United States Federation of Worker Co-operatives

We will be using the US Federation of Worker Co-operatives (USFWC) as the example to examine the larger question of “authority versus liberty”; of which authority can be defined as a federation where co-operatives are members of a larger organization and therefore limiting individuals control over certain aspects and decisions; and of which liberty can be defined as the autonomy of individual co-operatives and their members to control their fate. By way of comparison, we will briefly look at some US worker co-op networks as well as similar networks in other countries and co-op sectors – specifically Canadian credit union networks and the Masters of Co-operative Management program.