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Cooperatives

We want to live in a society where enterprises and assets are owned and controlled by the communities that depend on them for livelihoods, sustenance, and ecological well-being.

Sustainable Economies Law Center's Cooperatives Program works to vastly expand the legal resources and cultivate a fertile legal landscape for the growth of cooperatives for the benefit of workers. We provide education, advocacy, research, and advice for worker centered cooperatives, including the creation of legal documents and guidance for best practices. Sign up below to receive updates about our Cooperatives Program work.

Our Center prioritizes cooperative ventures for a simple reason: We believe that enterprises and assets should be owned and controlled by the communities that depend on them for livelihoods, sustenance, and ecological well-being. The legal architecture of organizations and enterprises is, in many respects, the architecture of our economy. Legal structures dictate how wealth flows through our organizations and how decisions are made. Traditional enterprise models are designed to grow the wealth of people who already have wealth, giving all decision-making power to those same individuals. By contrast, cooperatives put wealth and decisions into the hands of workers and consumers, building community well-being and transforming local economies.

Want to stay up to date about our worker cooperative and worker self-directed nonprofit resources, events, and policy campaigns? Sign up below!

Want to subscribe to email updates about our different programs, such as our Food and Farmland, Housing, and Energy programs? Please visit our general sign up page here.

Want to unsubscribe? Please visit our unsubscribe page.


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Programs

  • Resilient Communities
    Legal Cafe
  • Land Return
  • Housing Justice
  • Food and Energy Sovereignty
  • Worker Cooperatives
  • Immigrant Cooperatives
  • Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits
  • Wealth Redistribution
  • Movement Lawyering
Donate

Events

Wednesday, May 21

10:00 AM | Democratically Distribute Work (Module 5 Collaborate to Co-Liberate -C2C)

Tuesday, June 03

10:00 AM | Wealth Redistribution and the Law

Tuesday, June 03

04:00 PM | Muralist Rights Webinar

Wednesday, June 04

12:00 PM | Online Legal Cafe

Wednesday, June 18

10:00 AM | Loving Accountability (Module 6 Collaborate to Co-Liberate -C2C)

In the Media

  • New York Times
  • Shareable
  • Utne Reader
  • Fast Company
In the News

Thanks to our Partners and Collaborators:

  • Repaired Nations
  • AmbitioUS
  • Prospera
  • Climate Justice Alliance
  • Lift Economy
  • US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
  • East Bay Community Law Center
  • New Economy Coalition
  • Democracy At Work Institute
  • Right to the City Alliance
  • NOBAWC
  • EB PREC
  • WORC
  • People Power Solar Cooperative
  • CA Farmer Justice Collaborative
  • Project Equity
  • Harmonize
  • Agroecology Commons
  • MINNOW
  • The Cultural Conservancy
  • The Center for Ethical Land Transition

Feel free to share, use, and/or build upon any of these cartoons and these legal resources, which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), except where otherwise noted. 
CHECK OUT OUR PRIVACY POLICY here.


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The Law Center is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 
1428 Franklin Street, Oakland CA 94612

 

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