First, here's a link to a review of "Capitalism: a Love Story" from a
real anti-capitalist (ie, a socialist):
http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=1169
For those who have either seen the movie or plan to see it, there are
two worker-owned companies that Moore hails as an alternative to
capitalism. One is a bakery in the Bay Area, which does seem to
incorporate that region's ethos.
The other is a robotics firm in Wisconsin that I had a devil of a time
tracking down. Here's a CNN report on how they are coping during a
financial crisis. Apparently in this company, all workers are equal but
some are more equal than others:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0909/gallery.worker_owner_coop.smb/3.html
When workers take charge
Isthmus Engineering in Madison, Wis. is a custom designer and builder of
factory machines. The company was formed in 1980 and morphed into a
worker-owned shop three years later. Ownership has since expanded to 28
“directors” who share democratic control, and this has helped company
ride out the recession, said John Kessler, an engineer and one of four
co-founders.
Isthmus laid off two paid-by-the-hour workers earlier this year, but it
still employs *20 non-owner assembly workers*, he said. The directors
have avoided further layoffs by agreeing to accept a lighter profit, and
by juggling schedules between the machining, assembly and engineering
departments.
“As a worker-owned company, we can make the decisions to take work at a
lesser margin in order to keep people,” said Kessler. “We have
reshuffled duties to keep the work that we do have from going out the
door, while also spreading out the pain as much as possible.”
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