Spring 2013

Table of Contents

How Cooperatives Are Driving the New Economy

From the Editors

The Cooperative Way to a Stronger Economy

Co-ops—just like people—can get more done together than anyone can do alone. They come in many forms, and are more common than you might imagine.

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EqualExchange_Dunn.jpg

The Economy: Under New Ownership

How cooperatives are leading the way to empowered workers and healthy communities.
Marjorie Kelly
Just the Facts 65
Just the Facts

Just the Facts: What’s So Good About Co-ops?

Why support the co-ops in your community? The benefits might be further-reaching than you think.
Our Harvest photo by Phil Didion

Why Unions Are Going Into the Co-op Business

The steelworkers deal that could turn the rust belt green.
Amy B. Dean

Credit Unions Put Your Money to Work—Right Where You Live

What if your bank’s first priority was to do good? Vancouver’s Vancity leads the way in putting dollars back into the community.
Colleen Kimmet
Green Worker Co-Op Academy photo by Stephen O'Byrne

From Housing to Health Care, 7 Co-ops That Are Changing Our Economy

How manufacturers, retailers, restaurants, and others are doing business the cooperative way.
Claudia Rowe
Wages Co-Op

6 Ways to Fuel the Cooperative Takeover

From now on, the global mantra for filling market gaps is going to be, “There’s a co-op for that.” But co-ops need customers, money, and training. How do we shift from business as usual to the work of cooperation?
Sven Eberlein
Hugging Salt Shakers photo by Harlan Harris

Survival of the … Nicest? Check Out the Other Theory of Evolution

A new theory of human origins says cooperation—not competition—is instinctive.
Eric Michael Johnson
Republic Windows and Doors photo by Amanda Rivkin

How Workers Laid Off from a Chicago Factory Took It Over Themselves

When their boss tried to fire them, the workers of Republic Windows and Doors occupied the factory. Now they own it as a cooperative.
Laura Flanders
Doctor photo courtesy of Mercy Health

Don’t Like Your Health Insurance? Make Your Own

The Affordable Care Act hopes to drive expansion of health care co-ops.
Nina Rogozen
Jorge Funes photo by ADP Photos

To Build a Community Economy, Start With Solidarity

How residents who can’t afford to buy in still get the benefits of co-op work and housing.
Abby Scher
Red State Co-ops

Empowered by the Past: Red State Co-ops Go Green

A century ago, cooperatives electrified the poorest counties in the nation. Today, can they lead the way to a smarter, cleaner grid?
Brooke Jarvis

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
Idle No More Group photo by Marcel Petit

Why Canada’s Indigenous Uprising Is About All of Us

When a new law paved the way for tar sands pipelines and other fossil fuel development on native lands, four women swore to be “idle no more.” The idea took off.
Sarah van Gelder
Mark Ruffalo

Why You Don’t Frack With John Lennon’s Farm

When fracking hits close to home, Mark Ruffalo, Debra Winger, Yoko Ono, and other big names find common ground with small towns.
Lisa Mullenneaux
NRA Protest photo by Jay Mallin Photos

California Teachers Divest Pension Fund from Assault Weapons

Just hours after Sandy Hook, the managers of the teachers’ pension fund sold off their stock in a manufacturer of semi-automatic rifles.
Chris Francis
Sarah Bergmann
People We Love

People We Love: Sarah Bergmann

Creating a pollination pathway for urban bees.
Fabien Tepper
Flower by Lesley Show

From the Culture of Aloha, a Path Out of Gun Violence

Beneath mainstream culture runs a current of domination, individualism, and exclusion that is harming our children. We assume this is normal—but is it really?
Poka Laenui
Godwit photo by Frankzed
The Page That Counts

The Page That Counts: Spring 2013

Miles flown by a bar-tailed godwit in the longest nonstop bird migration ever recorded: 7,200. Miles flown in the world’s longest nonstop, non-refueled helicopter flight: 2,213.

Culture Shift

Explore Section
Book Cupboard photo by I Love Memphis
Yes! But How?

Love Your Books? 4 Ways to Share Them With Others

From mobile libraries to tiny libraries, how to get others to read the books you love.
Fabien Tepper & Signe Predmore
Cowpea Seeds photo courtesy of IITA

Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World Is a Seed

“The Seed Underground” is a love letter to the quiet revolutionaries who are saving our food heritage.
Abby Quillen
Breasts Cover

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History

When author Florence Williams learned her breast milk contained chemicals like flame retardants, she started investigating what exactly is in a breast and how that body part connects us to our children, our past, and our surroundings.
Nadia Colburn

Film Review: Ken Burns’ Dust Bowl

The new documentary will bring you inside one of the worst manmade disasters of all time in powerful detail.
Valerie Schloredt
Occupy Sandy photo by Brennan Cavanaugh

Quote: Occupy Oakland

A quote from Occupy Oakland, from How Cooperatives Are Driving the New Economy, the Spring 2013 issue of YES! Magazine. Download it here.
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