The co-operative firm: a non-capitalist model for the Occupy Movement

The financial crisis triggered the economic recession and an ideological and political crisis of western capitalism. Since 2008 several grassroots movements attacked capitalism and its symbols worldwide. It is our central contention that the cooperative movement and the protest movements have several points in common, despite their lack of dialogue. After describing the so-called Occupy Wall Street Movement, this chapter argues that alternative actors, such as credit unions, workers’ and consumers’ co-operatives, could contribute to sustainability, fairness and growth of economies in time of crisis. Even though cooperatives were not spared the detrimental effects of the recession, they revealed themselves more resilient than capitalist actors in the current and past crises. We suggest that the Occupy Wall Street Movement should productively devote more interest and support to the cooperative model of ownership, rather than focussing its efforts on naive methods and ideological proposals.