“This is not heaven, and we are not angels”

Download MP3

Download OGG

0:54 Stephen’s updates

Stephen has been at Occupy Boston

There was a stand off between the Occupy movement and the Boston police

Stephen manages to avoid getting arrested, so he was able to record this show

The police attacked Veterans for Peace

It’s too early for the Occupy movement to formalise demands

10:17 Interview with Rob Witherell

Rob is an organiser at the United Steelworkers

Rob negotiated the cooperation between the USW and Mondragon

Mondragon is the largest worker owned cooperative in the world

It has 100,00 worker owners

Can we rebuild our manufacturing sector with cooperative ownership?

At Mondragon, people are more important than profit

Keeps people in quality manufacturing jobs

“This is not heaven, and we are not angels” – Mondragon runs a lean business, but to benefit workers rather than shareholders

A successful co-op in the US is Evergreen in Cleveland, Ohio

Some tech co-ops include GAIA Host web hosting and The Software Co-op

45:40 Walton and Stephen are suitably impressed