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Want to start a worker cooperative? Check out these 5 resources.

A worker-owned cooperative is both a radically unique and simultaneously plainly obvious kind of business: it is the embodiment of true democracy, taking shape in the workplace. In a worker co-op, each person who works at the company owns one equal share of the company and has one democratic voice in how it’s governed. Worker[…]

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Just Released: Beautiful Trouble

A card deck with six mini-games for activists Just in time for the holidays, TESA Collective’s latest collaboration has arrived: Beautiful Trouble: A Strategy Card Deck! This exciting and adaptable deck contains over 100 cards and dozens of key strategies and tactics that have inspired centuries of people-powered victories. “A crucial resource for change-makers.” — Archbishop[…]

Turning Workers into Owners through Democratic Education

The ICA Group is the oldest national organization dedicated to the development of worker cooperatives. They focus on converting traditional businesses to cooperatives, forming ESOPS (employee-owned stock option plans), promoting worker-cooperative business development, and other methods of building worker-ownership. Over the last two years, TESA has been supporting the ICA Group in a long-term process[…]

Lessons from 10 Years of Building the Cooperative Movement

When TESA first launched roughly ten years ago, it was hard to see a week into the future, let alone a decade. It’s incredible to reflect on so many years spent working with so many people on cultivating the cooperative movement. In this time, we have been committed to building a more just and democratic[…]

Victory for the Worker Co-op Movement: Another City Supports the Cooperative Economy

There’s a new major victory for the cooperative movement: the city of Berkeley, California recently threw its support behind worker co-ops as a way to combat economic inequality and help the city’s local economy flourish. According to the East Bay Express:  The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously on Fe.26 to include co-ops in the city’s small-business[…]

We made a free documentary on how to start a worker co-op

The worker cooperative movement is flourishing. That’s because there’s a growing understanding that the economy and the businesses we work in would fair better if they were owned and run by the people. But starting a worker co-op is difficult, and the process can be daunting. That’s why we at TESA teamed up with The Laura[…]

Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics in the Black Community

Each year, members of the African-American community begin the celebration of the holiday of Kwanzaa on December 26th. Kwanzaa is a cultural and political celebration of the lives of African-Americans and incorporates afro-centric symbols and traditions during a week-long celebration. At the heart of Kwanzaa are seven principles (Nguzo Saba) that are taught and highlighted on[…]

These Low-Wage Workers Are Rising Up to Take On Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world, and tech companies are reaping massive profits. Most of this tsunami of wealth gets passed onto the tech world’s CEOs, top programmers, and shareholders. But guess who doesn’t get a cut of that enormous pie? Workers like janitors, groundskeepers, landscapers, and security[…]