[p2p-research] cooperative developments

[Michel Bauwens]

Dear Alan,

I noted with interest your contributions in the O-M list,

please be aware we would be very interested in sharing some of your insights
about the cooperative movement in the p2p blog,

Michel

Village Person <cooperativecommonwealth at gmail.com> Oct 06 03:23AM -0700 ^

Kevin, thanks. Got some extra ideas swimming around in my head since
Mondragon appears to be a bit more liberal than I thought about generating
letters of intent.

Regards
Alan Avans

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 12:12 AM, Kevin Carson <

Village Person <cooperativecommonwealth at gmail.com> Oct 06 03:33AM -0700 ^

Patrick, based on historical experiences, one of which I will recount, you
are right. Chris Cook (http://www.opencapital.net) has been promoting an
enterprise model that quite bends in the direction you're pointing.

19th century Utah was industrialized using an approach to finance that
mirrors your assumption. The Brigham City Manufacturing and Mercantile
Association was a highly collaborative organization, but not being a
cooperative entity per se it financed itself through the sell of shares to
the general public in Utah. Its dividends were paid in the form of the
scrip of Brigham City's 'storehouse treasury' which was redeemable for
merchandise that the mercantile sold.

Regards
Alan


Village Person <cooperativecommonwealth at gmail.com> Oct 06 03:46AM -0700 ^

There's almost always a big discussion on social credit oriented lists that
touch upon the utility of such 'half measures' as are being critiqued here.
I'm persuaded that political power follows economic power, and I would point
to Emilia-Romagna as a golden case study to make my point about how working
people acquire may acquire actual political power by working out their
social and economic agenda primarily within the marketplace and secondarily
in government office and in the conduct of political campaigns. Political
ships of state are turned by whoever has a hold of that economic rudder.

Both Mondragon and Emilia-Romagna are now situated to the point where they
could implement measures that go beyond the present paradigm of scarsity.

It's ok to have theories of abundance, even completely true theories of
abundance, but without a more generally distributed ownership of property
and the political power it creates the theories will be at least
half-utopian.

Regards
Alan

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 5:38 AM, Paul D. Fernhout <

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