Vernon Oakes on Cooperative Principles, Economic Dignity, and the Power of Shared Ownership

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): A Further Inquiry

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/30

Part 2 of 2

Vernon Oakes hosts Everything Co-op, a weekly radio show and podcast on cooperative economics airing on WOL 1450 AM in Washington, D.C. He is the General Partner of Everything: Coop Communications LLC. In 2024, Oakes was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame for elevating cooperative leaders and educating listeners nationwide. His program features practitioners across credit unions, workers, consumers, housing, and purchasing co-ops, emphasizing democratic governance, shared ownership, and community wealth-building. A seasoned manager and educator, Oakes spotlights evidence-based strategies for under-resourced communities to build equitable, resilient local economies through cooperation in the United States.

In this two-part interview with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Oakes frames strength as cooperation over domination and roots it in co-op values: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, and ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. He explains consensus-building as respectful conflict resolution, where decisions may be slower, but implementation is faster. Oakes highlights lifelong education as the fifth principle and ties cooperation to emotional intelligence and community dignity. Examples include credit unions, worker co-ops such as ChiFresh Kitchen, and Ujamaa in Pittsburgh; he notes that federations like Mondragón demonstrate that co-ops can scale. His closing: “There’s a co-op for that,” and “co-ops help people to come out of poverty with dignity”.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, metrics for success could include member well-being, community reinvestment, retention, and wage equity. How do you assess those — at least qualitatively, if not quantitatively — to see the real impact in communities that organize for and by themselves?

Vernon Oakes: I like to look at it through the cooperative principles. There are seven in total. The first is Voluntary and Open Membership — meaning anyone can join regardless of race, gender, political affiliation, religion, or age. It’s voluntary and inclusive. The second is Democratic Member Control — one member, one vote.

The third is Member Economic Participation — members invest in the co-op, usually through a membership fee. When there’s a profit, the members decide what to do with it. Typically, those funds go into one of three “buckets.”

Some profits are retained within the organization to support its growth. Some are directed to the broader community — donations, sponsorships, charitable efforts. And some go back to members as dividends, or “patronage,” so that members share in the wealth they helped create — not just through wages but through ownership.

Then there’s the Fifth Principle — Education, Training, and Information. This is my favourite and, I believe, the most significant benefit of joining a co-op. Education and training before you start, while you’re growing, and after you’ve matured — you never stop learning. It’s the foundation of cooperative success.

I learned about co-ops through my work in property management. I started managing affordable housing cooperatives — most of them led by Black women in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Many of these women, despite having only a high school diploma, made brilliant business decisions. They knew how to run a business and how to hold everyone — the property manager, the auditor, the lawyer — accountable. They made sure people did what they were hired to do.

It was through this process of continuous education, training, and information that I saw the power of the cooperative model. The sixth principle is Cooperation Among Cooperatives — meaning co-ops within a community work together for the benefit of that community and each other. And the seventh principle is Concern for Community — concern not only for people but for the planet itself. These ideas are built into the DNA of the cooperative movement.

Based on these principles and the values I mentioned earlier, co-ops help people learn how to work together — with respect and trust at the core.

Jacobsen: Critics sometimes say co-ops are slow. What’s your response to that?

Oakes: They are — absolutely. When you have a hundred-member co-op trying to make a significant decision, like whether to buy another building, and you want everyone’s input, that takes time. Getting everyone’s opinion to reach a collective choice slows things down.

But here’s the key: while decision-making is slow, implementation is fast. Once a decision is made collectively, everyone’s on board, and things move quickly. Of course, if there’s an urgent decision to make — say, a sudden market change — co-ops have committees, boards of directors, and hired management who can act faster when necessary. But overall, yes, co-ops are slower in deliberation because inclusivity takes time.

Jacobsen: There are also large-scale examples — Mondragón in Spain, for instance, or credit unions, or SACCOs in Africa. What do these show us about the success of co-ops in vastly different cultural and linguistic contexts?

Oakes: Mondragón is the best-known example. It’s a federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain, founded in 1956. I don’t recall the exact numbers now, but they’ve grown to around 81 cooperatives employing more than 70,000 people.

