Why Eureka’s Future?

The United Nations declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives in recognition of their contribution to socio-economic development and in particular their track record in impacting poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

Eureka’s Future will be the first Earthworker Co-operative and will be the model for future Earthworker Co-operatives.

The first objective of Eureka’s Future is to establish a worker-owned factory in Morwell producing solar hot water units.

Why has a cooperative structure been chosen?

Eureka’s Future will be a workers co-operative – owned by the workers making the environmental products that other Australian workers will benefit from.

(Silent but illuminating clip from Democracy At Work Network – US based)

Also check out this FAQ from the Centre for Workplace Documentary on worker-ownership and co-ops.

Co-operatives are driven by seven simple principles

Table from ‘The UK co-operative economy Britain’s return to co-operation 2011′ – Co-Operatives UK

Co-operative history

Co-operatives were originally established as a practical means whereby working people could meet their everyday needs, as a route to building a better society. Their vision was not simply about credit or retailing, but about how, through self-help, they could improve their working and living conditions, and their communities.

Diverse sector

The co-operative sector is large and diverse. A co-operative is both an enterprise and, as a membership based and membership driven organisation, part of civil society. The prime purpose of all co-operatives is to meet the needs of their members, not to make a profit for shareholders. Much of the surplus earned by co-operative enterprises is used for social purposes. Co-operatives are governed on the principle of one member, one vote.

A global force

There are one billion members (3 times the number of individual shareholders) in co-ops worldwide. Three billion livelihoods are made secure by co-ops; in fact there are
one hundred million co-op jobs (20% more than all multinationals!).

The Mondragon miracle inspires Eureka’s Future

We have been inspired by the Mondragon miracle in Spain; the largest workers co-operative in the world.

Here is an illuminating trailer from “Shift Change” a documentary that highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America and in Mondragon, Spain.

Also – check out this article by Social Enterprise Catalyst at the Uniting Church, Antony McMullen for a personal perspective on the Earthworker project.

Much of the information in this section is directly taken from Promoting Co-operatives by the ILO.

I want to help – how do we get started?