USFWC, new orleans '08

So what do a bunch of co-op types DO at a conference?

Workshops -- several 2 hr. ones each day -- seminars, networking, schmoozing and, at the end of the day, a bit of partying, New Orleans style.  If you've considered starting up a co-op, joining a co-op or trying to make one better, this is the place to be. Workshops covered everything from accounting, to accountability, unionizing, green industry and more..even a blueprint for taking over your conventional workplace and going co-op (or at least democratic)

Participants and presenters came from all over the country and, no, not heavily weighted toward California. The cooperatives involved represented bakeries, software firms, design studios, housekeeping services, commercial builders and yes, a peep-show. No kidding. Our unofficial vote for most revolutionary (and certainly most interesting) would have to go to the Lusty Ladies, of San Francisco.

Check out the USFWC website for more, including links to Federation members' websites.

 

new orleans

What is there to say about New Orleans, “the city that care forgot”? Long before Katrina, it was a city of marked extremes -- the beautiful parts so wildly, over-the-top beautiful they defy description; the poor and unlovely parts overwhelmingly so.

Since Katrina, the difference between these extremes is searing and the scale of the devastation that remains has its parallel only in the developing world. Whatever we all may have heard or imagined, the lower ninth ward looks very much as it did the day after the hurricane – minus the water. The trees are gone. As are the songbirds. It is possible to travel a good 20 minutes on the expressway before coming to the end of what looks to be a bomb test site. Neighborhood after neighborhood, community after community are simply…gone. And the people finding work on projects to put things right are almost never the locals so desperately in need of the work.

On the other hand, the vitality, resourcefulness and determination of New Orlineans to rebuild are so great that almost anything seems possible. The USFWC's presence was a good indication of the way the winds are blowing; locals seem to feel, "What the hell, if we have to start over, let's do it right". Co-ops, collaboratives, community gardens, even a reinvigorated union movement are all roiling below the business-as-usual government/corporate “restoration” plans.

Another thing worth mentioning about New Orleans: The people we encountered, wherever we encountered them, were gracious, warm, and generous – to New Englanders perhaps freakishly so. They were delightful. It’s impossible to make a prediction for the near or more distant future of New Orleans; there’s just so much wrong and the needs are so great. The only thing we know for sure is that they deserve so much better.