What’s remarkable is how they handle economic downturns. During the 2008 global recession, not one Mondragón worker was laid off permanently. Even when some businesses had to close, others absorbed those employees. Workers in healthier cooperatives took a 5–10 percent pay cut so everyone could keep earning a living. That’s humanity in action — philanthropy in its most valid form, caring for people.

And if we look at credit unions, they’re another kind of cooperative — consumer co-ops. The credit union movement in the United States was inspired by examples from Canada, particularly Alphonse Desjardins’ pioneering work in Quebec in the early 1900s. Those ideas spread south, becoming the foundation for the U.S. credit union system.

The people who deposit their money into a credit union own that financial institution. They can run for the board and help direct how the business operates. A credit union provides products and loans — to buy a car, a house, or even a computer for your children — at the lowest possible rates, because its purpose is to benefit its members.

Banks, on the other hand, serve shareholders. Their goal is to maximize profit by charging the highest rates possible for mortgages, car loans, computers, and student loans. Credit unions must still cover their expenses and maintain a margin to survive, but their focus is on what benefits the consumer, not outside investors.

There are many types of cooperatives beyond credit unions — rural electric co-ops in the U.S., and housing co-ops, which are especially strong in Canada, with some beautiful architectural examples. REI, the outdoor recreation retailer, is another consumer co-op. It began when a group of climbers — I believe in Seattle, not Colorado — pooled resources to import high-quality mountaineering gear that wasn’t otherwise available in the U.S.

My personal favorites, though, are worker co-ops — businesses owned and controlled by their employees. These are usually formed with extensive education and training, both at the start and throughout their growth. One example is ChiFresh Kitchen in Chicago. It was founded in 2020 by four Black women and one Black man, all formerly incarcerated. Because people returning from prison often face barriers to employment, they created their own jobs and ownership through a cooperative.

They began during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing prepared meals for churches, chartered schools, and hospitals. They succeeded — and then expanded, forming a housing co-op that now owns two buildings with nine units for ChiFresh workers. Over time, these interlinked cooperatives — housing, food service, and others — became a small ecosystem of mutual support.

There are also two other major cooperative models often used by farmers. The first is the purchasing co-op, where groups of farmers or small businesses come together to buy the equipment or supplies they need at a lower cost, like dairy farmers pooling resources for feed and machinery.

The second is the marketing or producer co-op, where farmers collaborate to sell their goods under a shared brand. Cabot Creamery and Ocean Spray are classic examples — farmer-owned cooperatives that process and market milk, cranberries, and other products collectively, ensuring stability and fair returns for their members.

These marketing cooperatives sell products to the marketplace and often add value by turning raw goods into finished products — for instance, Ocean Spray makes cranberry juice, or Cabot Creamery produces butter, cheese, and yogurt. This allows members to secure better prices and maintain more control over both what they buy and sell.

There’s also a cooperative in Pittsburgh called Ujamaa, founded primarily by Black women artists who create jewelry, paintings, and clothing. They maintain both a storefront and an online presence. Individually, the artists might not have been able to afford that space, but by working together cooperatively, they can.

Co-ops exist in countless forms and are all around us. ACE Hardware, for example, is a purchasing cooperative. These organizations do tremendous good for their communities. The money stays local — in worker co-ops, for instance, the workers live, earn, and spend in the same community.

In low-income areas, money might circulate only once — if it comes in at all — often leaving the community immediately through outside spending. In wealthier neighbourhoods, that same dollar might circulate five to eight times, supporting local growth and resilience.

Take Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before it was destroyed in 1921, reports indicated that money circulated thirty-two times within the community before leaving it. Residents earned, spent, and reinvested locally — at barbershops, blacksmiths, and other small businesses — fueling a thriving, self-sustaining economy.

Jacobsen: Any favorite quotes — biblical or cooperative — that you’d like to share?

Oakes: There’s one I always like to repeat: “There’s a co-op for that.” Whatever the community problem, there’s a cooperative — or one can be formed — to solve it. But my favourite is from Dame Pauline Green, former president of the International Cooperative Alliance: “Co-ops help people to come out of poverty with dignity.”

That dignity — the sense of self-worth, voice, and participation — is perhaps the greatest reward of all. Co-ops offer many forms of compensation, financial and otherwise.

Jacobsen: Excellent. Thank you very much for your time and expertise today. It was a pleasure speaking with you.

Oakes: Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it.

Jacobsen: Thank you very much. Take care.

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