Northwest Cooperative Development Center

05/06/2026

Join us for a special symposium on marketing our cooperative advantage. This in-person event has limited seating.

04/10/2026

Are Solidarity Co-ops the future of cooperation? Examples in Washington include Blue Heron Bakery, Orca Books Co-op, Conor Byrne, and Central Co-op.

"Roelants seems to be suggesting that the international co-operative movement, as a whole, may be moving towards a more convergent future – not just about principles but in practice too. He cites increasing demands and tendencies in those parts of the movement – user/consumer and producer co-ops – that do not currently include workers as members to do so. Is that moving towards more multistakeholder co-operatives?"

https://www.thenews.coop/heavyweight-survey-of-the-worlds-worker-co-op-movement/

04/05/2026

What better way to follow up the International Year of the Co-operative than to up your co-op management game?! The International Centre for Co-operative Management is hosting a number of informational sessions for people interested in joining the upcoming cohort:

Stay in the know with our e-newsletter! Enjoy the latest highlights about programs, bursaries, short courses, research, publications and what's happening in the co-operative economy! Enjoy our recent releases:

03/19/2026

"Sabotaging negotiations. Cutting wages and benefits. Hiring a notorious union-busting law firm. One year into the tenure of new REI CEO Mary Beth Laughton, workers have had enough. The REI union, made up of employees at about a dozen stores nationwide, has called a boycott vote for union workers and co-op members to decide if they will refuse to patronize REI during the 2026 Anniversary Sale." Read more in the link!

02/13/2026

"The 26 examples from 15 countries are of cases in which the workers have majority power in the co-operative – but we made sure it’s not a book that is wishy washy about co-ops being nice little enterprises. We show the entrepreneurial strength.

“Another thing that was clear from the beginning was that there should be a big array of different scenarios. So there are case studies on co-ops of different ages, from different sectors, with different kinds of architecture.”"

Former director general of the ICA, Bruno Roelants, talks to Co-op News about his new collection of case studies from around the world

02/12/2026

"The report shows worker co-ops and democratic workplaces have grown 34% since 2020 while more than doubling their workforce. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, traditional small businesses only grew 13% since 2019. During Dawi’s census, the organisation counted 820 firms, which are worker co-operatives and democratic workplaces (including nonprofits that operate under the worker co-op model). However, because worker cooperatives are being started every day outside the nonprofit infrastructure of support, it is estimated that there are closer to 1,300 firms employing 16,000 workers. "

Worker co-ops and democratic workplaces in the USA have grown 34% since 2020 while more than doubling their workforce

02/11/2026

"Nowak points out that the billions of cells in our bodies do not compete with one another to out-reproduce each other. Instead they co-operate by limiting their reproduction and functions to form our various organs. Together these keep us being “us”. If they do stop co-operating and limiting their reproduction and functions we call this cancer. And it can stop us being “us”."

Colin Talbot looks to evolutiopary biology to argue that it is in our nature to co-operate - and that each of us is ourselves a co-op

02/10/2026

Resident Owned Communities through the limited equity cooperative model is the answer to the affordable housing crisis.

01/31/2026

We welcome our newest community to ROC NW!

01/13/2026

"In the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, he enacted the New Deal, which focused on relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.

“What that set up was to provide low interest loans so we could electrify the countryside. In the ‘30s, 90% of rural America did not have electricity,” Miller said. “The government went to companies and said, ‘Will you serve the rural areas?’ And they said, ‘We don't want to.’ The government decided to offer it to rural people and say, ‘If you guys form cooperatives, you can have this money, these low interest loans.’”"

With the proposed MariBell Transmission Project potentially happening in Houston County in the future, it is important to understand what electric cooperatives are and what they do.