Friday, 28 August 2015
New Social Economy books signal end to neo-liberal era?
Two swallows do not a zeitgeist change make of course, but the appearance of recent Canadian books mounting a challenge to long uncontested neo-liberal assumptions is cause for celebration and, maybe, sign of new times. Do the current polls for Canada's federal election, showing a lead for the NDP's a somewhat social democratic but heavily neoliberal revisionism in indicate a similar trend?
"Social Purpose Entterprises: Case Studies in Social Change" by Jack Quarter and colleagues at the University of Toronto Cantre for Learning, Social Economy and Work (formerly the Social Econnomy Centre) supplies important data about successfully operating Canadian social enterprises dedicated to nothing more than the "common good", For information about them and many similar community businesses check out our TorontotheBetter directory at www.torontothebetter.net.
And in After Occupy: Economic Democracy for the 21st Century, University of Western Ontario's Tom Malleson opposes neo-liberal economic orthodoxy by making a case for economic democracy as both progressive and do-able. That one whole chapter in Malleson's book is devoted to worker co-operatives is, of course, music to the ears of we worker co-operative members who bring you this blog and our TorontotheBetter programme. P.S. please tell the current government of Canada that things are changing.
Both of the above books are available at a discount from TorontotheBetter - just email us to order them. Yes, you can probably get them cheaper somewhere else (nameless here but starts with A) but not from a unionized worker co-op like us. Act your values when you buy things, is our motto. Whenever we can we use TorontotheBetter businesses for our supplies.
"Social Purpose Entterprises: Case Studies in Social Change" by Jack Quarter and colleagues at the University of Toronto Cantre for Learning, Social Economy and Work (formerly the Social Econnomy Centre) supplies important data about successfully operating Canadian social enterprises dedicated to nothing more than the "common good", For information about them and many similar community businesses check out our TorontotheBetter directory at www.torontothebetter.net.
And in After Occupy: Economic Democracy for the 21st Century, University of Western Ontario's Tom Malleson opposes neo-liberal economic orthodoxy by making a case for economic democracy as both progressive and do-able. That one whole chapter in Malleson's book is devoted to worker co-operatives is, of course, music to the ears of we worker co-operative members who bring you this blog and our TorontotheBetter programme. P.S. please tell the current government of Canada that things are changing.
Both of the above books are available at a discount from TorontotheBetter - just email us to order them. Yes, you can probably get them cheaper somewhere else (nameless here but starts with A) but not from a unionized worker co-op like us. Act your values when you buy things, is our motto. Whenever we can we use TorontotheBetter businesses for our supplies.
Was it us? Congrats: Lantic sugar package changes
Following our blog post earlier in the year about the disturbingly happy slave-lookalike on their sugar packages in downtown coffee shops, and an email from us to Lantic, the happy slave lookalikes have recently disappeared. Yes, the packages are still labelled Plantation, and yes there is still no mention of the ugly history of sugar plantations worldwide, but change that reduces public support for business complaisance with unjust development is good. Did TorontotheBetter have something to do with this change? We don't know, but we hope so. Anybody from Lantic reading this? Let us know. You will be credited. .
