cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32739843

About Co-ops

"By democratizing workplaces, worker co-ops can give shape to a real, daily democracy on a society-wide basis." - Richard Wolff

We believe cooperatives (and specifically worker co-ops) are a critical component to realizing a more sustainable, equitable, and democratic future. Read more to learn why.

What is a cooperative?

A co-op is a business that is owned and self-managed by its members with the principle of “one person, one vote.” There is no boss, CEO, or Board of Directors who can make decisions by themselves and for their own personal benefit. Co-ops are people-centered, and are driven to create sustainable enterprises and long-term stability for all involved in them.

The values that form the base of any cooperative are self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. The management structures and day-to-day operations are designed according to the needs and desires of the co-op members and can vary greatly.

There are many types of cooperatives:

1. Worker Co-op: A business that is owned and controlled by the workers, who together decide the business operations, strategic directions, profit distributions, etc. -- Examples: Equal Exchange, Cooperative Home Care Associates
2. Consumer Co-op: Owned by members who direct the co-op to purchase the goods or services they need, ensuring better availability, and more. This model is often seen in groceries, electrical distribution, childcare, banking, and housing. -- Examples: UW Credit Union, REI
3. Producer Co-op: Producers of a product band together to have a greater market share. Members are usually businesses themselves, not individuals, and such co-ops are often seen in agriculture. -- Examples: Dairy Farmers of America, Ocean Spray
4. Purchasing Co-op: Purchasers of a product band together to improve their purchasing power. Members are usually businesses themselves, not individuals. -- Examples: ACE Hardware, Independent Pharmacy Cooperative
5. Multi-Stakeholder Co-op: Owned and controlled by a mix of members and workers. -- Examples: Weaver Street Market, Boisaco Inc.

Cooperatives are not a new idea. Today, the International Cooperative Association’s research shows that “at least 12% of humanity is a cooperator of any of the 3 million cooperatives on earth.”^[[1] https://www.democracyatwork.info/about_co_ops]

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/33765226

I am so tired of worrying about work. I'm talented in my field (cybersecurity), I've come up with some pretty amazing solutions, I've maintained excellent working relationships with people that matter. I did all the things you're supposed to. I went to graduate school, got a degree that directly relates to my work, even went the extra mile and got an extended degree with a focus in law and digital forensics. That added almost a solid year to my five years in grad school. I gave up nights, weekends, family gatherings, time with my then infant sons. I busted my ass and made the most of it. I've hunted down good jobs, worked my ass off, given my all on so many occasions. First time I got stung was in the middle of a huge all-weekend technology migration that I organized for over 100 people, my then boss told me that the company who had promised to hire me off of my contract had decided not to. I broke my back turning that whole effort in and he sat there on a sunday night in a conference room now that it was mostly over and said "sorry dude". Fuck you Phil.

Back to the streets, I worked my contacts and got myself a really good spot at a giant bank. Was going to be the big step in my career. I worked my ass off in there, fought off people who wanted to take my work away, tell me that they could all do it better. Got myself worked into a leadership position and then the rug came out. The boss who brought me over because he saw that I could make shit happen picked a fight with his boss (long time coming) and got fired. I don't blame him, his boss was a massive piece of shit, cheating on his dying-of-cancer wife. However that meant I got a new boss who was a fucking piece of ginger shit with some serious small dick energy. Most insecure asshole I'd ever met. I had to leave because I just could not get along with this cunt, so I found myself something not as good, but paid better. The ginger cunt went on to the c-suite and claimed my work as his own, even gave himself an award (literally) and bragged about it on LinkedIn.

New job is kinda crap, but it pays well enough. New boss is crazy, but thankfully quits. Next boss is a coworker, I was not told that he took the spot until long after it happened. He gave me a shit rating because ???, no bonus, no raise, fuck you scummy Russian asshole. He also quits (good fucking riddance) and for a moment, I have a boss who actually gives a shit about me. Dave was a good guy. I left the company because I wasn't going anywhere, six years in the same seat doing the same shit every day, enough is enough.

