On May 2, 2016, Dr. DeFreitas introduced the screening of the documentary “Shift Change” at the Hofstra University Cultural Center. The inspiration for creating this documentary was related to Bernie Sanders' shocking presidential candidacy; Shift Change explores what “democratic socialism” means in the United States and Spain today. There are several public officials, business owners and employees who have found new and innovative ways to work together and bring decent jobs and stability back to their communities. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Mondragon, Spain, “shared capitalism” has been in play for a long time now and continues to thrive in the current times. Cooperatives have emerged over the decades; in the 1960s Spain already had numerous cooperatives. These places are managed by their workers. They have been so successful in Spain that a group of cooperatives have even made the premise of continuing their studies at what is called Mondragon University. Many parts of the United States have also adopted the beneficial methods of shared capitalism. Some places include San Francisco California and Cleveland, Ohio. Another location that contains a particularly large number of cooperatives is the town of Isthmus in Madison, Wisconsin. One of the cooperatives in this part of Wisconsin is called “Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing Coop”. This is a place where mechanical engineers can be creative, which is very important to Scott Smith as well as many other co-op employees. The other employees interviewed by here made sure to mention that they don't work at Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing Coop for the money, and if the company doesn't do very well for a while it's their consequence in exactly the same way that it is to their advantage when the company does well. The reason for this is because they are really responsible as they make all their decisions together. They are democratic and everyone has a vote, so all employees give their opinions and input. A second cooperative brought into focus during this documentary is titled "Nature's Bakery". This place is big enough to be a local bakery because it also has its own pharmacy and its own cosmetics line. Employees who worked at this cooperative and were interviewed for the documentary spoke about how they prefer to play a significant role in their work but also not be the owners. The democratic socialism that employees have where they are all equal makes them very suitable for their position. Linda Wilson, for example, is a pharmacist at Nature's Bakery and has an important role in choosing the medicinal products they provide. He explained that it shouldn't be up to the owner to choose these types of products since the pharmaceutical part wouldn't be something a general owner would know much about. Wilson also pointed out that since she is the one handling the medicine, she prefers to have the authority to choose what she has. A US cooperative that was interviewed in Shift Change and talked about how it extends the work it does outside the US is called “Small Farmers, Big Change”. It all started in September 2008 with Equal Exchange when they used Panamanian cocoa beans to make their first chocolate bar. The way the Small Farmers Big Shift works is that there is a symbiotic relationship between small farms in countries (generally in Central America) and American coffees; the process involves.
tags