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May 14th, 2008: In stormy times, a tool for cooperatives
We at The Working World are always proud to help in the strengthening of cooperatives in Argentina; specially in a moment such as this, where economic conditions at both the global and local level are becoming more difficult.
We have noticed that we have more requests from loans coming in at a faster rate than any other previous year, because as credit from commercial banks becomes more expensive and rising inflation distorts prices, the Working World Fund becomes a necessary tool to survive the rough waters of this period. In the first 5 months of the year, we have aproved and made 28 loans, more than double the amount we had made last year. This has stretched our fund to the limit, but fortunately coops have participated in the effort by returning the loans as quickly as their economy allowed them, so that we could meet other requests for loans.
We have also become an important tool for the cooperatives to acquire some liquidity - in other words, cold hard cash to pay for utilities and weekly salaries, instead of the post-dated checks which have become commonplace in Argentina's economy.
So we have been setting our sights towards increasing the fund substantially, so that we can make much larger loans that enable coops to plan ahead with large purchases that give them the stability which is increasingly difficult to maintain. We hope that our fundraising efforts are succesful and enable us to provide a more powerful option for coops to continue their hard-earned growth.
March 10th, 2008: Breaking out of the shell: new loans outside Buenos Aires
After three years of working with coops located inside Buenos Aires and its sprawling suburbs, The Working World is beginning to stretch its legs: since November 2007, four new loans have been approved that take us into an exciting new stage of territorial expansion.
The first loan was made to the INCOB recovered slaughterhouse, in the city of Bahia Blanca, 630 km away from our central office. The other three are in Argentina's second largest city, Rosario, 306 km. away, where we have contacted a promising solidarity group of cooperatives, most of them ex-bankrupt private companies now run as worker-owned establishments.
It is with great enthusiasm that we throw ourselves into this new possibility of bringing our assistance to democratic workplaces located far away from the all-absorbing metropolis that is Buenos Aires. It will be a challenge to maintain our levels of efficiency and low overhead, but the potential impact is promising enough that we are willing to take the challenge head on.
February 11th, 2008: Washington State students visit our cooperatives
On January 23rd and 25th, students from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, visited 4 of the coops with which we work. The group of 18 students from the Global Citizenship Course were interested in seeing alternative models of economic organization, and in gaining a deeper understanding of the consequences of globalization on the less powerful. So on two separate days, we took them on a rented van out to suburban Buenos Aires, to visit the twin footwear factories of Desde El Pie and Puporé first, and recovered factories Crometal and Huesitos on the second day.
The experience was moving, exciting and enriching for all involved: the warmth and openness of the coop members as they told the story of their hard-won triumphs made the students feel welcome and helped them to appreciate the difference in the working atmosphere of these democratic workplaces; such a sincere, smiling exchange would have been very difficult to achieve in a visit to traditional, privately-owned establishments. Big barbecues were set up by the coops to give the occasion its typically Argentine celebratory quality, and questions went back and forth as both groups learned from each other.
After such a succesful experience, the relationship between PLU and The Working World is set to continue over the long run, with students helping to publicize the cooperative's products sold on the Market website, and The Working World ready to receive new groups in the upcoming years.
See the photos: Huesitos - Crometal - Desde El Pie - Puporé
November 26th, 2007: New product: Women's shirt from Cerkoo
 Designed by women, made by women, and made for women, three new blouses have just been introduced in a joint effort of Ceres and the Working World. We have helped them out with some market testing and reactions have been very positive, but please let us know what you think!
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