To prevent foreign takeovers, Basque politicians promoted worker co-ops and social enterprises.
Governments can create legal structures to make it easier to start worker co-ops or convert existing businesses.
Jose Garcia, a program officer with the Surdna Foundation, says the foundation intends to build awareness of both Esops and worker co-ops among workers, business owners and policy makers.
He cites the €160m that MCC lost when Lehman Brothers went bust last year, and the group's failure to allow new worker co-ops.
Bob Cannell, member of Suma Wholefoods workers co-operative "Suma had its best ever business results in 2013 and there have been similar results for other worker co-ops such as Unicorn Grocery in Manchester.
Adding fuel to the fire is the news, earlier this month, that Spanish appliance company Fagor – part of the world's largest federation of worker co-ops, Mondragon – is headed for collapse.
If such a worker co-op sector were established economy-wide, we all could vote ― with ballots and our wallets ― for whatever mix of alternative enterprises we prefer.
Concrete knowledge, as well as ideological commitments, could inform democratic choices about what mix of capitalist and worker co-op enterprises best suit us.
However, the U.S. economy is skewed by a government that has provided a vast array of services, tax advantages, and subsidies to capitalist businesses, with nothing remotely comparable for worker co-op businesses. .
Similarly, the Labour Party in the U.K. is on record with a commitment to establish a major worker co-op sector of the U.K. economy if it is elected.
And if Republicans and Democrats are too dependent on capitalists' contributions, perhaps we need an independent political movement or a party to advocate for building such a worker co-op segment of the economy.
