Glossary

Confused by some of the terms used throughout the toolkit? Learn more about key concepts here!

Capital

“A factor of production (land and its resources, financial assets, labor, ideas, etc.) that is not wanted for itself but for its ability to help in producing other goods or services. This definition can be applied to ‘natural capital,’ or ‘financial capital.’ In this view, capital is not good or bad, it is the resources required to achieve a purpose. Capital can be governed as commons/communalized, or enclosed as private property.”
- Quoted from Movement Generation

Capitalism

Capitalism is best understood not simply as a system of free markets and private (as opposed to state) ownership but in terms of relations of production. At the heart of capitalism is an exploitative relation between owners and workers in which the former party has significantly more decision-making power than the latter. Workers sell their labor to the owner who extracts surplus value (profits) from their labor then decides what to do with the profits without input from the workers.

Class

Class describes relations of power and exploitation in economic production. While class barriers are fluid and difficult to define, anyone who has to sell their labor and does not control a company’s production or profit distribution may be considered “working class.” Those who control large businesses and profit from others’ labor—the proverbial one percent—are the “capitalist class.” The “middle class” shares traits with the other two classes: they have some control over their own or others’ labor, but their power is still quite limited (e.g., middle managers, professors, small business owners). While popular notions of class sometimes include income levels, education levels, or social status, these are often the product of a deeper issue: the power one has over their labor.

Deep solidarity

Deep solidarity is a recognition that the 99 percent of us who have to work for a living are in the same boat. Deep solidarity does not cover over differences or imply that we are all the same, rather it calls us to use our differences productively for the benefit of all working people. Click here to learn more.

Economic democracy

An economic philosophy and framework in which economic power is decentralized and democratized, unlike our current system characterized by concentrations of economic power among an elite minority. In production, economic democracy describes a situation in which workers democratically control the production and profit-distribution process. Worker cooperatives are one significant form of economic democracy. Without economic democracy, political democracy is limited and often corrupted by unjust distributions of economic power.

Equity

The ownership interest in a business, typically calculated by subtracting all liabilities (amounts owed) from all assets (amounts and property owned). In worker cooperatives, equity is generally made up of investments by worker-owners, other than loans, and the cumulative profits of the business. (From: www.co-oplaw.org)

Extractive Economy

“An economy based on the removal of wealth from communities through the depletion and degradation of natural resources, the exploitation of human labor and the accumulation of wealth by interests outside the community (i.e. big banks, big oil and big corporations). The purpose of the Extractive Economy is the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few, enforced through the violent enclosure of land, labor and capital.”
- Quoted from Movement Generation

Labor

An expression of human creativity and agency, which sustains and fundamentally shapes human lives. In our current economic system, labor refers to human work in the production of goods or exchange of services, typically performed for a wage that often underestimates its value. Reproductive labor, such as caring for others, can be more fundamental than productive labor but is often unpaid and performed by women and minorities. The majority of the population has to work for a living (the so-called “99 percent”).

Labor Union 

An organization consisting of workers in a related workplace, or type of job, or industry, who come together in order to negotiate the terms of employment (i.e. wages and working conditions) with their employer. Members of the labor union typically sustain the organization through the paying of dues. For more on what unions do, click here.

Mondragon

The largest conglomerate of worker cooperatives in the world was founded in 1956 in the Basque region of Spain by a Catholic priest. The center of this collection of 96 cooperatives is the town of Mondragon. The cooperatives are owned by the workers and produce everything from sliding doors and bicycles to medical devices used around the world. For more on Mondragon, click here.

Patronage

The volume or value (or both) of a patron’s purchases from, and use of services furnished by, a cooperative, and products and services provided by the patron to the corporation for marketing. In a worker cooperative, a patron is a worker member, and patronage is measured by work performed. (From: www.co-oplaw.org)

Pre-apprenticeship Training

A program that provides employment training in order to enter into a specific trade or job, such as in the building trades (construction, electrician, plumber, bricklayer, etc.). Apprenticeship programs are usually paid, on-the-job training programs, and pre-apprenticeship training gives interested workers an overview of any given job or industry prior to an apprenticeship.

Power

The ability to affect change. The economy is defined by relations of power, and malignant expressions of power rely on top-down control, exploitation, and coercion. But power itself is not inherently bad. Thus, creating a just economy is not about divesting from power but organizing power democratically and cooperatively among workers for the well-being of people and the planet.

Social Venture / Social Enterprise

According to the Social Enterprise Alliance, a social venture or enterprise “can be challenging to define, in large part because the concept has been evolving rapidly in recent years and increasingly blurs the lines of the traditional business, government and non-profit sectors.” They suggest the following basic working definition: Organizations that address a basic unmet need or solve a social or environmental problem through a market-driven approach. Click here to learn more.

Solidarity Economy

The International Labor Organization talks about the solidarity economy being a “concept designating enterprises and organizations, in particular cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, associations, foundations and social enterprises, which have the specific feature of producing goods, services and knowledge while pursuing both economic and social aims and fostering solidarity.” Learn more here.

Union Cooperatives

Based on the Mondragon model of cooperatives (see above) union cooperatives are for-profit enterprises owned and run by the employees who in addition use the collective bargaining process of a union. Read more on the model. To stay informed on developments see the Union Co-ops Council

Worker Cooperative

According to the International Cooperative Alliance, a cooperative is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.” Cooperatives are values-based businesses with a multiple bottom-line: people, planet, profit, community. Worker cooperatives, in particular, are owned and controlled by workers themselves (“worker-owners”) on the principle of “one member, one vote.” Click here to learn more.