In a beautifully composed family Christmas letter, the final paragraph is the closing stanza of a poem Walls and Bridges. It was written by the husband to his wife in celebration of their 53 years of marriage. The poem recounts his thoughts listening to a priest’s sermon in Hamilton, Montana during the peak of the 2024 election season.
You asked me why I go to church,
When so many that we know no longer do.
And I replied,
I don’t know where to find
A better explanation of the world
The way it is and the way
We want it to be.
A Cooperative Response to a Dominant Online Retailer
These Artisans Built a Coop Alternative to Etsy
The opening paragraphs of this December 11 article by Cinnamon Janzer of Next City:
In 2022, Etsy’s earnings topped $109 million in consolidated net income. “Despite significant macroeconomic headwinds, we maintained the vast majority of our pandemic gains and delivered double digit revenue growth and excellent profitability for the year,” Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said in a press release.
Days later, Silverman announced that the marketplace platform would raise the transaction fee Etsy takes from each sale from 5% to 6.5%. In response, some 14,000 Etsy sellers closed their shops and went on strike for eight days.
The article presents details of the initiative to build a better digital marketplace where members would own the platform.
The goal was to create an organization with a direct stake in the livelihood of its user artisans.
The Artisans Cooperative was launched in the fall of 2023.
The funding model is described on the website and includes both members and owners. Outside assistance from groups like Start a Coop, Operation Buffalo and Seed Commons was also important.
The effort is still a work in progress. No credit unions have apparently been involved yet. But it would seem a natural affiliation and potential further benefit of membership for the coops users.
The most important message is the artisan-organizer’s belief that people have the option to organize and manage their economic efforts with a cooperative design. Certainly a spirit much in need of rekindling in the much older and larger credit union system.
Read and ask if your credit union has this belief in its mission for its members.