Worker-owned Arizmendi Bakery (San Francisco). Photo by Myleen Hollero.

Thanks to the WORLD Channel, there will be an extensive new round of television broadcasts in 2015!

SHIFT CHANGE will air on stations in regions where it has not yet aired [Boston and Springfield, MA; Maine; Montana, and more], and will also be re-broadcast in cities where it has already aired. Most of these broadcasts will occur in early Jan, with many on Jan. 5. See the complete schedule below.

Learn more about the WORLD℠ broadcasts and get station information here >

About WORLD Channel 

WORLD℠ delivers the best of public television’s nonfiction, news and documentary programing to US audiences through local public television stations, and online at worldchannel.org. WORLD is programmed by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with the American Public Television and National Educational Telecommunications Association.

SHIFT CHANGE on World Channel 2015 – Schedule  (PDF)

Special Daytime Screening of SHIFT CHANGE

Monday, December 17, 2012, 11:00 AM

Gompers Room, AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street, N.W.

FREE and open to the public.

Prescreening panel discussion on worker cooperatives & job creation with:

• Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers
• Gar Alperovitz, Democracy Collaborative
• Liz Bailey, Cooperative Development Foundation
• John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
• David Madland, Center for American Progress
• Michael Peck, Mondragon

Evening Premiere of SHIFT CHANGE & Fundraiser

Monday, December 17, 2012, 7:30 PM

Landmark E Street Cinema, 555 11th Street, N.W.

Introduction by Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives

Q&A with Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young, filmmakers, to follow the screening

NOTE: $10 suggested donation to benefit cooperatives recovering from Hurricane Sandy

More info can be found here >

Co-sponsors for the DC premiere include: American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), Coop DC, Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF), DC Labor FilmFest, Democracy Collaborative, Institute for Policy Studies, Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, Mondragon USA, National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), NCB Financial Group, New Economy Working Group, ONE DC, Taylored Communications and United Steelworkers (USW).

May 16, 2012:  As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In New Economic Visions, a special five-part AlterNet series edited by economics editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back… [read the full article]

Take a look at the preview and please share your comments.

Shift Change Producer Melissa Young

Dear friends, cooperators, and supporters,

Maybe you, like me, have felt discouraged about the state of our economy, and the imbalance of political and economic power in the U.S. today. It was this feeling of discouragement and frustration that initially set me on a path to look for concrete, accessible alternatives.

A friend suggested that my partner Mark Dworkin and I learn more about the Mondragon cooperatives, in the Basque country of Spain; when we did, we were moved and inspired. We knew we wanted to do something to spread the word about this successful model of worker-ownership and its potential to change the culture of work—not just in Spain but around the world. We learned that there are hundreds of thriving cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises right here in North America, but that their stories are seldom told. Because Mark and I are filmmakers by profession, we felt that we could help tell those stories, and in doing so help others envision and implement a new economic democracy. We decided to make a film about it.

We are now in the final phases of completing that film, Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work. It is a project that has been equally grueling and exhilarating; sobering and uplifting; exhausting and encouraging. I’ve been very impressed by the examples I’ve seen of democratically run enterprises in Mondragon and in the U.S. These organizations operate in all sectors—engineering, baking, green house-cleaning, fair-trade food, home healthcare, pharmacies, cab companies, breweries…. They paint a new picture of “work,” creatively and equitably re-imagined.

I know that these stories will change the way that many people think. I believe that the visions of success we are presenting in Shift Change will mobilize people to seek new possibilities in their own workplaces, businesses, communities, and lives.

Like so many of the stories featured in the film, Shift Change itself is a cooperative effort. With your help, we’ll finish the project and show that it is possible to have a successful business where employees have a stake and a say; where decisions are made in a way that benefits local communities and without huge hierarchies and disparities of salary. Employee owned and managed enterprises are not the only solution to many of the difficulties we face, but they demonstrate that it is possible to make a difference, and to contribute toward a society with more equality and fairness—a society of which I will be proud to be a part.

We hope you will let us know about your work and your dreams, and that you’ll help us bring this film to light. Please take a look at our online funding campaign on the website Kickstarter to learn more, leave a comment, and make a contribution: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287935035/shift-change-putting-democracy-to-work.

Thanks for your help,

Melissa Young

Member-Owners of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. Photo by Comercio y Justicia.

This month, Rebuild the Dream is taking a look at a few of the amazing ways people in our communities are coming together to create local economies that empower the 99%.

We call these initiatives the American Dream 2.0 because they are providing a totally revamped way to look at our values as a nation as well as our role in creating the world we want to live in.

In part 2 of the American Dream 2.0 series, we take a closer look at worker-owned cooperatives — businesses owned and operated by the workers. While there are several models for ownership and management of worker cooperatives, the essential question is whether they can prove to be a viable solution to joblessness and economic disparity.

It’s not so far-fetched. In fact, it’s already happened….

Read the complete article >

Photo: Bill Ruhsam / Flickr

As the Occupy movement keeps developing, it seeks solutions for the economic and political dysfunctions it exposes and opposes. For many, the capitalist economic system itself is the basic problem. They want change to another system, but not to the traditional socialist alternative (e.g. USSR or China). That system, too, seems to require basic change.

The common solution these activists propose is to change both systems’ production arrangements from the ground up. Every enterprise should be democratized. Workers should occupy their enterprise by collectively functioning as its board of directors. That would abolish the capitalist exploitative system (employer versus employee) much as our historical predecessors abolished the parallel exploitative systems of slavery (master versus slave) and feudalism (lord versus serf)…

Read the complete article >