It's dual power. It's seizing the means (via competition instead of striking, but still). Co-ops are more durable than other orgs because they have the ability to sustain themselves. Every durable org is a step towards victory; every movement that fades out is meaningless unless it succeeds.
The most urgent problem with capitalism is the requirement for growth (literally, capitalists make their money through the increasing size of the businesses they own). Meaningless growth will inevitably kill us all, it's the same structural problem as cancer. We already see it with climate change. Co-ops do not feature a separate class of people that only make money by growth.
Duplicate work due to competition is a commonly cited down side. It is purely theoretical right now: there are not enough co-ops that they're competing for market share. I've seen workers lament that we're building the same tools that other companies use, request to reach out and share knowledge, and be shut down by their managers. Why would a worker-run organization is going to do this?
The biggest strategic problem with co-ops is that they only benefit people with jobs. They don't benefit the reserve army of labor, they can't get us to FALGSC. This is one of the reasons we need something in addition to just co-ops and unions. But even if it's not the full solution, every single job would be better if it was cooperatively owned, and we're not there yet, so we need more co-ops.
Co-ops Good.
It's dual power. It's seizing the means (via competition instead of striking, but still). Co-ops are more durable than other orgs because they have the ability to sustain themselves. Every durable org is a step towards victory; every movement that fades out is meaningless unless it succeeds.
The most urgent problem with capitalism is the requirement for growth (literally, capitalists make their money through the increasing size of the businesses they own). Meaningless growth will inevitably kill us all, it's the same structural problem as cancer. We already see it with climate change. Co-ops do not feature a separate class of people that only make money by growth.
Duplicate work due to competition is a commonly cited down side. It is purely theoretical right now: there are not enough co-ops that they're competing for market share. I've seen workers lament that we're building the same tools that other companies use, request to reach out and share knowledge, and be shut down by their managers. Why would a worker-run organization is going to do this?
The biggest strategic problem with co-ops is that they only benefit people with jobs. They don't benefit the reserve army of labor, they can't get us to FALGSC. This is one of the reasons we need something in addition to just co-ops and unions. But even if it's not the full solution, every single job would be better if it was cooperatively owned, and we're not there yet, so we need more co-ops.