{"id":40825,"date":"2026-11-10T18:49:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=40825"},"modified":"2026-11-10T18:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:55:31","slug":"humanity-at-work-the-mondragon-cooperatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=40825","title":{"rendered":"Humanity at work: the Mondragon cooperatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . .<\/p>\n

An article from the substack of Marilyn Langlois<\/a><\/p>\n

The 70 year-old integrated network of worker-owned cooperatives based in Mondragon, Spain, are a refreshing island of positive peace in a swamp otherwise plagued by greed-fueled discord, fragmentation and stinging inequality. In 2010 I attended a seminar in Mondragon organized by Praxis Peace Institute<\/a>, and another one this past October, 2026, to get updates. It was gratifying to see that the Mondragon cooperatives are still going strong and a beacon for the future.<\/p>\n

Currently comprising 92 worker cooperatives, 62 of them industrial plus a major supermarket chain, a bank, a social services provider, research and development centers, consultancies, a few agricultural operations, schools and a university, the Mondragon cooperative corporation <\/a> has close to 60,000 voting worker-owners with annual sales of over 11 billion euros.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

As Ander Etxeberria, Director of Dissemination at Mondragon cooperatives headquarters, explained to us key social values that undergird the cooperatives, including:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Auzolan<\/em> (Basque concept meaning the community can do it! <\/em> or joining forces to accomplish a difficult task for the common good)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Sacrifice and generosity<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Self-responsibility<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Democracy and participation<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Learning by doing<\/p>\n

The Mondragon cooperatives defy alleged gravitational forces the dominators would have us believe are immutable. To those who claim we\u2019d see little progress or innovation without dangling the possibility of entrepreneurial risk takers making a killing in personal wealth from their efforts, Mondragon\u2019s top managers, engineers and researchers prove otherwise.<\/p>\n

Inspiration along with ethical and practical guidance came from the Catholic priest Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta who got to know the needs of the post-war economically depressed community of Mondragon in the Basque region in the 1940\u2019s and \u201850\u2019. To most effectively meet those needs, he instilled values of creativity, collaboration and social cohesion, with a view of work not as punishment but rather as a service to the community and a path towards personal development.<\/p>\n

At the time there were scattered small agricultural and crafts cooperatives among traditional top-down enterprises. The hilly and mountainous region had long been home to various industries in its narrow river valleys, including manufacture of swords in past centuries and a firearm factory that switched to making sewing machines in the 1920\u2019s. The blossoming of the Mondragon cooperative network, emphasizing the manufacture of useful products geared towards peaceful co-existence, demonstrates a fulfillment of the biblical admonishment of turning swords into plowshares.<\/p>\n

In 1956, five former students of the vocational school Arizmendiarrieta had founded launched Ulgor, a company making kerosene heaters, based on cooperative principles including worker ownership and democratic decision making. As the business grew, new products and additional worker-owners were brought on board. Soon new cooperatives were established to produce needed parts and components.<\/p>\n

At present Mondragon\u2019s industrial cooperatives manufacture a wide array of practical high-tech products, including commercial appliances, automotive systems, industrial components, high-precision machine tools, robotics, sports equipment, medical and hospitality furnishings, assembly process automation, gas technology, solar energy systems and much more. High standards of environmental protection and sustainability are maintained. Neither weaponry nor ravenous financial derivatives are on their product palette.<\/p>\n

Success would not have been possible in the face of stiff competition and periodic economic downturns without a commitment to constant re-evaluation and innovation, supported by 12 research and development centers, business incubators, a university with schools of engineering, business, pedagogy and gastronomy and a cooperative bank to provide financing.<\/p>\n

Yet all of that innovation has come without any need for a few individuals to receive exhorbitant compensation. Among the 10 core cooperative principles, wage solidarity <\/em>is a crucial one that we could all learn from. Recognizing the different levels of skills and responsibilities for various jobs, but still wanting to avoid excessive income disparities, the Mondragon cooperatives initially established a 1:3 ratio between the lowest and highest paid workers. In the 1990\u2019s that ratio was adjusted to 1:6, where it still stands today. In other words, top managers and engineers all receive a good salary (technically called an advance on future profits) that allows for very comfortable living, but none receive the kind of stratospheric remuneration that is common among Fortune 500 corporations. And yet they stay (with rare exceptions) and clearly find the rewards of knowing they participate in stimulating activities that are good for all the workers and the broader community to be ample motivation.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nQuestion related to this article:<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

How can we develop the institutional framework for a culture of peace?<\/a><\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n

(Article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, the Mondragon cooperatives are not non-profit social enterprises. They are for-profit businesses. Maintaining profitability is essential to survival of their mission to create and maintain high quality jobs. It\u2019s what they do with their profits and the relationship between workers and capital that are key.<\/p>\n

