As Rozzie Bound explores the possibility of becoming a worker and consumer owned cooperative, we want to provide some helpful resources about cooperatives. You can also read about the Eight Cooperative Principals utilized by cooperatives around the world.
Cooperative and Solidarity Economy Bookshelf
We have created a new virtual bookshelf with dozens of great books about cooperatives, democratic workplaces, and the growing Solidarity Economy movement. Members of our Cooperative Steering Committee have all been given copies of Collective Courage: A History of African American Economic Though and Practice, by Prof. Jessica Gordon Nembhard, which is also available on our Bookshop site.
Click here to check out the bookshelf.
Cooperative Organizations and Enterprises in Greater Boston
- Agaric
- A worker owned tech cooperative in Cambridge, MA that we are currently working with to explore opportunities to develop open source software for use by indie bookstores.
- Boston Ujima Project
- Ujima is Swahili for collective work and responsibility. Our vision for a just and sustainable Boston is based on the belief that we all have a role to play in creating an equitable economy.
- CERO Composting Cooperative
- Composting coop enriches the soil as well as our community and economy – November 2018 column in the Dorchester Reporter by Rozzie Bound founder Roy Karp.
- Dorchester Food Coop
- Food Coop, urban farms seeding a sustainable food economy – June 2020 column in the Dorchester Reporter by Rozzie Bound founder Roy Karp.
- Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives
- An association of cooperative enterprises; Rozzie Bound is a member.
Cooperative Businesses Build a Better World
- Cooperative businesses are owned and democratically controlled by their members – the people who use the co-op’s services or buy its goods – not by outside investors.
- Co-op members elect their board of directors from within the membership.
- Co-ops return surplus revenues to members proportionate to their use of the cooperative, not proportionate to their “investment” or ownership share.
- Co-ops are motivated not by profit, but by service-to meet their members’ needs for affordable and high quality goods or services; Exist solely to serve their members.
Source: Buffalo Street Books, a consumer owned cooperative in Ithaca, NY.