Half Past Capitalism

Mansib Rahman, CEO of Montreal-based food delivery and logistics startup Radish.coop, joins Dru to discuss cooperative governance, member allegiances, equity and IPOs in cooperatives, and how we can transform the food system.

Union organizer and activist Aminah Sheikh (@simplyaminah) join Dru Oja Jay to discuss the elements of organizing a workplace, the transformative process that results, and how that could open onto international solidarity and an anti-capitalist imagination.Sheikh currently works as an organizer with PSAC, and is Vice President of the Canadian Freelancers Union.Follow HPC

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There's a lot to learn from Sweden's Meidner Plan, which would have phased in worker ownership over 30 years. As a followup to our episode with Joe Guinan, Dru Oja Jay spoke to Shannon Ikebe about some of the new archival materials about the Meidner plan, and insights it contains for current efforts to plan beyond capitalism.

Read Shannon's dissertation on Sweden's wage earner funds here: https://escholarship.org/content/qt4sk7w0r0/qt4sk7w0r0.pdf

Yuill Herbert, a co-founder and long-time worker member at Sustainability Solutions Group, joins us to talk about life in an expanding co-op, and the 100-acre land trust he also helped start.

Sustainability Solutions Group: https://www.ssg.coop/

Esteban Kelly, Executive Director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, joins Dru Oja Jay to discuss the state of the worker cooperative movement, the ecological approach to organizing, the evolution of equity discourse and its neglected revolutionary origins, and more.

The Meidner Plan was a transformative plan proposed by Swedish trade unions in the mid-1970s to gradually transfer ownership of mid-sized and large businesses to their workers, and subsequently to workers at large.

Dru Jay is joined by Joe Guinan, the President at The Democracy Collaborative and co-author of The Case for Community Wealth Building and of People Get Ready! Preparing for a Corbyn Government.

They discuss some of the historical context and some of the plans shortcomings.

For more about the Meidner plan, read articles in The Peoples Policy Project, Jacobin, and The Socialist Register.

-- Recorded July 2023 --

Find out more about the Solidarity Economy Incubator for Zero Emissions (SEIZE) at solidarityeconomy.ca

Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House, the Cush Vlog, and Hell on Earth joins Dru Jay to discuss the tyranny of the self, fear of death and horizons of post-capitalism.

Moving a city, moving an economy w/ Cheyenna Weber

A bit over a decade ago, it was just a handful of people speaking the phrase "solidarity economy" in New York City in an intentional way. Today, the concept has gained considerable traction, but obstacles loom as successes accumulate.

Cheyenna Layne Weber has been at close to the heart of that trajectory. Here, she shares insights, lessons and observations from the journey so far.

Cheyenna is involved a number of organizations, but we focus here mainly on her work with Solidarity NYC, the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City, and the Solidarity Economy Principles Project.

Links:

http://solidaritynyc.org/

https://gocoopnyc.org/

https://solidarityeconomyprinciples.org/

The global food crisis is—according to most available indicators—just getting warmed up.