Economic Democracy

Employee-Ownership Mirage: Private Equity’s Latest PR Strategy

December 20, 2025 Nikishka Iyengar, On Labor. Educate! Economic Democracy, Employee Ownership, Private Equity, Worker Ownership

For an industry that employs roughly 12 million people in the United States, or about 8% of the labor force, the fundamentals of how private equity operates remain notoriously opaque. The big headlines about deals gone wrong — Toys “R” Us collapsing after a leveraged buyout, private equity firms buying up housing stock, Deadspin abruptly shuttering — capture the fallout but often miss the bigger picture of private equity’s cumulative impact on workers and the broader economy. In her new book Bad Company, Megan Greenwell details how these cases are not outliers but rather emblematic of a model that consistently prioritizes financial extraction over worker wellbeing, operational stability, or long-term value.

How Finance Wrecked Democracy

August 18, 2025 Raul Madden, Counterpunch. Strategize! Big Finance, Capitalism, Democracy, Economic Democracy

Michael A. McCarthy’s The Master’s Tools is about the power that finance exerts over people. He inquires into the problem and how it could realistically be solved: Why has finance capitalism left people worse off and further wrecked democracy along the way? Why does the financial sector increasingly determine our lives and politics… ? [H]ow might an alternative to investment for profit leave people better off, reinvigorate the demos, and rebuild democracy? (xii) When I started reading the book I thought maybe McCarthy’s response to these questions could be better reviewed by someone whose work is directly related to them. Still it seemed like an excellent resource for someone who is seeking to learn about the subject. It soon became apparent that the point of his book — ‘democratizing finance’ (9) — calls for responses from outsiders to the author’s field.

Whole Process People’s Democracy: The Path Forward

May 14, 2025 Hanna Eid, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Bolivia, China, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Indigenous Rights, Socialism

China’s political form is called ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.' Chinese scholar Zhang Weiwei calls the Chinese political content ‘whole-process people’s democracy’. He distinguishes this model from the formulaic, procedure-obsessed, and anti-democratic model of the North American Republic and European social democracies. What separates the Chinese model from the political model of the central capitalist formations are a number of variables: firstly, mass participation from top to bottom is a key feature of Chinese socialism. Secondly, the subordination of the capitalist class to the party-state and thus the imperatives of the masses defines China’s ability to develop a socialist market economy.

Twenty Years Of Building An Economic Alternative To Capitalism In The US

June 3, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Capitalism, Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, New Economy

The US Federation of Worker Cooperatives recently turned twenty years old. Clearing the FOG speaks with Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, a professor and author of "Collective Courage: A History of African-American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice," and a charter member of the USFWC, about the work to create a national cooperative organization and the rise of the cooperative economy in the United States. She spoke about the role that cooperatives have played in advancing social and economic justice, the benefits of cooperatives not only to the individual but also more broadly to their communities, and the history of cooperatives that preceded the rise of capitalism and also how cooperative economies offer a better alternative to capitalism.

From ‘An Economy Of Hope’ To The US Federation Of Worker Cooperatives

May 31, 2024 Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Organize! Capitalism, Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, Worker Rights and Jobs

The first Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy was attended by 96 people mostly worker co-op owners and members of support organizations from Ohio to Maine, New Orleans to Washington, DC, and in between. We had agreed we would have been happy if only 20 people showed up, so having almost 100 people at our first conference was quite an achievement! We also felt strongly that any democratic workplace (such as 100% worker owned ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Companies) and democratically run nonprofits) was welcome.

The US Worker Cooperative Movement Turns 20

May 25, 2024 Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, History, Labor Movement, Worker Rights and Jobs

These are examples of worker co-ops in the United States in the late 20th century. While doing great work, and with a wealth of cooperative experience between them, before 2000 these somewhat isolated islands of democratic work and community care stood alone on the U.S. economic landscape, operating separately, and independent of each other. Maybe they didn’t even know that each other existed, or what they were doing to solve similar problems – especially those on opposite coasts. And most people in the U.S. knew little to nothing about worker co-ops. Regional worker co-op conferences started to help bring co-ops like these together, not just locally but regionally - with the goal to form a national network.

Liberation Economist Part One

May 10, 2024 Matt Noyes, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Strategize! Brazil, Economic Democracy, Liberation, Solidarity Economy

By applying theoretical principles of network analysis to economics, I was able to formulate a strategy of collaborative solidarity networks as a means of economic liberation. This work had a very controversial scientific dimension and I wanted to give it a consistent formulation. So, in the late 1990s, I developed software to demonstrate the possibility of making consistent projections by modeling economic flows. That is, at the outset the goal was to create a simulation of economic feedback flows, on a scientific basis, in order to test the validity of the approach. The first program – RedeSol (Rede Solidária) – was published in 1999, and was available to download on a software repository in Brazil.

Solidarity Economy And The Economics Of Abundance

December 28, 2023 Institute for New Economic Thinking, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, Local Economy, Solidarity Economy

How do we transform societal structures and pave the way to economic democracy? Professor Jessica Gordon-Nembhard explores the potential of cooperatives and solidarity economics as pathways towards economic democracy and justice. Drawing on historical examples from the civil rights movement and the Knights of Labor in the 1880s, Gordon-Nembhard demonstrates how cooperative economics can counteract the exploitation inherent in capitalist systems. She underlines the importance of communal ownership and shared decision-making as mechanisms for wealth redistribution, arguing that such models can liberate communities from economic exploitation.

