Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative ranks among the country’s largest and excellently managed social enterprises. From a pioneer workers cooperative established in 1999 by 60 members who envisioned marginalized, low-income workers enjoying the full benefits of regular employment, Asiapro (together with its affiliates) exponentially grew and became a strong collective force of 65,000 workers. They serve up […]
The Story of Korean Social Economy
Happiness Sharing Mart Co-operative is the first supermarket in Korea to be operated by a workers’ cooperative. This start was initiated by people who were involved in campaigns against the special law regarding the development of Jeju Island and the construction of the Jeju Naval Base in Gangjeong village. They established their Happiness Sharing Co-operative […]
Happiness Sharing Mart Co-operative
Happiness Sharing Mart Co-operative is the first supermarket in Korea to be operated by a workers’ cooperative. Starting with Happiness Sharing Mart, the co-op opened its second store in 2016. They also opened ‘Berry Jeju’, an online and offline shopping mall that sells Jeju specialties and cultural products, ‘Seomchae’, a local food buffet restaurant, and […]
Why a worker cooperative?
Along with a couple of my co-founders of a worker cooperative developing an indoor playground and cafe, I am currently taking a course entitled “Small Business: The Fundamentals” through our local small business development council. As part of the 20-hour course, the instructors go over the types of legal entities an entrepreneur should consider utilizing […]
Out of the Bubble and into the Community
While just up the street, buses labeled “Google” and “Apple” cart employees back and forth from massive campuses, the workers at TechCollective make their way to the first floor of a house surrounded by ornate, old, wooden Victorian houses in the heart of San Francisco. As the Bay Area buzzes with dot-commers fighting to be […]
200 Artists, One Great Idea
In a region known for experience occurring in the cloud, on the net and through a virtual reality, City Art Cooperative in San Francisco, CA focuses on a single physical space and the objects that 200 artists create. Twelve times a year the gallery walls and pedestals, laden with an ever-changing display, transform and the […]
Union of Rose Cultivators Agricultural Sales Cooperatives
Rose and attar of roses are agricultural products that are known and used in each and every part of the world. In addition, attar of roses is one of the most important raw materials that is used in perfume and cosmetics industry. Rose damascane, which is one of the most significant types of rose in […]
Co-operative empowerment in the red light district
1849 – San Francisco heaved with gold-seeking miners and the sailors that had transported them into the Bay from as far away as Australia. The Barbary Coast, the town’s red light district with its pimps, petty thieves and dance halls, drew these travellers in. 1997 – the historic Barbary Coast still plays home to the […]
Providing security through SACCOs in Ethiopia
How does one address the perennial pecuniary insecurity of workers, which often places them at the mercy (and greed) of loan sharks? What options do workers have other than pleading for loans and advances from their employers whenever they are faced with financial problems? What can be done to provide some kind of social protection […]
A flow of member benefits
We sell plumbing gear to plumbers who are mainly our members, each with an equal vote. That’s the succinct description of the Plumber Supplies Co-operative (PSC) given by Tony Rogic, its general manager, sales. And it applied equally well when the co-operative was formed back in 1955. At that time Australian tradespeople faced a post-war […]