Cooperation vs. Authoritarianism in Spain

Photograph Source: dronepicr – Aerial view of Barcelona, Spain – CC BY 2.0

Spain is home to some of the world’s largest and most successful worker-owned co-ops, but you might be surprised to learn that these businesses formed under dictatorship. During and after Spain’s brutal civil war, particularly hard-hit areas survived repression thanks to cooperation and local self-reliance. Some endured decades of authoritarian rule and in so doing built an economy — and a culture — that is fundamentally collaborative, caring, and connected to community.

As the U.S. faces its own authoritarian regime, there’s much to learn from Spain’s co-ops. That’s why we’re re-airing this 2020 report across public television and radio this week.

I first went to the Basque region, during Donald Trump’s first term, to learn about the Mondragón Federation. Created in 1956, it’s now the world’s largest industrial co-op with about 70,000 employees, including thousands overseas. “Business became viewed, for a generation or more, as a place for progressive people to express their values,” explained Fred Freundlich, a professor at Mondragón University, a university funded by the Federation. “It’s not enough on its own as a response to fascism or authoritarianism anywhere, but it is a significant part.”

In the Catalonia region, about 300 miles east of Mondragón, I met with historian Ivan Miró. He told me about efforts to build a cooperative city. “For us, municipalism is not just a local political action made by the local governments. We understand municipalism is the collective action from the neighborhood.”

Barcelona was once deemed “The Red City” by Franco for its unions, co-ops and social economy. Decades later, residents would elect the first woman mayor Ada Colau and her party “Barcelona En Comú” — a movement for the expansion and preservation of publicly-shared assets and the commons.

Can cosmopolitan Barcelona build a commons that really is for everyone?