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Also in Italy there is a region where a lot of "companies" are cooperatives, (Emilia-Romagna), I'd say it's one of the wealthiest regions in Italy, I've lived t

Also in Italy there is a region where a lot of "companies" are cooperatives, (Emilia-Romagna), I'd say it's one of the wealthiest regions in Italy, I've lived there and was one of my happiest time in my life. I'd say a restaurant owned by workers can work, but as everything depends who do you work with, more than class, is personalities that make the difference, that's why I don't like these kind of articles, I think they are most useful to push a narrative and please a segment of the people, some "newspapers" would find a restaurant going bankrupt due to being owned by people, some other one would find a restaurant working being owned by people, they're just cases, people are diverse. In the end regardless of what happens to businesses funded by workers or by rich daddyskids we need better wealth redistribution, more taxes and better worker protections

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Switzerland has a retail/grocery chain called co-op, I always wondered if it was an actual coop or not, I’m guessing it is.
- astrange 3y ago
  It's probably a customer co-op. A funny thing about this is that every kind of alternative ownership structure is considered leftist and somehow "publicly owned". But in a customer co-op that doesn't include the workers and in a worker co-op that doesn't include you.
  - orwin 3y ago
    Actually, customer co-op often include the workers, at least in France. They either get the same share as customers once they start working, or they have preferential price to get bigger shares. You can even have co-op without workers (there was one in Stain, northwest of Paris when I lived there) with really good food at really good price, but you had to work there like 4-8 hours a month to be customer.
- vidarh 3y ago
  Many countries have co-op grocery chains or other outcrops of the cooperative movement using that name, but most of them (including in Switzerland) are member (customer) owned rather than worker owned.
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  Sometimes coops are customer-owned which still subjects the workers to wage labor, such as REI. Customer-owned coops are not aligned with the anarchist principles that inspired OP
- dgb23 3y ago
  Both of the largest grocery chains in Switzerland are coops, there is also a prevalent bank and a large agricultural federation and more. But most of these are primarily consumer coops not worker coops.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

Switzerland has a retail/grocery chain called co-op, I always wondered if it was an actual coop or not, I’m guessing it is.

astrange 3y ago
It's probably a customer co-op. A funny thing about this is that every kind of alternative ownership structure is considered leftist and somehow "publicly owned". But in a customer co-op that doesn't include the workers and in a worker co-op that doesn't include you.
- orwin 3y ago
  Actually, customer co-op often include the workers, at least in France. They either get the same share as customers once they start working, or they have preferential price to get bigger shares. You can even have co-op without workers (there was one in Stain, northwest of Paris when I lived there) with really good food at really good price, but you had to work there like 4-8 hours a month to be customer.
vidarh 3y ago
Many countries have co-op grocery chains or other outcrops of the cooperative movement using that name, but most of them (including in Switzerland) are member (customer) owned rather than worker owned.
wahnfrieden 3y ago
Sometimes coops are customer-owned which still subjects the workers to wage labor, such as REI. Customer-owned coops are not aligned with the anarchist principles that inspired OP
dgb23 3y ago
Both of the largest grocery chains in Switzerland are coops, there is also a prevalent bank and a large agricultural federation and more. But most of these are primarily consumer coops not worker coops.