BUILDING THE DEMOCRATIC ECONOMY

TWO FORMS of government have dominated in the west over the last hundred years. In one big power is vested in the state, the government and in the other policy is dominated by the influence of big industry, big corporations, or big money. But neither of those models has delivered on a promise of shared prosperity. Are there alternatives?

In Preston, Lancashire, England, a formerly industrial city, the birthplace of the industrial revolution in many ways, they are practicing and experimenting with a new economic model.

It has been called  the Preston model of community wealth building, and it’s inspired by a model in another formerly industrialised city: Cleveland, Ohio, the Evergreen Cooperative model. This episode of the Laura Flanders Show  looks at a transatlantic experiment in cooperative community wealth building. It features interviews with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell.