And so, the Great Recession, Act II marches ever closer (ok, not according to the corporate office management here at Weaver Street Market Co-operative).I truly hope that these new pressing times will be met in our co-op with mutual resolve, mutual respect and a mutual sharing of the burden, and ultimately, a mutual sharing of the rewards of perseverance.
Yet, I fear we will experience only what happened in the Great Recession, Act I – silence, closeting, imposition, demand; decisions taken at the center (not consensually), ever-insistent poking in the back, and rewards eventually shared unequally, only among the few.
How sad. The beauty of the co-operative business model, based as it is on democratic and consensual decision-making, is that it realizes that the grim, tight fist of central control does not work, especially in hard economic times.
What works is happy and engaging democracy, among consumers, owners and workers. As this highlighted article, written back when times were tough before, amply attests …
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