Around 30% of profits are placed in the workers\u2019 individual capital accounts (which are paid out upon retirement); another 60% are re-invested in the company or used to spin off new cooperatives and 10% are contributed to the broader community (schools, culture, sports etc.)<\/p>\n

The difference to business as usual in capitalist societies in a nutshell: In traditional corporations, power rests with capital (top shareholders and executives) while workers are used as tools (and often discarded). In the Mondragon cooperatives, power rests with the workers, and capital is used as a tool<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Each Mondragon cooperative holds an annual general assembly where all workers to vote on key decisions like budgets and strategic plans. Because some of the companies are quite large with several hundred or over a thousand workers, general oversight and day to day decisions are handled by a governing council of elected worker representatives, which also appoints and supervises management who are tasked with implementing overarching goals. The governing councils serve the interests of workers as co-owners to keep the business financially healthy and sustainable.<\/p>\n

Each cooperative also has an elected social council that serves the interests of workers as workers, addressing issues of working conditions, workplace safety and conflict resolution. Personnel departments are staffed with psychologists and sociologists, not lawyers. Conflicts are addressed in with a problem solving, non-adversarial approach focusing on dialog.<\/p>\n

A key feature of the Mondragon cooperatives is the concept of intercooperation<\/em>, which is key to the resilience and ongoing vitality of the whole network. While each cooperative is autonomous in its governance and functioning, they can choose to participate in and contribute to the larger umbrella of the Mondragon cooperative corporation. When companies don\u2019t have to focus on maximizing profits for share-holders and top executives, they can afford to put some funds into the supporting pillars of intercooperation.<\/p>\n

One pillar is Lagun Aro, which provides social services to cooperative members, including health, pension and unemployment benefits to supplement Spanish government benefits. Cooperatives can communally source raw materials and energy under more favorable conditions than if they did so individually. They offer diverse and often complementary products and services, always avoiding direct competition with each other. And when times are tough and a cooperative has to reduce the workforce, every effort is made to place workers in other cooperatives. During severe economic downturns, workers throughout the network may agree to a temporary small cut in pay, take a somewhat early retirement or go on 1-2 years receiving unemployment benefits while re-training. The ultimate goal is always to maintain and grow jobs while avoiding lay-offs.<\/p>\n

Big challenges remain in today\u2019s ever changing and uncertain world. The overall number of worker-members of the Mondragon cooperatives has gone down somewhat in the past 16 years due to a number of factors, including increased automation and AI (although new avenues for job creation in the automation sector are constantly being pursued), reduced hiring of new workers as others retire, and the decision by a few cooperatives to leave the Mondragon cooperative corporation and operate independently.<\/p>\n

The Mondragon network of cooperatives, while sizable, is but one example among many smaller worker owned cooperative businesses that exist and thrive in the Basque region, all over Spain, and in many countries throughout the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s noteworthy that the Mondragon cooperatives got their start during the fascist Franco dictatorship, likely staying under the radar of the regime by being seen as merely another Catholic church activity. Otherwise, if scrutinized, Franco would surely have outlawed them for being communist.<\/p>\n

Even uber-capitalist, individualistic US with its pockets of grinding poverty and immense wealth disparities–where dreams of rags to riches are exceedingly rarely realized–is home to many worker cooperatives and support organizations like the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives <\/a> and Seed Commons <\/a> that persist valiantly in promoting workplace democracy and wage solidarity.<\/p>\n

Cooperatives can also thrive in socialist or communist settings. A decade ago, following much discussion among the population, Cuba instituted a new economic law that among other things offers support to workers who wish to convert certain state-owned enterprises into worker cooperatives. It\u2019s been slow going, hampered by the crippling economic embargo the US has inflicted, but is seen as a step for worker empowerment and energizing the economy.<\/p>\n

Worker cooperatives clearly offer a model that transcends both capitalist and socialist ideologies while embodying hands-on democracy in daily life. As long as cooperatives remain the exception to the rule, one wonders how we can nurture truly democratic processes in our political life, when experiencing meaningful participatory decision-making at work is so rare. If the social, economic and organizational model of worker-owned cooperatives in an integrated ecosystem of voluntary intercooperation were more widely embraced, the human family could experience much greater vibrancy, harmony and peace.<\/p>\n

Seven years ago I penned these thoughts on the future of work<\/a>. What would work look like in your ideal world?<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION . . An article from the substack of Marilyn Langlois The 70 year-old integrated network of worker-owned cooperatives based in Mondragon, Spain, are a refreshing island of positive peace in a swamp otherwise plagued by greed-fueled discord, fragmentation and stinging inequality. In 2010 I attended a seminar in Mondragon organized by … Continue reading Humanity at work: the Mondragon cooperatives<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,75],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-40825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy","category-europe","tag-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40830,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40825\/revisions\/40830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}