Richard D. Wolff

My question is simple. Worker co-ops require all the people who work to keep a corporation going, to work...cooperatively, and to decide on what to do to keep that company going (profit distribution, work organization, production methods, etc), and in so doing they function as both owner and employee. Every, single, time, that humans gather and clump into a large group to organize *anything* they organize into hierarchies based on following the alpha male, which in our theoretical worker co-op would be the original founder. Now, can someone tell me, please, how do we get past the DNA driven, tribal behavior, that can cause people to essentially step on the next guy, to get to the top of the worker co-op heap? So to speak. I've lived in a small community that functioned as a farming co-op, and people still formed cliques, and whether by intention or not, socially *excluded* those who came along after them. So, it didn't feel like a successful social experiment at all. The only thing I can think of to rectify this, is rules. Staunch, in place, bold in legal contract language, which keeps people in check. I watched the entire PBS special on Mondragon, and not ONCE did anyone mention this as a problem, and I suspect that's because Spain is heavily influenced by the church, so people there are/were just used to following direction and staying in line - and only have to worry about conflicting messaging when they go home and turn on the TV.