Platform co-operativism: why it's here and what it can be

In the dire condition that progressive movements in the U.S. and now, it seems, increasingly around the world, found themselves, after the election of president Donald Trump cooperativism appeared to Trebor Scholz, the activist behind the platform cooperativism movement, as a welcome breath of fresh political air. And there is no doubt that a more egalitarian sharing of collective wealth will be fostered by cooperative organization, as it as been for nearly two hundred years.But a realistic appraisal of what the coop movement has done and can do is necessary before the supporters of the movement, like TorontotheBetter think that this movement alone will correct the ills of inequality and environmental collapse that growth at all costs has unleashed upon the world. Here we consider what cooperativism has done and what is needed if it is to do more.        
     
Platform Cooperativism, led by Trebor Scholz of the Platform Cooperative Consortium is an initiative to provide an alternative to the currently dominant actors  in the virtual world where all increasingly live our lives. In place of aggressively competitive and individualistic entrepreneurs  hip of tech giants Google, Facebook etc. Platform coops democratic member ownership and control. 

As a worker co-op from our inception Libra, Torontothebetter’s creator welcomes such a socially constructive movement  In our increasingly reactionary political environment, where right wing extremists everywhere have been seizing the moment of faltering liberal democracy. 
Life will not improve for the majority of the world’s peoples until the progressive banner of collective justice and liberty flies again in mainstream public discourse.
That this coop initiative shares the limitation (ultimately comfortable subordination within market economies and relative neglect of state economic intervention), as well as the strengths of modern cooperativism, does not negate the importance of the economic resistance it represents. 

However, just as was vindicated by the cooperative commonwealth federation in Canada, the original successful champions of of public health care, economic action requires simultaneous political agency to realize its goals. 

All those who, like TorontotheBetter, seek a world characterized by collaboration rather than dog eat dog competition must ask themselves what they can do to foster it. In a world that is now transformationally electronic as the 19th century was steam- and the 20th oil- powered, popular struggle must evolve from the streets to the airwaves.

Stay tuned to TorontotheBetter to learn more about our own platform coop initiatives. Local and global events are planned in the fall of 2019. TorontotheBetter will host a PWYC movie screening, sign-up and discussion in Toronto in September (details TBA) while the Platform Cooperative Consortium will hold a broadcast conference from New York in November. To echo a famous poet from the centre of the industrial revolution it is not too late to seek a better world. 
Please send questions and comments by email to postmaster@torontothebetter.net.