- Henriques et al – As Empresas recuperadas por trabalhadores no Brasil : resultados de um levantamento nacional (2020)
- Feio – Cooperação, Economia Solidária e Compartilhada (2021)
- Gómez Esteves – Empresas recuperadas pelos trabalhadores e os desafios da autogestão (2020)
Category: Uncategorized
Andrés Ruggeri
2020 to the present
- Ruggeri – La experiencia argentina de autogestión obrera (2025)
- Empresas recuperadas: resistencias de la clase trabajadora al ultraliberalismo en Argentina. Entrevista a Andrés Ruggeri (2024)
- Ruggeri – Self-management in Argentina 20 Years After 2001 (2022)
- Ruggeri – La autogestión en Argentina a 20 años del 2001 (2021)
2010 – 2019
- Andrés Ruggeri: Ocupar, resistir y producir en tiempos macristas (2019)
- Caló – ¿Qué son las empresas recuperadas?, de Andrés Ruggeri (2017)
- Entrevista: Andres Ruggieri – Fabricas Recuperadas (2016)
- Ruggeri and Vieta – Argentina’s Worker-Recuperated Enterprises, 2010-2013: A Synthesis of Recent Empirical Findings (2015)
- Ruggeri – Crisis Y Autogestión en el Siglo XXI (2014)
- La Marea – “El verdadero ideólogo de las empresas recuperadas es el neoliberalismo” (2014)
- Ruggeri – ¿Qué son las empresas recuperadas?: Autogestión de la clase trabajadora (2014)
- Ruggeri et al – Textiles Pigüé : historia de la recuperación de una fábrica de Gatic (2013)
2000 – 2009
Worker Cooperatives in Uruguay
2020s
- Dean – Worker takeovers: a comparative analysis of employee buyouts, other worker-managed firms, and conventional firms in Uruguay (2024)
- Rieiro y Reyes – Las empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores en Uruguay: emergencia, desarrollo, debilitamiento y singularidades del caso (2023)
- Martí – Antecedentes de estudios sobre la historia del cooperativismo en Uruguay (2023)
2010s
- Martí et al – Las empresas recuperadas como cooperativas de trabajo en Uruguay: entre la crisis y la oportunidad (2014)
- Subrayado – Empresas Recuperadas (2013)
2000s
Worker Cooperatives in Cuba
2020 to the present
- Harnecker – Comparing Governance Systems in Cuban Cooperatives: A Study of Producer and Worker Cooperatives in Agriculture, Industry, and Services (2023)
- Cubatramite – Creación y constitución de Cooperativas no Agropecuareias en Cuba (2022)
- All Things Co-op – Cuba’s New Cooperative Legislation (2021)
- Harnecker – Cuba, Las Cooperativas En La Reforma Reanudada (2020)
- Economic Update – Economic Update: Cuban Commitment to Worker Co-ops (2020)
- González-Corzo – Entrepreneurship in post-Soviet Cuba: self-employed workers and non-agricultural cooperatives (2020)
- Havana Times – Do We Really Have Cooperatives in Cuba? (2020)
- Wiener – Cuba And Cooperatives (Series): Opening Invitation (2020)
2016 – 2019: growth and revision
- Granma – Legislation governing non-agricultural cooperatives updated (2019)
- Reuters – Cuba unveils tighter rules on cooperatives in clampdown on non-state sector (2019)
- NCBA CLUSA – Cuba: U.S. –Cuba Cooperative Working Group (USCCWG) (2019)
- Perez et al – Las Cooperativas No Agropecuarias en Cuba: su trascendencia socioeconómica y jurídica (2019)
- OIBESC – El futuro de las cooperativas en Cuba después de la reforma constitucional (2019)
- Beltrán-Arias – Las cooperativas no agropecuarias como modelo de gestión en Cuba (2018)
- Novkovic and Veltmeyer – Co-operativism and Local Development in Cuba (2018)
- Global Rights – Cuban Worker Co-ops (2018)
- Novkovic – Cuban socialist economic transformation: Cooperativism in the making? (2018)
- Green Worker Cooperatives – Cooperatives From Cuba To Ny: An Intimate Dialogue With Co-op Pioneers From Havana And New York City (2017)
- NCBA CLUSA – Understanding Cooperatives In Cuba And Opportunities For U.S.– Cuban Engagement (2017)
- Ifateyo – Visiting Worker Cooperatives in Cuba: Muy Complicado (2017)
- Monthly Review – Cuba’s New Cooperatives (2017)
- Havana Times – Cuba Beware: Cooperatives Are Too Efficient (2017)
- Rodríguez – Las cooperativas no agropecuarias en Cuba: Experiencias y prácticas (2016)
- Guethón y Sanchez – Las cooperativas no agropecuarias en el contexto cubano actual (2016)
2013 – 2015: early development
- DuRand – Building a Socialist Civil Society After the Embargo (2015)
- Harnecker – The Role of Cooperatives In Cuba’s New Economy (2015)
- The World – Cuban cooperatives present a new economic model (2015)
- People’s World – Cuba’s worker cooperatives: “We decide what to do here” (2015)
- Latino USA (2015)
- Harnecker – Las nuevas cooperativas en Cuba: logros y desafíos (2015)
- Harnecker – Guia Introductoria sobre Cooperativismo para Cuba (2015)
- Shareable – Cuba is Using Cooperatives to Decentralize its Economy (2014)
- NPR – Co-ops in Cuba (2014)
- Harnecker – Cooperatives and Socialism: A View from Cuba 2013th Edition [book] (2013)
- IPS – New Cooperatives Form Part of Cuba’s Reforms (2013)
- NBC – Cuba: 100 produce markets to become private co-ops (2013)
- Harnecker – Cuban Cooperatives: Current Situation and Prospects (2013)