Economics For Emancipation: Tame, Smash, Escape

July 27, 2023 Geo Collective, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Organize! Capitalism, Economic Democracy, New Economy, Solidarity Economy

I'm currently the education programs and research manager at the Center for Economic Democracy and we're a movement support organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. Our work focuses mostly on capacity building in the movement, with the goal of democratizing economic power. In terms of what we actually do, what that looks like is organizing and building local coalitions, experimenting and trying to create new models of economic democracy, and also connecting trends locally with national partners to strengthen the broader Solidarity Economy movement. And ultimately, what we're doing at CED is trying to build new collective governance and ownership infrastructure to really shift power to frontline residents, both locally, but also creating models that potentially could be used elsewhere, or scaled in different ways.

Organizers Of Bronx Wide Plan Are Building A Movement Behind It

April 9, 2023 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. Create! Community organizing, Economic Democracy, New York City (NYC), The Bronx

The Bronx, New York City - Even if all goes well, backers of the Bronx Wide Plan may not get everything they want all at once. But starting next year, budget bills at all levels of government will start citing the community-developed plan. Over the next few years, local banks will start funding some of the plan’s sundry proposals or initiatives, demonstrating their compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. Philanthropic foundations of all sizes will begin making grants and other investments directly in alignment with the plan, and they won’t be shy about seeking credit for doing so. After three years of canvassing, workshopping, community listening and feedback sessions, the Bronx Wide Plan’s Leadership Team gathered a few hundred members in the South Bronx on April 5 to launch a public campaign in support of the plan, which is nearing its final form.

As We Confront The Climate Crisis, Is Bigger And Faster Always Better?

January 7, 2023 Charlie Wood, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! climate crisis, Corporatism, Economic Democracy, Renewable Energy

“Scale” has become something of a buzz word in climate movement circles. When we see something inspiring, we often ask: “How do we quickly replicate this everywhere, so we are acting in a way that feels commensurate with the scale and urgency of the climate crisis?” As a climate organizer, I’ve often noticed myself seesawing between smaller spaces where I can build deeper relationships and work at a more global scale. The latter forces my mind and body to overstep its limits to do things that feel more commensurate with the all-pervasive nature of the climate crisis. But is the conflation of “scale” with “bigger” and “faster” undermining our efforts to usher in the deep and transformative change required to confront a challenge as complex as climate change?

Growing Worker Co-ops In Vermont

November 23, 2022 The ESOP Podcast, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, Vermont

Bret Keisling is joined by worker-owners Alex Fischer and Andrew Stachiw who discuss USFWC's (US Federation of Worker Cooperatives) efforts to network and grow worker co-ops in Vermont to further societal goals including economic, racial, and social justice, and working in business as anti-capitalists. Alex and Andrew share their individual and combined passions for democratized workplaces and their beliefs that changing the very structures of jobs, equity and community will transcend society. Each guest also shares their EO A-ha Moment. Further show notes, and all of our past episodes, are available on our website.

The Case For Democratic Worker Control

November 22, 2022 Alec Stubbs, Consortium News. Create! Capitalism, Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, Worker Rights and Jobs

First it was the “Great Resignation.” Then it was “nobody wants to work anymore.” Now it’s “quiet quitting.” Yet it seems like no one wants to talk about what I see as the root cause of America’s economic malaise – work under contemporary capitalism is fundamentally flawed. As a political philosopher studying the effects of contemporary capitalism on the future of work, I believe that the inability to dictate and meaningfully control one’s own working life is the problem. Democratizing work is the solution. What can be said about the malaise surrounding work under capitalism today? There are at least four major problems: First, work can be alienating.

Catalyzing Worker Co-ops And The Solidarity Economy

October 1, 2022 The Co-op Factory, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, New Economy, Worker Rights and Jobs

So, some quick things, and I'm going to go through some examples actually for everything on this list. Co-op workplaces: you can soft launch a co-op workplace as a pop up business while building community support. So you don't have to actually get a building together, you know, there are ways to do it. So you don't need to be renting a big expensive building downtown in the beginning. And many co-ops also use crowdfunding or even grants to get off the ground. And there's different kinds of funding available, so you can kind of think about, what your business model looks like and and how you might approach bringing in outside funds, if that's the route that you want to or need to take. And I should say, as you can see, pretty much most people under 40 at this point are going to need a level of financial help, and that's that's okay. That's just kind of part of where the economy is for our generation.

The Future We Need: Economic Democracy

March 27, 2022 Erica Smiley And Sarita Gupta, Inequality.org. Create! Democracy, Economic Democracy, Finance and the Economy, New Economy

As economists and policymakers are seeking to explain the “Great Resignation” sweeping the labor market, the traditional wage and hour issues became less important to employees than in the recent past, according to a recent report. A big takeaway from the data is that organizing people as workers is not enough. Economic democracy in the twenty-first century cannot be achieved solely within a framework focused exclusively on worksites. Rather we must explore a more expansive definition of collective bargaining that adapts to the context of global capitalism and all its features, including addressing the material and cultural needs of the modern worker—who, shockingly, does not solely identify as a worker, but sees themselves as having a diverse array of identities.

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