Next job is supposed to be the hotness. I am stupid and have no idea that private equity is horrible, but I believe the hype that they're going to take the new company public and we're all gonna hit it. I bust ass, hire people left and right, bring in people I've worked with for years, talented people who are loyal and good. Boss is a fucking rockstar and I'm awed with how smart he is. For the first time, I felt like the dumb kid in class, and it was a good thing as I needed a reality check. Learned a lot, grew a lot and uh-oh, boss is now sick. He disappears and new boss steps in. Same as always, new boss is a piece of shit (do we really have this many assholes in the world?!). Makes unreasonable demands, lies, makes promises he never keeps and then the worst. He fires me, almost all of my team and some other people just so it doesn't look like he ONLY fired brown people. That shit hurt.

I bounce back, find a new job in somewhat reasonable time, I had some severance so I never really had to go without a paycheck. It was close, but I got the next thing lined up and ready. Next thing is great. Guys who hire me are older, mature, calm, patient. They want to do things right. We start building the team from nothing. I'm hiring like mad, same as before, I bring in my trusted people because they're loyal and they bust their asses when needed. All of a sudden (take a fucking guess) old boss is replaced by new boss. Things are fine for a while, I figure maybe it will be ok after all. Nope, new company is now sold to bigger company and I'm fucking out again "this is financial, nothing to do with you". Means very little when you're ass out in a fucking dogshit economy.

So here I am, got a few weeks before short severance runs out. The only prospect I had going just said no. I have one more interview at the end of the month right before I'm out of severance. No other prospects, all of my contacts are coming up empty handed. I spend about four hours a day applying, networking, cold-calling new people, hitting any recruiter with a pulse, anything to find the next thing.

I'm so fucking sick of this. At one point, I thought I could crack the c-suite. Now I'm so goddamn beat up, I'd be happy if I didn't have to go looking for work every other year. I have no hope of ever getting to the top, I now realize that such jobs are only for those with rich parents, connections or the odd longshot by the underdog (though they will get fired soon enough). Rich people only want other rich people sitting next to them. I grew up ass-poor, and any connections I have are only from working, no daddy, no rich uncle or any of that. I don't need a fucking 2nd home, I don't need a goddamn Porsche. I buy my cars used and I fix my own home. I'm not wasting my money on expensive clothes, bullshit electronics or any of that. I'm not looking for the pot of gold, I just want some stability and predictability, MAYBE the chance of retiring before 75.

I'm tired y'all, I just am.

It may have been the case before that people thought hard work brought a better life, but now things have changed

Professor Bobby Duffy worked on the study, and said that millennials have 'become much more sceptical about prioritising work as they’ve made their way through their career'.

cansaço, autoexposição e o novo perpétuo são os atuais paradigmas de dominação. As saídas: a “república dos vivos”, a partir da imaginação, tempo livre e laços coletivos

This is a whole new level of subservience.

In a world of truly transformative AI, automating 10 or 20 or perhaps even 100 percent of human labor, work requirements go from cruel to some combination of cruel, bizarre, and silly. They’d be like if Congress were, today, to pass a dedicated law setting labor standards for horse-and-buggy drivers. Imagine telling folks in a world of transformative AI “you have to work to get food stamps.” Work? What work? Unemployment is 30 percent and rising, what are you even talking about?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/38551804

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino had said earlier Thursday that the strike was illegal and included some 5,000 workers.

“Unfortunately, following the unjustified abandonment of work at our plantations and operations centers since April 28 and continuing today, (the company) has proceeded with the termination of all of our daily workers,” the company said in a statement. It said the company had suffered losses of at least $75 million.

Protests marches and occasional roadblocks have stretched from one end of the country to the other as teachers, construction workers and other unions expressed their rejection to changes the government said were necessary to keep the social security system solvent.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64705366

Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe after its parliament adopted a law raising it to 70 by 2040.

The retirement age at 70 will apply to all people born after 31 December 1970.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/30901392

A Chinese factory employee set fire to a textile plant in China’s southwestern Sichuan province in his frustration over unpaid wages of just 800 yuan (or US$111), according to videos posted on social media and eyewitness accounts shared with Radio Free Asia.

“The winds of change were never warm.”