- Harnecker – Repensando el socialismo cubano: Propuestas para una economía democrática y cooperativa. [book] (2013)
2012: the new law
- New York Times – Co-op Laws in Cuba Are Seen as Progress (2012)
- The Guardian – Can co-operatives revive Cuba’s sagging economy? (2012)
- Cooperative Grocer – Cuban Cooperatives Advance, Diversify (2012)
- Harnecker – Las cooperativas en Cuba: situación actual y perspectivas (2012)
Before 2012
Forestry Worker Cooperatives in Quebec
Quebec has a concentration of cooperatives in the forestry sector: over 30 worker cooperatives, as well as several multi-stakeholder and producer cooperatives. The companies range from 50 to 800 workers, employing more than 3,000 people in total. They have their roots in the parish economic organizing of the 1930s and 40s, when northern communities sought better conditions than the foreign-owned pulp and paper mills were offering. The first forestry co-op was formed in 1938. Within a decade there were more than 20, and by the late 1960s there were more than 160, spread throughout the large province.
When the Parti Québécois was elected in the 1970s they saw the forestry cooperatives as an ally in rural economic development and resource management goals. The province passed supportive legislation: 50% of all logging contracts on state lands would be earmarked for cooperatives. They also incentivized the co-ops to merge and scale up. Mechanization transformed the sector in the 1980s, boosting productivity, but requiring more capital, which further drove consolidation and mergers.
With the new government partnership the cooperatives formalized a network in 1979, which in 2005 became a trade association, the Fédération Québécoise des Coopératives Forestières (FQCF). 90% of the forestry co-ops are members. Many of the cooperatives have diversified to include forest management and replanting services alongside logging. Some have also expanded vertically in the supply chain, buying out saw mills and distribution companies.
2010s
- Guillote et Charbonneau – Objectifs de développement durable quelle contribution de la part des coopératives forestières (2019)
- FQCF – Guide pour faire connaître la coopération comme mode d’organisation d’entreprises forestières en milieu autochtone (2018)
- Guénette – L’engagement des travailleurs du mouvement coopératif de Québec (2018)
- Audibert – Les coopératives forestières comment concilier la démocratie économique et la démocratie industrielle étude de cas de Charlevoix-Est et du Bas-Saguenay (2013)
- Leclerc et al – Crise forestière et ancrage territorial : le cas de la Coopérative des travailleurs forestiers de McKendrick (2013)
- Lessard – Coopératives forestières et communautés pour un développement forestier plus durable (2012)
- Ryan – L’historie d’un Reseau a la Defense des Interets des Cooperatives Forestieres (2011)
2000s
- Gingras et al – Les coopératives forestières dans le développement économique et social des régions périphériques du Québec (2008)
- Filion – La Coopérative forestière de Ferland-Boilleau à l’aube du troisième millénaire (2004)
- Commission d’étude sur la Gestion des forêts du domaine de l’État – Pour la Consolidation de l’industrie de l’aménagement Forestier (2004)
- Lessard – L’expérience Des Coopératives Forestières Du Québec (2003)
- Lacasse, Trudel et Lessard – Les Coopératives: Des Racines Pour Développer “Des Forêts Pour Les Gens” (2003)
- Tessier et Klein – L’économie sociale en milieu forestier: les coopératives forestières et les organismes de gestion en commun dans le développement des régions-ressources du Québec : mémoire de maÎtrise (2003)
Earlier
- Girard – Mouvement Cooperatif et Exploitation Foresterie Les Cas du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (1985)
- Dorion – L’influence régionale des coopératives forestières du nord-ouest québécois (1972)
Video
In English
- FCQF – History
- Guillotte – Exploring the Links Between the Practices of Forestry Cooperatives and the SDGs (2020)
- Tanner – Worker Coops and the Ecosystems That Support Them (2013)
Sugar Worker Cooperatives in Jamaica
Ten years after Jamaica’s 1962 independence from British colonial rule, the democratic socialist People’s National Party was voted in and launched extensive reforms. They addressed housing, education, transportation, and land access, established a minimum wage, and nationalized some sectors that were controlled by transnational companies. Three large private sugar plantations were sold to the state, which organized them into 23 worker cooperatives, with around 5,000 workers – roughly 200 workers each – to operate them. Empowerment of the new workers clashed against the government’s production goals, and against legacy managers who were ambivalent or hostile to the cooperative. The cooperatives operated from 1975 to 1981 when, in debt and losing money, they were forced by an incoming conservative government administration to privatize.
