Jackson, Mississippi is a city with a deep history of radical activism and progressive politics, and the people of the city organize a tight federation called Cooperation Jackson. Cooperation Jackson consists of coalitions of workers who run a farm, a community center, a network of urban gardens, a caterer, and an incubator for other groups, with new businesses forming all the time. All of these are owned and operated by the workers, and they aim to be the predominant economic force in the Jackson region, without the oversight or control of the ownership class: worker cooperatives. Cooperation Jackson aims to leverage the economic liberation they will gain through these cooperatives and others they are planning, including healthcare, child care, a manufacturing center, a low-income village housing development firm, and waste management to build specific democratic power, autonomy, and sustainability for the workers. They plan to leverage worker power in order to help create commons councils and build an independent Black political party.

A worker cooperative is a business that is owned by each employee equally. Ideally, all management and operational decisions are made democratically by those who are affected by them, profits are shared equally amongst everyone, and there is no hierarchy, regardless of seniority.

To create a worker cooperative, gather like-minded individuals that you know who are looking for new work, have similar ideas about an opportunity to share resources, and who have similar or complementary skills to yourself. Find people who are dedicated to fair, anti-discriminatory, equitable employment.

It’s important for the individuals who are involved in planning the worker-owned cooperative to collaborate in solidarity with workers who are still employed in traditional employee-employer relationships. Carmen Molineri, Lexi Owens, and Robert Fontana note that worker co-ops often represent a way for workers to depart the labor struggle, and so the worker co-op must find ways to threaten the employing class instead of simply participating in capitalism in a different way. To do this, it is imperative that the planners of the co-op include radical ideas in their blueprint: committees for strike support, mutual aid, and direct action against bosses in other companies.

Within your group, first determine if there is a need for the type of business you have in mind. Each individual should draft their own plan before the planning meeting so that similarities and differences can be discussed.

Select an external advisor who has experience in worker cooperatives, and invite them to a planning meeting. Create or adopt a procedure for democratic decision-making and voting, like Robert's Rules, at this initial meeting. Along with your members and advisor, democratically determine the details of the solution your cooperative can offer.

Conduct a use analysis for you and your fellow cooperative members to determine each individual's needs and collectivize them. A member use analysis is a document which takes a deep and careful look at the personal needs of each prospective member: their experience, their knowledge of cooperatives, their enthusiasm, the neighborhoods in which they live and where their cooperative will be located, if in a physical space. Make sure that no one is losing out by entering into a worker cooperative, and ideally, find ways to improve the circumstances of all workers in terms of pay, benefits, work-life balance, working conditions, stress, fulfilling quality of work, and future prospects. Also assess your expected business volume, where, when, and how you plan to deliver your products and services, and your opinions about cooperatives. Conduct a market analysis for your products and services and a distinct, final feasibility analysis. A market analysis is a report which takes a look at those with whom your cooperative will do business: where they live, their demographic data, how they want to spend their money, what their expectations are about the goods or services you will offer, the problems and issues they encounter, and how they might like to be communicated with. Include information about any other existing businesses that produce similar goods or services, their success or shortcomings, and what makes them successful or unsuccessful. The primary aim of a cooperative motivated by building political power for the working class should probably not include “crushing the competition,” and so this exercise should instead focus on meeting the unmet needs of the community. Research the necessary permits and licenses for conducting business of your type in your area. Draft a business plan based on these metrics.

Consult with legal experts in worker cooperatives to draft legal papers and bylaws with your members. See if you can get this assistance pro bono, or if not, try to raise the money together or work out a deal with the legal expert to pay them once you are funded. The bylaws are like the constitution for your cooperative and can start simply and grow as you develop your business together. Learn and follow the Rochdale Principles for cooperatives to implement into these bylaws. Because worker cooperatives have direct democracy built into them, processes for regularly voting on new proposals and amendments should be part of this.

Collectively come up with a name for your business if you haven't already. Choose one with an appropriate web domain name available and which is unique. Ideally, this name will not produce many results on a search engine. File for incorporation according to the laws in the area in which you will be operating. Split these costs amongst all members.

Raise money and collectively determine what each member should invest to demonstrate share commitment. This should be an equal amount so that no one is contributing more than anyone else. Issue stock certificates to all members. See if the legal experts who helped submit your paperwork can also help with your stock certificates. You will be subject to local laws in your area but it is possible to research this within your group. There should also be free online applications for issuing cooperative stock certificates also available to you.

Fundraising

Depending on the type of business, starting up certain types of cooperatives can carry considerable costs, even if all members are able to contribute equally. In most regards, going the usual venture capital fundraising route runs counter to the idea of operating an independent, democratic cooperative since the organizers will be financially beholden to their investors. In some cases, if you collectively decide that it’s the right move, then go for it. Every cooperative has to start somewhere, and if at all possible, try to keep costs low to start. For funds that members are unable to contribute, would each member be able to ask a friend or family member to contribute a small additional amount? Are there institutions in your area which help workers start cooperatives? Are there services or creative works that each member could auction? Could you host a fundraising event of some sort? Could you crowdfund it? Are there grants you could apply for?

All members should be equally responsible for management through democracy, and all employees should be members in order to remove all hierarchy. Democratic management will require efficient meetings, established processes for conflict resolution, self-sufficiency, transparency, and a culture that encourages people power. In order to maintain equilibrium amongst the group, everyone should take part in trial periods when they join. Rather than using them as vectors of inequality, asymmetry, or bigotry, create trial periods for bringing in all new members, including the founders, but ones that are not punitive in the way that probationary periods are in most corporations. Create a trial period system in which the entire organization undergoes its own review by new members and is beholden to evolutionary change based on that feedback, while helping people decide whether they want to be involved or not.

Obtain the identified necessary permits and licenses.

Keep your cooperative focused on an eventuality in which capitalism no longer exists: resources are shared between members, decisions are democratic, and you do not prey upon your fellow humans. Find ways to organize, especially with other worker cooperatives, to find ways to achieve this. Look for ways to automate your work so that your cooperative as a whole is more productive, so that all workers may profit equally while enjoying a more leisurely lifestyle.

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