Mondragon

A Deeper Look at the Mondragon Principles 3: The Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital

Worker Co-ops and their Requirements for Capital within Limits

“We do not aspire to economic development as an end, but as a means.”

–Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, spiritual founder of Mondragon read more »

A Deeper Look at the Mondragon Principles 1: Sovereignty of Labor

Overcoming the Rift Between Worker Coops and the Labor Left

The Mondragon principle “Sovereignty of Labor” created departure from the cooperative movement. While the Rochdale Pioneers had good intentions, they abandoned worker cooperation in the 1870’s. The Fabian Socialist moved even further from the ideals of Robert Owen declaring consumerism as the lowest common denominator for human relationships eschewing workers as merely another stakeholder group. Even the French cooperativist Charles Gide turned away from worker associations. read more »

A Deeper Look at the Mondragon Principles 2: Participatory Management

Needed: Self-Management and Workplace Democracy

The next principle from Mondragon is that of Participatory Management. This seems like a no-brainer for worker co-operatives. What is the point of going through all the work of setting up a worker co-op if the workers don’t actually have a say in how the place is run? They would be better off in a unionized Employee Stock Ownership Program. read more »

What’s Next for the World’s Largest Federation of Worker-Owned Co-Ops? A conversation with Mondragon President Josu Ugarte

Mondragon Corporation, a federation of 103 worker-owned cooperatives based in the Basque Country, aims to be globally competitive while empowering local workers and addressing income inequality.

In early May, President Barack Obama visited Nike’s headquarters in Oregon to gather support for the T read more »

The Impact of Mondragon in the US

Solidarity Economy on the move

"I don't think we get the socialism by multiplying cooperatives - like mushrooms after the rain. I think cooperatives are just one tactic, one weapon among many in our arsenal."
Davidson speaks about the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC),

Speech hold the 5th November 2011 at the International Conference: «Den Betrieb übernehmen. Einstieg in Transformation?» / «Occupy, Resist, Produce». Worker Cooperatives – Potential for Transformation?
Panel: Solidarity Economy on the move read more »

Mondragon revisited

It is impossible not to be impressed by the resilience that has enabled this great complex of worker-owned cooperatives to take their share of economic hits and emerge largely unscathed.

In the face of the global financial crisis that has Spain’s unemployment level standing currently at some 22 per cent, the Mondragón co-operatives offer an astonishingly successful alternative to the way we organise business and economies.

Revisiting recently for the fifth time, since the early nineteen-eighties, the great complex of worker-owned manufacturing, retail, agricultural, civil engineering and service cooperatives centred on Mondragón in the Basque region of Spain, it was impossible not to be impressed by the resilience that has enabled them to take their share of economic hits and emerge largely unscathed. read more »

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