An Italian View of "Co-op: Made in USA"

A new publication presents a dossier on U.S. worker-owned and consumer co-ops in the U.S. Written by Enrico Massetti, an Italian who has lived in the United States for the last 30 years, "Co-op: Made in USA" provides interesting business profiles and perspectives on many different co-ops. The booklet (printed by Inkworks Press, a Berkeley worker collective) concentrates on worker ownership and self-management, while also touching on a few consumer food co-ops as well as historic lessons from co-ops in Italy and Mondragon, Spain. Following is a brief review published in the March-April 2012 issue of the National Cooperative Business Association's "Cooperative Business Journal": Coop Made in the USA, a 64-page book by Italian journalist Enrico Massetti, provides an introduction to the worker-owned cooperatives in the United States. Although worker co-ops have been around for some time, the model is benefiting from a surge of interest in workplace democracy. The book presents several examples of worker-owned co-ops, with different governance methods and active in different fields, from retail to high-tech. Massetti began the project by creating a dossier of articles and videos on U.S. worker co-ops for the Italian journal "Rivista Anarchica." He then housed this collection online (http://tangoitalia.com/coops) and published the articles in a series of journals in Italian. The publication of "Coop Made in the USA" marks the first time that these stories of worker cooperatives have been collected and made available to a US audience. The second edition, now available, connects the publication more closely with the International Year of Cooperatives. "Coop Made in the USA" is available for $7.95 per copy, and buyers receive a discount for order 5 copies or more. Visit http://tangoitalia.com/book to order.