Occupy Salem Hosts Workshop on Building the Cooperative Economy

From WickedLocal.com

Occupy Salem Free University will host the forum “Building a Cooperative Economy: From Mondragon to Massachusetts” on Monday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. at 217 Essex St. (The Gathering).  Tony Dunn, a longtime labor activist, who is starting a worker-owned business in Lynn, will talk about his recent trip to Mondragon in Spain. He will be joined by Eric Johnson, an active member of the U.S. Federation of Cooperatives, who works at Red Sun Press, a unionized worker-owned business in Boston.

While unemployment reaches Depression-era levels, the politicians talk about cutting deficits, ignoring the needs of the 99 percent. How do we build a new economy based on the needs of the people? Mondragon is a network of worker-owned co-ops that is Spain’s seventh-largest corporation. The Mondragon cooperatives employ more than 80,000 people and virtually never lay anyone off.