“What does winning look like? For me, winning looked like owning your own business, having people have a say in it, not being exploited,” says James Rasza, co-founder of Democracy Brewing. “[The] basic stuff that comes with a worker co-op.”
We write a lot about worker co-ops, but this country’s financial system isn’t prepared to handle more of them. Most lenders follow small-business lending practices incompatible with the worker co-op ownership structure. And the few lenders who do work with worker co-ops are relatively small and therefore limited in the number of loans they can make a year. But in Massachusetts, a group of those lenders are now part of a broader coalition to support the creation of a state-owned bank that they believe could be a reliable partner in their lending ecosystem. Read more in Oscar Perry Abello’s lead story today… and hear Oscar discuss Philadelphia’s recently passed public banking legislation with Council Member Derek Green in the latest Bottom Line webinar next Wednesday, April 20.
Kelly Regan
Editorial Director, Next City
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