Over 800 million people are members of a co-operative.
Co-operatives provide 100 million jobs worldwide, 20% more than multinational enterprises.

check this website for more info also if this kind of business expands to a major degree the road to Mutualism is not far and subsequently if Mutualism is achieved then anarchism becomes more tangible .
http://www.ica.coop/al-ica/

Big marketing is not actually needed in such businesses because such businesses are very community based and community oriented such businesses are in face to face contact whit their customers take for example Zanon the whole community backed them up . Usually some worker cooperatives work whit Consumers' cooperatives so the problem of marketing is solved there. Second cooperatives usually access capitals markets trough the "Subordinated Financial Contributions" act and such similar acts but here it depends on the region and legislature in some areas they don't give collective access to capitals markets in some areas they don't even give collective loans . Third specialists are part of the assembly of the workplace, just like other workers. They can and have to be listened to, like anyone else, and their expert advice included in the decision making process. Anarchists do not reject the idea of expertise nor the rational authority associated with it. And, just to state the obvious, self-management does not imply that the mass of workers decide on the application of specialized tasks. Self-management implies the autonomy of those who do the work as well as collective decision making on collective issues. For example, in a self-managed hospital the cleaning staff would not have a say in the doctors' treatment of patients just as the doctors would not tell the cleaners how to do their work (of course, it is likely that an anarchist society will not have people whose work is simply to clean and nothing else, we just use this as an example people will understand). All members of a cooperative would have a say in what happens in the workplace as it affects them collectively, but individual workers and groups of workers would manage their own activity within that collective. Specialized work as usual work is hired on a collective basis it's not different. New workers are brought into the workplace when the current workers agree more people are needed .

more on the inner-workings of this concept read here :
http://www.infoshop.org/faq/secI3.html#seci32

and here ( this is the article i wrote and previously posted here on the website zabalaza a south African anarchist federation published it in their weekly periodical they've added some pics and some famous example of self management too )
http://zinelibrary.info/files/nobosses_0.pdf

This is a capitalist argument it's called the " profit motive " which is the biggest fallacious argument capitalists came whit plus high production doesn't necessarily equate high wages because production is centralized if its decentralized then capital goes directly to the workers by that wages raise . In general cooperatives provide very high wages because capital is at their disposal and the economic effects of the market doesn't touch them . Plus being a cooperative has a few advantages. With the control of their own work and workplaces ensured, all working people can express their abilities to the full. This will see an explosion of creativity and initiative statistics show us this fact. Cooperatives rarely go bankrupt this business model has the tendency to be hereditary not in the literally sense but economically so people have SAFE JOBS ( PS everyone searches for safe jobs ) . Working hours are more humane and more flexible in some cases working hours can be cut short very severely because workers balance production whit wages while in a capitalist business workers do high production for less wage so inherently they have more working hours and less wages here they have a balanced program .

So i think i made my case why should workers remain at such business but this is just within capitalism in anarchism it goes to another level other forms of organization appear etc. i can babble all day LOL i recommend a book called No Contest: The Case Against Competition by Alfie Kohn . The profit motive is taken care of there i can babble about it if you want tough lol

yes i understand that its my pleasure to explain such things and by the way i want to add something else about payment . Some self managed businesses decide in assemblies if they will pay everyone the same wages or pay everyone based on renumeration and effort for example Zanon pays everyone the same wage and still everyone is happy because they have pretty high wages and the last thing because EVERYONE agreed on this . Cooperatives are autonomous producing units i can't speculate that all cooperatives use the renumeration and effort idea because cooperatives decide themselves how they will get paid. Zanon pays the same wages to everyone , Mondragon pays based on remuneration according to effort and sacrifice , it depends . Cooperatives are large based family like businesses so many people don't mind to be paid the same wage . The experience to work in such business is great .

i typically avoid documentaries made by douchebags but if you recommend it i will go ahead and check it out

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

LOL yeah i know but this documentary is pretty good check a review of it here
http://workersolidarity.org/?p=496