For those who have not yet heard of this project, I'd like to start with an introduction to myself and to this newsletter: My name is Andrew and I'm based in Sacramento, CA. I've been working with collectives for four years, and am interested in creating a network to improve communication and provide support among worker co-ops.
The idea of a newsletter for worker collectives has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of years now, and is finally getting out onto paper. The idea was given a final push back in August, at the Active Resistance anarchist organizing conference in Chicago. There was a working group that met for several days to discuss workplace issues and we decided that a newsletter was a good idea. I volunteered to put out the first issue within a few months.
It's been a few months, and yes, the first issue has not yet come out. I do not consider this to be a full issue (hence "number zero"), because I haven't gotten any submissions or other input. This is more of a call for support, and introductory sample, and so forth. By the way, this issue is coming out of my pocket, so donations will be appreciated. No Boss News doesn't officially exist, so checks should be made out to me. I suggest a dollar for every issue you want to receive in the future. But truthfully, I would prefer that people submit articles about their own collectives so this becomes more of a group effort. Issue #1 should be out in the spring. I am also planning to publish a directory of worker collectives, so please tell me how to contact any that you know.
In the meantime, I am involved with two collective projects right now, and I feel that they are worth mentioning:
The Little Planet Cafe Collective operates a vegan, nonprofit restaurant that opened in Berkeley in October. There is a four-member collective (looking for more members) that is doing much of the work, with the rest covered by volunteers, in exchange for food and tips. Nobody is getting paid yet, although they hope to be able to pay full-time workers in the near future. 1/3 of gross sales is being donated to a variety of nonprofit organizations. Little Planet is affiliated with the GreenPLAN Housing Association, and is the first step toward creating a self sufficient eco-village. Subsidized housing is available for full-time cafe workers. You can reach Little Planet at 3222 Adeline St. Berkeley CA 94703. (510) 547-4840 or greenplan@igc.apc.org
My role in this project is as an advisor to the collective with a voice, but no vote. One collective member is uncomfortable with my not being able to vote, but I feel it is an appropriate role, since I have not committed to the project as a collective member. It allows more of a chance for me to remain objective, and provides the group with a resource for facilitation and conflict resolution. I have been working full time, but now that they are moving from the frenzy of opening to the controlled chaos of daily operation I will just be dropping by frequently to check up on them and help out where needed.
In the process of helping open Little Planet, I created a manual for collectively-run restaurants. It includes sections on sanitation, safety and first aid, as well as examples of possible organizational structures and policies. The manual is a work in progress, and could be adapted to other types of businesses. Eventually it will become a finished publication; but in the meantime, if anyone is interested, contact me and we'll make a deal on a manual that is lovingly crafted to fit your business needs (gag).
Since my work for Little Planet was done in exchange for only my housing & food expenses, I was slowly but surely running out of money, and had little hope of ever saving anything for this newsletter or future networking. So I went out job hunting and found Integrated Switching and Networks (IS&N), a telecommunications collective also based in Berkeley. The company is more than a year old, but is just now starting to really run like a collective (it was originally a sole-proprietorship, and is still legally so). Until recently, there were only three members, but last month a fourth was added, and then this month three more were hired (plus myself to help out in crunch times, and possibly with organizational matters) in anticipation of a huge job installing the data lines (phone and modem) for a big advertising agency in San Francisco. This sudden influx of new workers, combined with the stress from a constantly overwhelming demand for our services has put some strain on the organization, but we are planning to formalize the collective structure and process soon.
IS&N is also potentially the seed of a larger project. George, the founder of IS&N, has an elaborate scheme to create a North American version of Mondragon, a huge complex of cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. It is just a proposal now, but the idea is to create a system that anyone can plug into and thereby avoid the hassle and expense of incorporating as their own company. All collectives would be autonomous, and my hunch is that it will be more oriented toward small scale projects and direct democracy than Mondragon, in which the norm is a firm with elected leadership hundreds of workers. IS&N can be reached at 1442-A Walnut St. #344 Berkeley, CA 94709 (510) 644-8085 or gg@well.com
Some of you may be wondering what the hell is the connection between NO BAWC (the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, pronounced "No Boss") and this publication. The answer is: not much. Other than my involvement in both projects, they are entirely separate. "No Boss News" was the name agreed upon by the workplace issues working-group of the Active Resistance conference, and was suggested by someone who had never heard of NO BAWC. So all you lawyers can stop salivating now.
But I should talk about NO BAWC. We meet about once a month, and often a collective will bring for discussion an issue that has been giving it trouble. It is a valuable support structure, and I would love to see it somehow duplicated on a larger scale, possibly by means of...
Perhaps we could have a perpetual series of discussions going on by means of a web site. If anyone out there has a relevant page and wants to facilitate this, please do. But I really don't want to shut out people that haven't yet been assimilated, so if anyone has suggestions on a way to make this accessible to folks without computers, let me know.
By the way, I am being dragged, kicking and screaming into the 90's; I finally have e-mail, but don't expect me to check it daily. I'll probably get back to you in a week or two. My e-mail address is amcl@iww.org, but I still welcome letters. See the reverse side of this page for my real address.
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