With the impending mass of retiring business owners and the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to threaten small businesses, co-operatives must play a key role in the recovery of our economy. We believe that one non-partisan solution, the Capital for Cooperatives Act, is important to the health of our economy, because cooperatives have shown they are more resilient to shocks in the market and promote price stability by the absence of the fundamental employee-employer conflict and the shared risked between workers.
As Americans we believe in democracy, and that includes democracy at work. Cooperatives are businesses organized, owned, and governed by the people that use them. That’s why Columbia DSA has endorsed the Capital for Cooperatives Act and we are calling on all of South Carolina’s Congresspeople and Senators to co-sponsor the same (S. 1736 & H.R.6317).
The Capital for Cooperatives Act would remove bureaucratic measures that keep cooperatives from growing and thriving. It would make it easier for co-ops to receive Small Business Administration loans and collaborate with the Interagency Working Group on Cooperative Development to develop recommendations and cooperate with federal agencies and other entities to “promote, support, and increase the number of co-operatives” in the US.
This act is supported by more than 300 co-operatives and organizations including the Democracy at Work Institute and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. With nearly 30,000 U.S. cooperatives operating at 73,000 locations throughout the U.S., generating over $500 billion in revenue and providing over $25 billion in wages, we call on Senators Graham & Scott and Representatives Clyburn, Duncan, Mace, Norman, Rice, Timmons, and Wilson to cosponsor the non-partisan Capital for Cooperatives Act.
