Huff Post applauds Basque co-operative's alternative to capitalism

Shortly after the Wall Street Journal roundly excluded the city of Bilbao from its less than favorable reflection on the Spanish economy (and less than a year after Time magazine published a similar report) The Huffington Post, is the latest US journal to praise the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC) in Gipuzkoa.

Entitled ''An Alternative to Cutthroat Capitalism'', Founder and Executive Director of the Praxis Peace Institute (PPI), Georgia Kelly, describes a 5-day trip made by 25 PPI members to a seminar at the MCC, a journey that ''turned their worldviews upside down''.

For Kelly, Mondragón''s ''model of worker-owned businesses'' exemplifies a viable alternative to neoliberal capitalism: ''There is an alternative! And the Basques have proven it,'' she says.

Describing its beginnings from ''one small worker-owned cooperative'' to the current consortium of ''120 businesses with 100,000 workers'' with ''sales of 24 billion euros'' in 2007 and, crucially, a ''less than one percent'' failure in business during the economic recession, Kelly goes on to reveal what she believes is the secret behind the success of the MCC:

''A philosophy of human values, respect, and equality... The Mission of the Mondragón Cooperatives Corporation is to create wealth within society, to foster a people society instead of a capital society, to honor work with dignity and to limit the number of work hours''.

Kelly also praises the MCC''s ''flexibility in dealing with changing times'' and ''commitment to innovation and job creation'' - including thirteen Research and Development centers - as well as its ''approach of caring for the individual first''.

A hybrid, says Kelly, which combines ''innovation and social responsibility''.

Georgia Kelly and the Praxis Peace Institute ''a non-profit, peace-education organization dedicated to deep inquiry, constructive dialogue, creative problem solving, and informed civic participation'', were inspired by the MCC to hope its alternative may become a model for other economies:

Ending her article, Kelly reflects that ''the Basque region has the highest standard of living and the lowest unemployment rate in Spain; it also has the largest number of people involved in worker-owned businesses...''