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Forum Post: Gar Alperovitz: Dollars and sense.

Posted 12 years ago on March 16, 2012, 4:02 p.m. EST by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

By Gar Alperovitz

“Black Monday,” September 19, 1977, was the day 34 years ago when the shuttering of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube steel mill threw 5,000 steelworkers onto the streets of their decaying Midwestern hometown. No local, state or federal programs offered significant help. Steelworkers called training programs “funeral insurance”: they led nowhere since there were no other jobs available. Inspired by a young steelworker, an ecumenical religious coalition put forward a plan for community-worker ownership of the giant mill. The plan captured widespread media attention, the support of numerous Democrats and Republicans (including the conservative governor of the state at the time), and an initial $200 million in loan guarantees from the Carter administration.

Corporate and other political maneuvering in the end undercut the Youngstown initiative. Nonetheless, the effort had ongoing impact, especially in Ohio, where the idea of worker-ownership became widespread in significant part as the result of publicity and educational efforts traceable to the Youngstown effort—and because of the depth of policy failures and the continuing pain of deindustrialization throughout the state. In the more than three decades since that effott, numerous employee-owned companies—inspired directly and indirectly by the effort to save the Youngstown mill—have been developed in Ohio. Individual lives were also changed, among them that of the late John Logue, a professor at Kent State University who established the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, an organization that provides technical and other assistance to help firms across the state become worker-owned..........Read the rest by clicking the link.

http://www.garalperovitz.com/2011/11/america-beyond-capitalism/#more-604

14 Comments

14 Comments


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[-] 1 points by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA 12 years ago
[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

Nice! Have you seen "The Take"? If not, check it out!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQHo8l92U3U

[-] 1 points by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA 12 years ago

I didnt know that Naomi Klien was married to that guy doesnt he host Faultlines on Al Jazeera?

[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

I believe so, yes.

[-] 1 points by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA 12 years ago

This looks good but I cant understand alot of it because I dont speak spanish and there isnt any subtitles

[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

hmm, wierd. Subtitles come up automatically when I go to the video. Have you tried clicking on the "cc"? Try this one instead if they don't come up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzXln5kbuw

[-] 1 points by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA 12 years ago

Yeah thats got it thanks. Do they get the factory?

[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

There's a happy ending :)

[-] 1 points by Demian (497) from San Francisco, CA 12 years ago

Thats cool, do you know how these people are doing today? Did it work out in the long run? I guess Kirchener's wife is the president of Argentina today. Her husband looks like Christopher Monkton. Do you know how that is?

[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

I don't how that particular co-op is doing today, sorry

[+] -6 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

This may be where we are heading here in the USA if the corruption can not be addressed legally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQHo8l92U3U

[-] 2 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

Let's work for workers' self management!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJnX96id-xI

[+] -6 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 12 years ago

It works. The operation runs cheaper and the employees are invested in their work. You get quality product at reasonable cost. You want to improve? Bring it on says the employee owners.

[-] 1 points by struggleforfreedom80 (6584) 12 years ago

Workers' self management is the society we should srive for. http://struggleforfreedom.blogg.no/1320873951_the_society_we_should.html