This is the story behind the story—the Cold War’s beginning told without the sugarcoating. From Stalin’s stolen chair to Truman’s frozen silence, this isn’t your textbook history. It’s a poetic, brutal unpacking of American myth and manufactured consent.

This version is free, because truth should be.

Ko-Fi link:

Direct download:

Subject index: Cold War, History, Free Download, Truman, Stalin, Political Writing, Educational, E-book, Nonfiction, PDF, Antiwar, Geopolitics, US History, Soviet Union, Storytelling, Poetic Nonfiction

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/63008977

So as we can see in this video of the alleged assault Ibrahim was convicted of on harvard campus there are at least several other people filming with their phones from different angles however this is the only video I can find online. And its just a consolidation of 2 videos. But it doesn't show the beginning of the incident and the view of Bharmal “assaulting” the israeli student is ultimately non existent.

The reality is it seems clear that the narrative is being manipulated by hasbara tactics. If there are so many cameras filming this altercation and theyvwere obviously filming before the beginning of the video that was released then where are they and why have they not been shown. Considering the fascist trump regime is using this as pretext to strip Harvard of funding(which they likely don’t need considering their super high tuition rates) but this is scary, dangerous and unprecedented.

What are everyone else’s thoughts and does anyone know if the other videos have been released anywhere and where to find them if so? I dont mean to sound like there is a conspiracy to obfuscate the facts and smear a Palestinian rights advocate but woth the behavior of the israeli lobby, their owned representatives in our government, and all the media outlets subservient to the Zionist regime i don’t believe it is a far fetched idea to put down.

Declaration of Educational Warfare — A Manifesto from the Classroom Frontlines

This is not a reform. This is a rebellion.

I wrote this as a public declaration—because the education system is not broken.

It was built this way.

What we call “school” is often just a pipeline: from trauma, to obedience, to silence. This isn’t about fixing it. This is about burning it down and building something that actually nurtures minds.

Declaration of Educational Warfare

~Subject index: education reform, political indoctrination, propaganda in schools, American history, truth in education, anti-authoritarian, critical thinking, curriculum manipulation, modern revolution, cultural warfare, media literacy, civic responsibility, youth empowerment, educational resistance, information control, censorship in education, radical pedagogy~

I work full time at a grocery store. I show up, do what’s asked of me, make sure the product is good quality, treat customers with respect, and work decently hard for at least 75% of the time.

I’m not lazy. I get my work done. But I’m not emotionally invested, and I have no desire to go above and beyond for a job that sees me as replaceable. I was offered a promotion recently, but the raise was only $1 more an hour. I turned it down because:

1. That raise is laughable for the extra responsibility they wanted to dump on me.
2. I know myself, I simply don’t care enough to manage or lead other people.

I don’t care about delegating to part-timers. I don’t care about store numbers. I don’t care what my coworkers are doing. If someone takes an extra-long break? Don’t care. If they call out and I’m left alone? Don’t care.

And I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but even if someone half-asses something and it ends up making more work for me, it still doesn’t bother me. The way I see it, I’m here for 8 hours either way. I’ll go at my own pace, do what I can, and if something doesn’t get finished, that’s not my problem.

I’m also tired of how you walk into a job and everyone’s got pet peeves or weird OCDs about how things have to be done and these aren’t even managers or leads. Just regular workers like me acting like they’re running the place. Meanwhile, I don’t have an issue with anyone or anything. I’m not trying to police people.

I’ll also never understand why people get so mad over what someone else chooses to do with their life. It’s like they’re offended that someone dared to prioritize themselves. Who cares? A coworker recently got all worked up because someone requested a Saturday off and wasn’t there to help us when it was really busy, so we were short-handed. And I’m sitting there thinking, “Good for her! Why don’t you request a Saturday off too and enjoy your life like she is?”

In my mind whether we are fully staffed or understaffed I'm paid the same. I'm not going faster or slower. Is that so wrong?

Don’t get me wrong I totally understand if you’re someone trying to move up in the company. You’ve got to play the game, kiss a little ass, stay extra sharp. I get that. But the people I see getting the most emotionally invested aren’t even trying to move up.

