I’ve looked at a few lists here and there, but it seems like there just aren’t many co-ops that recruit strangers online. Anyone have any experience working for a co-op as a dev? It seems like it would be an awesome way to structure a small web/app dev team. Part of me wants to try to start one myself, but it’s hard to imagine maintaining the motivation needed for a task like that when I can barely function as it is.
Anyway, what’s up with the lack of cooperatives? Sorry if this is the wrong comm, seemed like the best place
(Assuming you are interested in a worker co-op not a buyer’s co-op.)
In many jurisdictions, a worker cooperative is a legal kind of entity like private company or marriage. You don’t just get together and declare yourselves a cooperative. You have to go through a certain legal process and constitute yourself in the prescribed ways. And of course they have more onerous reporting and disclosure requirements than a private company. You may be able to find the government’s list of worker cooperatives which are recognized in your area. Unless you live in Spain there probably aren’t tooo many so it might be worth clicking through such a list if you can find it.
Also going to the websites for any non-dev coops and checking for the footer at the bottom of the site where they credit the web dev. These kind of orgs like to do business with others who are like them.
Also also co-ops love to federate, surely there is some sort of super-org for them? Even if it isn’t tech-specific. There might be a directory. Some tech companies probably in the mix.
And sorry I know you said you found some lists so you’ve probably already seen this: hng/tech-coops: A list of tech coops and resources concerning tech coops and worker owned cooperatives in general.. Just in case you haven’t it looks pretty extensive. And has infos about starting coops etc.
Yea, I would recommend against doing this in the US. It’s uncommon, which makes it harder, more expensive, and legally challenging, etc. It also paints a target on your back if conditions deteriorate.
Just form an LLC and make it a co-op via an operating agreement. The government doesn’t need to know why you pay people the amounts that you do or how you arrive at decisions. Keep it like a black box that looks like every other business from the outside.
What kind of target do you see getting painted by being in a coop? What scenario? What consequences?
They are like the most ineffective form of rebellion ever. I didn’t get into arguing with OP about the concept. But they are pretty famous for de-radicalizing themselves over the years and becoming as nasty as any other business. The legal structure incentivizes it and few if any can resist.
For one thing, imagine police responding to an incident at a known leftist coop vs just a regular old pillar of the community main street shop. How are they going to act? Or imagine how much more sway your voice has at city council meeting as a successful small business. Business owners are practically part of the capitalist priesthood, so you’re negating one of the biggest advantages for not a lot of gain. There are lots of other reasons, for example I think a day will come when we can use legitimate looking businesses to help people immigrate to countries that are better suited to withstand climate change, ostensibly for the purposes of labour.
A big reason why they degrade and de-radicalize imo is that they’re often started and operated by (trying not to be sectarian) consensus obsessed folks. While consensus is great, a more democratic centralist approach is probably best for the sake of efficiency. Basically coops are efficient because they’re horizontally organized and don’t need a heavy management layer, but then that’s negated by having to hash out every single decision ad nauseam.
people who do not know what a co-op is: cops, city council, “the capitalist priesthood”, small business owners, the man
anyone here could possibly hope/want to obtain the advantage of being part of “the capitalist priesthood” let alone be capable of that = wtf
running a resettlement project disguised as migrant labor disguised as a IT worker coop disguised as a IT sole proprietorship = wtflol
Sounds like someone had a bad experience with an anarchist/post-left bookstore or coffee shop or punk venue run by 19 year olds.
your concerns with co-ops are social issues with specific people you don’t get along with. it isn’t sectarian. don’t need to elevate your interpersonal gripes. you just don’t get along with those people.
your analysis of what’s wrong with coops is impressive for being 180 degrees wrong.
Also, you’re the one being sectarian now. WTF is this shit?
Your knee jerk reaction to what I’m saying strikes me as why the left in the west is an utter failure in every way. If you don’t think small business owners have certain advantages in western society, then I don’t know what to tell you. Hell, they don’t even pay taxes half the time because the whole system was set up to benefit them.
If you know of a better way to legally move people out of harm’s way, then let’s hear it. Abusing immigration systems is a tactic the left is not going to be serious enough to utilize if we remain stuck in this “bedtimes are oppressive” mindset. My whole thing is not that I’m striving to be a capitalist, it’s using the tools of the bourgeois state and bending them to our advantage.
I’m writing this for the benefit of someone else who might be reading it because this is clearly not going to be a productive discussion.
I don’t want to get too excited but I think you might be on the verge of inventing a less coherent version of effective altruism. Watching for the magic sparks here
I am soconvinced that there are 2 problems with the left: 1. me specifically, and 2. Not enough Capitalist Priests!! Even better a Capitalist Priest who starts a business!! A business that is several businesses, several business models, and a mix of licit and illicit! Cooking with gas here.
nope. still just 2 people being annoyed at each other.
Best of luck to you. I can tell you’re destined to do great things.
Filing this thread away in case you become the next, if lesser, Sam Bankman Fried, in which case I will wildly exaggerate the extent of our relationship in an attempt to get a book deal before you are ultimately discredited; but nobody will be interested as we are both intolerable and nothing I can invent gets around that