently the elected U.S. representative to the board of the International Co-operative Alliance/ICA, chair of the ICA Principles Committee and member of the ICA Membership Committee. Annotated Appendix of Resources for Worker Cooperative & Union Cooperative Development.