#alperovitz

"The varieties of socialism Gar Alperovitz (political economist from University of Maryland) describes are manifold. The best-known is the Mondragon Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque Country (Spain) that deals in finance, metal-cutting tools, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, “turnkey” factories, a retail food chain, space research, and one of the leading technical institutes in Spain (Mondragon University). The corporation currently employs 83,000 and prides itself on an average five-to-one ratio between executive compensation and the lowest wage. Mondragon is the economic powerhouse of the Basque region and one of the leading forces in the Spanish economy. Alperovitz is particularly interested in their revolving loan fund, a mechanism that provides capital to new co-ops, something worker-owned networks in the United States are now replicating." Lyle Jeremy Rubin, A Realistic Radicalism, DISSENT 28, May 2013.