Cooperative Economy

A component of our mission is to promote the development of a cooperative economy within Aberdeen, in order to sustain the city post-oil.

The template for accomplishing this was pioneered in Cleveland Ohio:

“In 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession, a small laundry opened in one of the most depressed neighborhoods in the poverty-stricken city of Cleveland. This seemingly obscure event proved to be a large salvo in what is slowly becoming a national dialogue on the future of wealth democratization in America.”

The following links (in bright white) provide a vast repository of information on the Cleveland Model, with much of it focused on Preston’s efforts to implement it here in the UK. Click on each one in order to learn more:

What next for the Preston Model? Investing in worker owned co-operatives in the city.

UCLan and partners keen to establish Preston Co-operative Development Network.

Preston Model setting standard for Labour councils across country, says Shadow Chancellor McDonnell.

What is the Preston Model?

The EU didn’t cause any of this: but Brexit owes a lot to the working-class alienation that grew from the demise of our factories.

In an era of brutal cuts, one ordinary place has the imagination to fight back.

How Hartlepool is chasing Preston’s new economic model. With no money forthcoming from central government, the north east town wants its own alternative to austerity.

As another vote looms amid the pantomime of Westminster, the core issues behind leave’s win have been ignored.

In 2011 Preston hit rock bottom. Then it took back control.

Preston named as most improved city in UK.

How Preston Council claim they are starting a financial revolution.

Could Preston provide a new economic model for Britain’s cities?

Traditional city growth models, based on attracting inward investment for big infrastructure projects, could no longer be relied upon. Nor, under conditions of recession and austerity, could conventional tax-and-spend redistribution.

THE PRESTON MODEL: MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM OR PROTECTIONIST CONJURING TRICK?

Cllr Matthew Brown on the Preston Model and the economics of the imagination.

The Labour Party, including Cooperative Party members, took control of Preston City Council in 2011. We quickly recognised that there was a need for a systemic transformation of the local economy to bring about social improvements to the local community.

How one city became an unlikely laboratory for Corbynomics.

Following the failure of an economic development plan based on attracting inward investment, Preston City Council saw the need for a new approach to address the growing needs of the city and its people. In 2013, they enlisted CLES to help make it happen.

The Preston model: UK takes lessons in recovery from rust-belt Cleveland.

How Preston – the UK’s “most improved city” – became a success story for Corbynomics.

The Preston Model of Community Wealth Building in the UK.

Local democracy with attitude: the Preston model and how it can reduce inequality.

The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth.

Cleveland’s cooperatives show us how to solve the problems of deindustrialisation.

Thoroughly green and worker-owned, co-ops are a vibrant response to economic distress.

The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland have become a global innovation model for creating more sustainable regional economies.

Learning From the Cleveland Model: Notes on the Next American Revolution.

In Cleveland, co-op model finds hope in employers rooted in the city.