Editorial: In It for the Long Haul

Sometime in 2010, a new business acquaintance in Chicago shared an amazing insider “war story” with me about the fabled 2008 financial crash.

A high-level investment banker with Lehman Brothers in New York at the time, he explained, “I was in an elevator in our building talking with a friend about the rising complexity and volume of our trading operations. I said to him, ‘You realize there are only maybe two or three ‘quants’ in this building that have any idea of what our position is in the market at this moment?’” (“Quants” are highly-paid experts — often math or physics PhDs — who create strategy for their firms’ trading activities in the global markets.)

He added, “A few hours later that same day, we learned the ceiling had collapsed on the whole firm.” (For an entertaining introduction to this category of systemic disaster, the film The Big Short holds up well today.)

Money that is moving too fast: there is such a thing, as Slow Money founder Woody Tasch argued in his wonderful book of the same name. So is there an appropriate velocity for money?

Yes. As author David Orr writes, it’s a velocity which corresponds to “long-term needs of communities rooted in particular places and to the necessity of preserving ecological capital.” Exceeding the speed limits makes us “vulnerable to ecological degradation, economic arrangements that are unjust and unsustainable, and, in the face of great and complex problems, to befuddlement that comes with information overload.”

As most readers of this newsletter will probably agree, our very diverse movement for greater shared ownership is partly about re-education for a different sense of time. The Slow Money group (now making 0% loans, by the way) was founded on this insight. The need for a re-education process is becoming more widely understood across the disciplines of economics and finance — painfully and too slowly, we might add.

It’s not only about the speed of transactions but also the time horizons of our own life commitments. If you’ve not picked up a copy of the new book Dedicated, by my friend Pete Davis, it’s a brilliant twist on the self-help book — almost an anti-self-help book (get over yourself!).

Using a gallery of fascinating examples, Davis argues that in our culture of infinite browsing (the author’s image of never being able to decide on which Netflix movie to watch), we forget that the people we really admire are almost always “long-haulers,” individuals who made a choice and then spent years cultivating, revising, building — whether their choice was a community, a life partner, a cause, or simply a passion.

Ownership implies stewardship — that’s a long-haul idea, one which builds in the time we so badly need in order to “find the others” and to make sure everybody is participating in what comes next.

In future issues, we’ll be exploring the connections between ownership, stewardship and solidarity as we endeavor to make sense of all this good new work going on out there.

Fund Profile: Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) with Micha Josephy

From a modest loan fund started in 1975 to help area food co-ops, Cooperative Fund of New England now serves both the New England and New York areas, encompassing seven states. Over its history, CFNE has made over 1,000 loans, disbursing more than $70 million with loan losses of less than 2% and zero losses of investor funds.

In 2020, CFNE’s efforts meant 671 jobs retained, and almost 16,000 retained since its inception. In affordable housing last year, 44 new units were created, with almost 7,000 created since inception.

Ownership Matters spoke with CFNE’s executive director, Micha Josephy.

Rebecca Fisher-McGinty on Mondragon’s Sovereignty of Labor

In the Fall of 2019, I visited the Mondragon Cooperatives through the Saint Mary’s Masters of Cooperative Management Field Research course taught by Marcelo Vieta. Before I left for the field research trip, I was attracted to the Mondragon Principle “Sovereignty of Labor.” There is so much to say about this worker cooperative operating at such a large scale. I decided to dive more deeply into how the Sovereignty of Labor shows up in multiple aspects of life, work, and systems. I’m really inspired by it!

Following, you’ll find an adapted version of my final academic paper from my experience. In it, you’ll find information including 7 lessons I learned that contribute to the “Sovereignty of Labor” from Mondragon, connections to the United States and my cooperative, and dreams of a cooperative future.

(Also: enjoy video capturing our trip by my talented co-learner and friend in the Saint Mary’s program, Anne Caraan.)

The cooperative movement needs to have deep roots of solidarity, justice and freedom, in the interest of those who are committed to our base units, such as our work commitments. — Fr. Josemaria Arizmendiarrietta, founder of Mondragon

Introduction

Cooperatives build new economies based on human needs rather than profits. The cooperative model is a shift from the extractive nature of corporate globalization. The cooperative difference is simple. A cooperative serves the needs of its members guided by the cooperative principles. In a capitalist economy, it is not easy to center the needs of cooperative members. In the Arrasate region (also known as Mondragon), I witnessed a special connection to work and humanizing workers. In this piece, I reflect on the ways that the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (MCC) has created a humanizing support system and prioritizes its workers and cooperatives.

Lesson 1Workers are the historic heroes, embedded in history and legends.

On an old building in Mondragon, a message enscripted in Latin conveys work as an honor. Mondragon spokesperson Ander Etxeberria (our generous host and guide for the week) shares that viewing work as honor is culturally important to the community at Mondragon. There are today some 2,000 cooperatives in the Mondragon region, with 97 of those connected under the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. This cultural relationship and understanding of work highlights the MCC principle of the sovereignty of labor. This principle, sovereignty of labor, is clearly a Mondragon principle which “considers labour the principle factor for transforming nature, society and human beings themselves.”

The cultural meanings, narratives, practices, and building inscriptions in Mondragon demonstrate the power and infiltration of this principle, the sovereignty of labor. In many cultures, there is the legend of the dragon terrorizing the village; and there is always someone who saves the town from the dragon. Sometimes, the king, the knight, or the under-dog turned hero saves the village. What story is familiar to you?