Grassroots Globalization Network
End-runs around the Enrons
As job losses rise, economic inequality worsens, and corruption
deepens, democracy itself now seems to be caught in the crosshairs.
A new call for justice is rousing the restless majority. This movement
now includes hundreds of thousands of Americans who repeatedly took to
the streets to oppose the invasion of Iraq. This year’s World Social
Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil boasted the highest turnout yet of people
from all walks of life, who gathered to affirm that another world is
not only possible—it’s essential.
To get there, we’ll need to challenge the ties between corporate CEOs
and heads of state as never before. Already, coordinated education and
direct action efforts denounce the lavish Iraq reconstruction contracts
given to Bush’s corporate cronies (e.g., Bechtel and Halliburton). The
debate is also heating up over how best to achieve regime change in
America.
Democratic alternatives to the corporate model
As critical as these efforts are, we must also begin to challenge the
legitimacy of top-down corporations themselves—entities that bear
significant responsibility for the most pernicious problems of our time.
Fortunately, a growing range of grassroots alternatives to the
corporate model are helping communities around the globe manage their
own affairs, local resources, and natural environments.
As part of its ongoing Community Solutions Campaign, Grassroots
Globalization Network has recently released “End-Runs Around the
Enrons.” This resource guide profiles a wide range of democratic
economic initiatives, and provides resources for connecting with
organizations that have implemented them successfully.
One response by community organizers, businesspeople, and workers to
corporate dominance has been to form economic cooperatives. According
to recent UN estimates, nearly 3 billion people—roughly half the
planet’s population—now rely on cooperatives for food, shelter,
supplies, health care, and other critical needs.
Through their democratic structure (one person, one vote), cooperatives
allow ordinary people to make choices more attuned to their concerns
and priorities—not those of absentee corporate owners and
shareholders. Some prominent examples include the Mondragon cooperative
system in Spain’s Basque region, Group Health Cooperative in America’s
Pacific Northwest, Co-op Atlantic in Canada’s eastern provinces, and
Japan’s Seikatsu Cooperative Club.
Diminishing services and rising fees charged by corporate banks have
led some communities to establish credit unions. By pooling people’s
resources and granting them voting rights, credit unions have been able
to provide competitive financial services while remaining responsive to
the needs of their members. Today, some 83 million people belong to
over 10,000 US credit unions, according to the Credit Union National
Association.
Groups like the American Independent Business Alliance and Social
Venture Network have helped organizers set up associations of
independent entrepreneurs as a way of preserving economic diversity and
recycling dollars locally. Such groups have been established in Austin,
Boulder, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and other US locales.
The combined success stories of cooperatives, credit unions, community
development banks, independent business alliances, ecological land
trusts, and other strategies offer a solutions-oriented agenda for
building a more sustainable and equitable future.
As a countervailing force to top-down corporate decision-making, they
serve as living examples of economic democracy in practice,
contributing to a cultural landscape that affirms the value of true
self-determination.
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