Berlin’s Cleaning Co-op for Migrants w/ Rupay Dahm

There are a couple of thousand people working in worker co-ops across the UK. Collectively, that represents millions of pounds sitting idly in separate bank accounts, where it’s used by banks to pay shareholders and invest in things many of us would strongly oppose. What would it look like to pool more of that money... Read more »

Conflict is an inevitability, but most of us are surprisingly bad at dealing with it. We fall back on habits like avoidance, passive aggression, or lashing out. In a cooperative, when we’ve come together to increase our collective capacity, unresolved tensions can quickly bog us down, drain the energy and lead to disengagement. So what... Read more »

Rupay is an employment lawyer in Germany, fighting for workers’ rights. Frustrated, working in a system rigged against workers, he sought out more empowering alternatives and discovered worker cooperatives. After years of researching and advising them as a lawyer, he went on to write A Practical Guide to Democratising Companies and to co-found a cooperative... Read more »

Starting off as a small shop operating out of a loading bay to a thriving worker co-op that owns its own the entire building, has around 50 dedicated members and is a shining example of what worker cooperatives can accomplish. In this episode of Punchcard, Corrina and I talk about how Unicorn has become such... Read more »

Unfortunately not everybody’s experience of cooperatives is positive. For Elle, their time in co-operatives was both transformative, but also painful, marred by classism that often goes unnamed. In this episode of Punchcard, Elle and I talk about what classism looks like in co-ops, how we can transform it and why inclusion isn’t enough. Listen to... Read more »

Abbas Shapuri’s journey into the worker co-operative movement is not a typical one. Many worker co-operators arrive from the “alternative” or activist scenes. Abbas, however, came from the heart of capitalism: corporate accountancy. In this episode of Punchcard, Abbas and I talk about what led to him betraying his politics and values to work at... Read more »

Over a year and 8 episodes later, Punchcard has proven itself as a valuable resource for sharing and learning within the worker co-op network – exploring everything from making decisions and workplace democracy, to overcoming financial difficulties, to rethinking traditional approaches to diversity & inclusion. The first season was funded internally by workers.coop, who unfortunately... Read more »

Alice McLarnon grew up in Belfast during the Troubles, surrounded by violence, segregation, and 60-foot peace walls. In 2006, she joined the worker cooperative Trademark and was immediately struck by how different it was from anywhere she’d worked before.  Coming from low paid work in a chip shop and other hierarchical workplaces, she was shocked... Read more »

In this episode of Punchcard, we speak with Taylor Le Melle, a founding member of not/nowhere, a BPOC worker cooperative that supports artists to navigate the structures and institutions of the UK art world, unpacking harmful myths and helping artists to recognise and use their power in the industry. As a BPOC cooperative which is... Read more »

In this episode of Punchcard, we speak with Ai Van Kok, formerly a financial analyst at Leeds Bread Co-op. She joined the co-op when the co-op’s cashflow was at a critical moment—it was just months away from being unable to pay its worker’s wages. Facing an urgent crisis, Ai Van turned to traditional business management... Read more »