The Mondragon Experiment – Corporate Cooperativism (1980)

Dandelion Salad

Apr 19, 2012

The MONDRAGON Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Euskadi. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters.

Currently it is the seventh largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2010 it was providing employment for 83,859 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The MONDRAGON Co-operatives operate in accordance with a business model based on People and the Sovereignty of Labour, which has made it possible to develop highly participative companies rooted in solidarity, with a strong social dimension but without neglecting business excellence. The Co-operatives are owned by their worker-members and power is based on the principle of one person, one vote.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

Produced 17th November 1980 by the BBC and is a part of the Horizon Science series.

video no longer available

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Updated: Aug. 8, 2017

Understanding the Mondragon Worker Cooperative Corporation

Democracy Now! on Mar 25, 2013

Watch a 2012 interview Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman did with Mikel Lezamiz, director of Cooperative Dissemination at the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in Spain’s Basque Country. He described how the project relies on a participatory model in which the workers are the cooperative’s members.

Watch video and/or read the transcript: Democracy Now!

From the archives:

Noam Chomsky: OWS is creating communities

stimulator: Spring of Rage + The Take (2004) (Naomi Klein)

see also:

The Spanish town where people come before profit By Liam Barrington-Bush and Jen Wilton