This job gives us money so we can survive (barely, for some). But that doesn’t mean this job is our life. Why is that such a hard concept for people to grasp?

I’m here to make money so I can fund what I actually want to do with my life. Like my passion, my career, the thing that actually gives me purpose. So all this petty shit most of these people removed about? At the end of the day, it truly isn’t that big of a deal.

I know I’m ironically complaining here and being just like them but this has just been on my mind. People stress themselves out over jobs and the people they work with way too much. Especially considering how little the job (or those people) care about you back.

For me, it’s about choosing peace over pointless stress. And this isn’t me saying you should slack off or be a shitty worker...but for God’s sake, have some dignity and don’t let these people (management OR co workers) make you feel bad for having it.

Anyone else relate? Or maybe feel the need to vent.

Edit: Also wanted to add, TAKE YOUR BREAKS.

This is a wide spread phenomenon on the platform. Sometimes its just a few comments or even dozens of comments in response to an original comment on a post being grouped together in another button saying (x number of replies) but when you open those replies its either nothing, or significantly less replies than the prompt described. Its mostly all on posts that are political in nature relating to the current fascist takeover in the USA, Luigi Magnione, amazon union busting, anti laborer’s rights legislation, loosening of child labor laws and other topics related to the wider topics regarding disappearing human rights under emboldening fascist authoritarianism. many of us have seen the news articles that mention allegations of reddit censoring comments and giving people violations for liking certain content but nothing is being said about the actual extent of this censorship. But when you can see hundreds of comments being deleted from a post such as this one here, it doesn't bode well for the future

Along with everything Khalil said we also need to remember (or for thise who dont know already, learn)that the attacks against Palestinian rights advocates that aim to paint the support of resistance organizations as the support of violent terrorists are rooted in ignorance and falsehoods. As international law dictates; resistance to colonial occupation is an inherent right to indigenous populations including armed struggle

The reality is there was no such thing as islamic extremist “terrorism” before middle eastern resistance groups started intertwining marxist ideas to their resistance movements sometime in the 1960’s long after the creation of IsNOTrael as a nation stare.

This nation state was founded upon terrorism funded by a family of central bankers who have for the last century very cleverly used PR agencies and campaigns to cleanse the blood from their hands and paint anyone who dares criticize them as “antisemites”

Theodore Herzel, one of if not the most prominent founders of the zionist state of IsNOTrael went to the patriarch of this family and asked for a loan of 15 million(2.4 billion in today’s money) and they refused because why would they pay for this land when they could leverage their wealth and use the british empire(which they already owned or at the very least had under their thumb, to steal the land from the ottomans for their cause) It was sometime after this proposition by herzel, 1922 to be specific, at the end of the first world war when British prime minister Balfour signed the balfour agreement which verbally y the UK’s intent to creating a home-state for zionists and subsequently gifting this land to this family that for all Intents and purposes was more powerful than the British empire itself, that the British empire took control of Palestine renaming it “British mandate Palestine” for the time being.

This event triggered a ceaseless barrage of Zionist terrorism by 4 main paramilitary groups. The Irgun, Hagannah, Palmach and Lehi(or stern gang) were responsible for dozens if not a hundred or more violent attacks, riots, race mobs, assassinations and heists. Killing somewhere between 5000/8000 Palestinian christians, jews, muslims/arabs, even American and British citizens as well as British infantry. Before the British empire relinquished control of the annexed territory in 1948 giving full control of the land to these violent racist extremists.

Now they made a show and publicly denounced these paramilitary groups as terrorists while also welcoming them with open arms into the newly formed IDF, IAF and Mossad. Many of the high ranking members within their ranks today had family members who were directly involved with these groups such as Bibi Netanyahu himself.

So remember the next time a zionist looks down at you from their high horse and calls you a terrorist sympathizer that not only is the term “terrorist” an ignorant epithet used to minimize the efforts of freedom fighters and empower the oppressors but that before zionist terrorism there was no such thing as middle eastern radical islamic terrorism. There are several well written historically accurate pieces written examining this fact.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19389366

Fuck this village

Seriously. Talk about truth in advertising.