Books
- Feuer – Jamaica and the Sugar Worker Cooperatives: The Politics of Reform [preview] (1984)
- Frölander-Ulf and Lindenfeld – A new earth : the Jamaican sugar workers’ cooperatives, 1975-1981 (1984)
Articles
- Frölander-Ulf – Frank Lindenfeld Remembered (2012)
- Lindenfeld and Wynn – Why Some Worker Co-ops Succeed While Others Fail (1995)
- Lindenfeld – The Jamaican Sugar Workers Cooperatives and the Severance Pay Crisis (1982)
- Stone – An Appraisal of the Co-Operative Process in the Jamaican Sugar Industry (1978)
Three Large Worker Cooperatives In Mexico
In Mexico there are three worker cooperatives that employ more than 1,000 workers, launched during periods of economic shock in 1931, 1985, and 2005. All three converted from private ownership as the result of hard-fought labor organizing, when public support for strikes and factory occupations was strong.
Cooperativa Cruz Azul is a cement manufacturer in Hidalgo that was bought by 200 workers as a cooperative in 1931. It now has around 5,000 workers. The company started in 1881. Investors rescued it from bankruptcy in 1906 but then wanted their capital out during the Mexican revolution, and after the 1929 stock market crash the plant was only operating intermittently. In 1931 a competing company made a hostile effort to buy the company and shut it down. Workers successfully pressured the state to expropriate the company as a public utility and restructure it under workers ownership. In 1931 around 200 workers agreed to pay investors back $1.3m over 10 years. In the 1950s a new director modernized the company and grew it 600%. In the process they build a cooperative company town, investing in schools, paved streets, business corridors, and sponsoring a major soccer team. They also supported five similar cooperatives to open in nearby states. In 2019 a long term leader fled after accusations of mishandling funds.
Cooperativa Pascual is a worker cooperative headquartered in Mexico City with around 5,000 workers who took over operations in 1985. The company is a major soft drink producer, with about 15% of the Mexican market and bottling plants in several states. The peso devalued in 1982 when global interest rates rose on the debt-rich country, and demand for oil exports softened. When the government mandated wage increases in response to inflation, the owner of the company refused, igniting a three year strike by around 1,200 workers. 2 workers were killed when the owner sent armed thugs in an attempt to break the strike. In 1985 the courts ruled in favor of the workers, and an arrangement avoided bankruptcy by allowing the workers to take over the facilities and brand as a cooperative. Since then the company has grown significantly, and is one of the few 100% Mexican owned soft drink manufacturers.
Cooperativa Trabajadores Democráticos de Occidente (TRADOC) is a tire manufacturing cooperative outside of Guadalajara. The cooperative launched in 2005 the company now has more than 1,000 workers, and around 600 members. When the factory was built in 1970 it was the most advanced in Latin America. During the 2001 global economic slowdown, the German multinational owner demanded concessions in pay and working conditions, and when the unionized workers refused the owners retaliated by shutting down. Striking workers occupied the factory, led caravan marches, made legal appeals, and pressured international shareholders. In 2005 federal courts found in favor of the workers and ordered the owners to pay $40m in back wages. Instead of paying, the owners gave up the factory, but in an unusual way. A cooperative of workers received 50% and would oversee operations, while a distributor was sold the other 50% and would guarantee access to the international market. By 2008 a new distributor had made investments and taken a majority share of the company. Workers have 3 of 7 seats on the board. In 2018 a long-term director was expelled in a corruption scandal.