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State of the Bay

Co-operatives: Workers in Progress

The U.N. has dubbed 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives. In the U.S., there are roughly 30,000 co-ops comprising nearly 900,000 members. Of these co-ops, somewhere between 300 and 400 are worker co-operatives—where workers own their jobs and the business, and have the power to make decisions about where, how, and with whom to do business.

Today’s worker co-op is arguably not just your hippie grocery store.

In the Bay Area, Rainbow Grocery, Design Action Collective, Bio-Fuel Oasis, Maybeck High School, WAGES, Mandela Foods, Arizmendi Bakery,  and Lusty Lady  represent some of the new and not-so-new business models that value sustainable growth, social justice, community benefit—and profit.

What kinds of effects are cooperatives having regionally, nationally, and worldwide? Has the politicization of younger generations heralded the new wave of co-ops?  And why is the U.N. calling 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives?

Discussing this and more in the studio with host Lauren Meltzer are: