(Traduction FRAN) Greetings, members and friends of CWCF. In this International Year of Co-operatives, CWCF is pleased to announce that we have set the dates and venue for our AGM - Conference 2012: from November 8 to 10, at the Canterbury Hills Centre in Ancaster, Ontario, near Hamilton. We held our 2007 conference at the same place, and it is a beautiful conference centre in an extraordinary environment in the protected Carolinian forest. This year our intention is prioritize the issues that are of greatest current interest to members. Please think about what you would most like to discuss and learn about, and we will approach you in a couple of months to seek your input. In any case, please send us your suggestions at any time! We will also prioritize exchanges between and among participants. More

By Bruce Reynolds (Rural Cooperatives Magazine, US Dept. of Agriculture) - This conference proved to be extraordinary both in its international scope and in the expertise that speakers and audience brought to the discussion of issues in transitioning ownership to employees. Businesses that are suitable for ownership transfers need to be examined in terms of their future prospects. Here are a few takeaways from the Business Succession and Employee Ownership Conference: Small business owners can improve their opportunities and options for transferring ownership in the future if they get an early-start on succession planning; The relationship of an owner with employees needs to be sufficiently congenial that adjustments in attitudes and orientations of both parties can be made to form a co-operative. More

By Trudy Kelly Forsythe (The Atlantic Co-operator) - The arrival of a new year is always a great reason to celebrate, but this year parents in the greater Moncton area have one more reason - the opening of the Downtown Daycare Co-op in the city's new Peace Centre. The idea for the daycare co-op came about during the Women's Co-op Program, which is offered by the Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick (CECNB) and Support to Single Parents Inc. "In both classes that went through the program, there were women interested in doing a daycare," says Amanda Hachey, co-op developer with CECNB. "It was timely that the Peace Centre was being built. They were looking for a daycare to put in there that had to be non-profit and they thought we'd be the perfect fit." The Downtown Daycare Co-op will be operated by the First Step Worker Co-operative, CWCF's newest member. More

By Catherine Porter (Toronto Star) - Hey Occupy Toronto foodies: Instead of holing up inside the basement of a city-owned building on Queen West, you should come to the basement of the Community Health Centre in Parkdale. Here, something truly radical is brewing: the first food co-operative built in Toronto in 28 years. By next spring, the West End Food Co-operative will appear like a small grocery store in the basement of the community centre, its wooden shelves stocked with locally grown vegetables and locally made soaps. In the centre of the store will be a kitchen, where store employees will lead workshops with clients from upstairs. Workshops could include cooking with sex workers, or teaching Roma refugee families how to can tomatoes. And there will be a small café, where members can pick up a cup of fair-trade coffee and warm peach pie, made from the extra peaches a local farmer dropped off. More

December 15, 2011 - The Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (CWCF) stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Occupy movements around the world. CWCF shares the aim of ensuring that society is truly inclusive (both economically and politically) and just. Worker co-operatives are based on the principle of democracy in the economy and believe all people have value in the economy, not only the 1%. In October 2011, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives also issued their support. "As a national grassroots membership organization of worker co-op businesses owned and democratically controlled by our worker members - we support and are honored to join you in this call for an economy organized to meet human needs." More 

By Co-operative News - Specialist West Yorkshire-based wholesalers Suma scooped the prestigious Phillip Baxendale award for People and Culture at the recent Employee Ownership Association conference in Birmingham. Suma, the UK's largest independent wholefood wholesaler and distributor, specialising in vegetarian, fairly traded, organic and natural products and the UK's largest worker co-operative, was honoured because of its ethos of employee-ownership, transparency and meaningful engagement with employees and driving notable activity to strengthen a culture of productive partnership. Bob Cannell, Member Partner at Suma, said: "We are delighted and honoured to be given this award. Our multi-skilled, equal-status, self-managing working culture is a successful formula." More

By Gar Alperovitz (New York Times) - The Occupy Wall Street protests have come and mostly gone, and whether they continue to have an impact or not, they have brought an astounding fact to the public's attention: a mere 1 percent of Americans own just under half of the country's financial assets and other investments. America, it would seem, is less equitable than ever, thanks to our no-holds-barred capitalist system. But at another level, something different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing. More 

Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!): Alperovitz finds that 130 million Americans are members of some kind of co-operative, and 13 million Americans work in an employee-owned company. He says the U.S. may be heading toward something very different from both corporate-dominated capitalism and from traditional socialism. Gar Alperovitz: Well, it's piling up right beneath the surface, that the press, the normal press, hasn't been covering. You know, 130 million people, that's 40 percent of United States, involved in credit unions, co-ops all over the country, that don't get any publicity. And roughly 13 million people, in one kind or another, have worker-owned companies-again, five or six million more people than are involved in labor unions. And several states are attempting to set up state banks. More