Platform coop 2019 close
Read Ursala K. LeGuin, Day before the revolution, and the book that it’s a prequal to.
Antitrust has become a deeply neoliberal field. In the name of promoting cooperation, anti-trust laws have allowed
At the same time, it has been used against the activity of individuals and small businesses working together, including
Need to return to the anti-monopoly that gained traction in end of
Sherman Act: to break up union of capital, and raise up union of farmers and of labor
It wasn’t to replace one Rockefeller with six, was to decentralize markets
Didn’t even like one another, farmers and urban workers, necessarily, but they worked together.
And they were very conscious in the Populist movement of cooperation as the
Interesting features of anti-trust as a result of this. It was clear that the framers viewed cooperatives of workers and farmers
In spite of that ambitious progressive anti-monopoly sentiment
it was used for the exact opposite
First big wave of mergers happened despite it
Used to bust railroad workers in 1890s strike
Cooperators forced the rules to change
Congress repudiated these executive actions and judicial perversions
Capper-Volstead act, 1922, most consequentially, all
in recent years, these two strands have been separated and haven’t talked to each other
But firm governance and market governance have started to be connected again
Including in Sanders’ plan, putting limits on monopolies and promoting democratization of firms.
Small players need to be able to build up their power for a fair economy
using collective power, they were able to establish sweeping frameworks.
Need to recapture some of that radicalism in this moment where concern about reality is becoming
Very real threat that anti-trust used against [exploited]
Nathan and i think Capper-Volstead can be a great model to build on.
In the sector of the economy [it affected], wildly successful in number of
Sunkist, Blue Diamond, Ocean Spray – all cooperative brands.
McDonald’s franchisee being crushed by parent company.
Some of the weakness in our unions, and cooperatives, is restrictions on use of collective power. [esp. in labor law]
Cooperatives have been given
We need to do the same thing for finance. farm credit + REA + credit union + ESOP
solved cooperative finance in specific ways
take those lessons learned in building these cooperative finance sectors, and generalize to all kinds of collective power, esp. that grants capitalization of undercapitalized people. “Could be a form of reparations.”
Put
Always surprised at who is interested, among investors and policy makers.
Ordinary people
Meetup founded by a member and ally of this community. What if we could transform this company into owned by [the people who use it]. Need a way to “exit to community”.
Technocrats alone won’t solve this problem, we need a mass movement.
We need to rise up and tell lawmakers that antitrust is
Richard Hofstadter, need antitrust prosecutions paired with antitrust movement.
“Cooperative Enterprise as an Antimonopoly Strategy”
Nathan Schneider @ntnsndr Sandeep Vaheesan @sandeepvaheesan
Estefan:
How many have heard of CICOPA? https://www.cicopa.coop/
CICOPA is a sector organisation of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) since 1947 and has two regional organisations: CECOP-CICOPA Europe and CICOPA Americas.
Join Economic participation, pay some sort of dues. Be involved in governance, even if that’s just paying attention.
If there’s a way to create tech platform where people can share resources
Felix Weth: collaborate to build a platform big enough and strong enough
Jim Whitescarver: PRoblems aren’t technical or social, always had technology and a will. THey are financial. We know that. We can’t get out of the subjugation of the powerful by our action alone. Joseph Stamp, former president of Bank of England. Bankers own the earth. We need to use our own money.
Emma - challenge to this group, no words longer than three.
Power, pride, ownership, control.
Second, lets invite some investors.
Matt Cropp: No retirement on a dead planet: take your retirement out of stocks and put it in. Selk is trying.
Opera used to be fun, and we can still make it fun. Stole the lyrics from phrase “Uber-worked and under paid”. Marie Clair
[Mike is the guy jumping in quitely to fix tech as needed]