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Claude Wilson | Published 10 hours ago

Socialism one of the greatest Bogeymen in the minds of the American Republic throughout the last century. From newspaper cartoons at the turn of the 20th century, hyping up fears of bearded, bomb-throwing foreign anarchists, to Sen. Joseph McCarthys spearheading a witch hunt in search of Soviet spies and fellow travelers in Washington and Hollywood, to modern depictions of neoliberal former President Barack Obama as some sort of fanatical communist whos going to put your life in the hands of a sinister death panel.

Socialism tends to be depicted as a monstrous other intent on destroying the American way of life. What you may not expect, however, is that socialism very much exists within our community, and you might have participated in its success, and even benefited from it, without ever realizing. With three locations and 200employees, Weaver Street Market is socialism in action.

Weaver Street is a worker cooperative, standing in stark contrast to the traditional capitalist business model. While most stores are owned by a small number of private individuals, whom we might call capitalists, worker cooperatives are owned collectively by the workers themselves, functioning as a form of market socialism: workers collectively own and sell locally-sourced and fair-trade produce, baked goods, and more in a market setting.

Weaver Street Market itself is not just owned by its workers, but also by its customers. Weaver Street is owned collectively by 200 workers and 18,000 consumer households and managed by a board of directors made up of workers and consumers. Customers gain access to store discounts, while workers receive a share of the stores profits and involvement in the stores decision-making committees, while both are given the ability to vote on and run for the cooperatives board of directors. Essentially, Weaver Street is an economic democracy.

The advantages of a worker cooperative are numerous when compared to a traditional business model, especially for its workers. For one, it helps fight against the vast disparities in income inequality. In the United States, the average CEO makes three hundred times as much as the average worker.

Workers cooperatives are instead directed by democratically elected councils who receive the same pay as usual, meaning that the workers are better compensated for their work and have more of a say in the direction of their business, which has a number of advantages for local economies. Workers in a cooperative arent going to vote to send their own jobs overseas, after all.

This model of decision-making doesnt hurt business longevity either, as worker cooperatives are twice as likely to survive their first year as traditional businesses.

Weaver Street isnt an isolated example of a successful worker cooperative. For example, the Mondragon Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives involved in banking, manufacturing, retail and education, is the 10th largest company in all of Spain, employing over 74,000 people.

Suma is a food wholesaler in the United Kingdom that made a 40 million pound revenue in 2015 and it is only the 49th largest cooperative in the UK. In the Mexican state of Chiapas, the libertarian socialist Zapatistas have managed to organize hundreds of coffee producers into a solidarity network that has vastly improved quality of life in the otherwise poverty-stricken territory, all without government involvement.

Worker cooperatives are a viable, moral alternative to traditional corporations and businesses. Workers are entitled to the full fruits of their labor, and they deserve a say in the way their workplace functions. Whatever your work, be it manufacturingor retail, white or blue collar, if you can, you should reject selling your labor to others, and instead form or join a cooperative you have nothing to lose but your chains.

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Column: A socialist on Weaver Street - The Daily Tar Heel