The United Steel Workers Union, North America's largest industrial trade union, announced a new collaboration with the world's largest worker-owned cooperative, Mondragon International, based in the Basque region of Spain. SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Economic Democrats have often argued that in order to build a Movement for Economic Democracy, the cooperative movement and the labour movement must join forces.

Coops are a real example of workers' democracy; some say the cradle of economic democracy. Yet, coops are most often small solitary islands of democracy in a capitalist sea interacting with hostile and antagonistic institutions. This of course does not foster solidarity with the wider community and erodes their greater potential, making them turn inwardly for self preservation rather than being vanguards of a new economics. The labour movement on the other hand, usually has a broader social vision struggling side by side with other social movements but it is constantly in a position of opposition rather than proposition stopping way short of proposing an alternative to the economy it is busy opposing.

What if we joined the economic vision of the cooperative movement and the social solidarity of the labour movement? It would seem that this would be a new movement that not only proposes a new economic model but also fosters links with the greater society.

Friends, we may just have seen the birth of such a movement...