Greetings from Winnipeg (Canada)

Hello, I’m new to the site and discussion forums, but fairly old to the themes.

I have written and spoken about workers’ self-management here and there over the years, drawing upon my own experiences with participatory economics and collective decision-making at the Winnipeg A-Zone (Autonomous Zone) and Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House collective. My own involvement with those was a while back now, roughly 1995 to 2002 for Mondragon, and a bit longer for the A-Zone.

I have written a bit about meshing “parecon” in theory and practice at the workplace level, mostly notably in Chris Spannos’s AK Press anthology “Real Utopia” (but that was itself based on a talk from 2003 in Porto Alegre Brazil.). If people wish to read that piece, I have posted it (with Chris’s permission) on my blog at Black Cat Red River.

More recently, I did an hour long interview with the Unscripted Moments podcast (about Propagandhi) which also touches on some of these themes for listeners who may not know anything about participatory economics or what a balanced job complex means.

If I have some time in the next while, I will check out all the features of the site, and once I have some familiarity with it, perhaps engage a bit more with some of the discussion. Hope all of you are well, in the midst of pandemic capitalism! Take care.

Paul

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I’m so glad Paul will be providing his insights for everyone’s benefits in the discussion forum. As a founder of the A-Zone and Mondragon Book store in Winnipeg Canada, and member of that worker cooperative practicing participatory economics for many years, Paul’s experience is invaluable. Theory and practice are never the same! And the longest real world experience we have to draw on about practicing worker self-management according to participatory economic principles is the A-Zone in Winnipeg.

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Welcome to the site Paul. I listened to your recent podcast about your experiences of applying the participatory economy ideas at the Mondragon Collective in Winnipeg and I would strongly encourage others on here to do the same. Great to have your insights.

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