What makes worker cooperatives thrive? Sixteen of us from the United States set out to Bilbao, Spain to uncover secrets of the world’s most successful cooperative economy. Our quest led us to Mondragon, where legend claims the iron-rich soil once forged King Arthur’s sword. Could this same soil have forged something equally powerful – a blueprint for worker-owned businesses that stand the test of time?
LEAF assembled a delegation of minds from across the cooperative landscape: LEAF’s Board Chair (an academic expert on Mondragon) and leaders of the National Co-op Bank, Wagner Foundation, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Beyster Institute, Ujima Fund, Hyams Foundation, Cabot Creamery and food system innovators from San Diego. Together, we sought to find the elements of Mondragon’s success we might bring home.
At Mondragon’s mist-covered industrial parks, we met with worker-owned enterprises that defy conventional business wisdom. Here, robots and AI development happen alongside auto parts manufacturing, worker-owned supermarkets serve communities, and a cooperative university educates the next generation. But the hardware wasn’t what we came for – we came for the software, the human elements that make it work.
What did we discover? Three core truths emerged:
First, cooperatives require ecosystems to thrive. Democratic businesses buy from, sell to, and collaborate with the best businesses to generate community wealth. A cooperative doesn’t succeed in isolation – it relies on a network where cooperative principles reinforce each other at every level of commerce to achieve community wealth. (Principle 6 of the Cooperative Principles). Mondragon is a group of co-ops who support each other financially each year to lessen volatility and preserve good jobs even amidst downturns.
Second, successful cooperatives start with solid business fundamentals. The worker-ownership model isn’t a magic fix for a struggling enterprise – it’s a structure that helps good businesses become great by putting people at the center. Greater involvement and ownership across all levels of a business drive better performance.
Third, and perhaps most crucial: cooperation must be chosen. Workers and leaders alike commit to something larger than themselves, knowing that profits serve as means rather than ends. Investors and policymakers too have to choose co-ops and jobs with dignity over individual wealth. Building community wealth is not the path of least resistance.
Did we find the cooperative holy grail? Perhaps. Not in the iron-rich soil, but in the recognition that building community-owned workplaces requires both practical wisdom and human commitment. The secret isn’t buried in the ground – it’s in the choices people make to work together, to own together, and to strive together.
