Firestorm Books

Asheville NIMBYs would rather see marginalized ppl sleep on the street in someone else's neighborhood than sleep in a bed in theirs. https://twitter.com/ursulawren/status/1466836625103720448 …

8/ Lastly it's important to name that co-ops aren't inherently virtuous. (We once heard about a tech co-op with CIA contracts ) You can be a toxic workplace or a shitty brand with any ownership structure!

7/ Counterfeit co-ops shouldn't be a surprise given the horrid behavior of various "progressive" and "radical" Asheville businesses over the last few years. But as an actual co-op, it's upsetting to regularly see undemocratic, for-profit companies capitalizing off our values.

6/ It's unclear how much co-op washing is malicious vs ignorant. For example we've heard businesses claim to be worker-owned because their owner(s) "work in the business." Others have essentially suggested that their workplace culture supersedes their ownership structure.

5/ Recently a prominent local biz directory was incorrectly labeling businesses as "cooperative or employee-owned (ESOP)." We objected and some entries were removed, but the directory continues to be a source of misinformation, displaying the opt-in selections of proprietors.

4/ This seems to be partly a result of a sloppy association with "hippie stuff"—culture substitutes structure and the health food store down the street gets referred to as "the co-op" by ppl who are too new to town to remember when there was an actual co-operative grocer there.

3/ As it turns out many people don't know exactly what a co-op is or isn't. Several years ago, a large number of people voted for a sole proprietorship in the Best of WNC's "Co-op/Worker-Owned Business" category. Discouragingly the erroneous award was bestowed without objection.

2/ Use of the term "co-operative" is not regulated in the US, but organizations like the @USFWC vet applications against reputable standards and offer a public directory of their members. Still, anyone is free to mis/use the label and it's on consumers to identify the fraudsters.

1/ There's a long history of small businesses in #Asheville pretending to be democratic workplaces or even collectives. It's a weird phenomenon that highlights the collision of our community's love for progressive ideas with the sleazy reality of small scale capitalism.