Hi! You’re one of a bit over a hundred people who subscribed to this newsletter a while ago. Are you reading it as an email? Reading it at all? I would really like to know. I’ve been down so many rabbit holes since I shared anything here and have a lot of thoughts to share but for now here is some news:
there is a new music platform called Subvert, affectionately known as ‘socialist Bandcamp’, that just launched today. Bandcamp has been known for a while as the best way to support musicians by sending them money directly, but the truth is that it’s always been a company that’s put its own profits above musicians, its own tech workers or listeners. In 2023 it was bought by Songtradr and laid off half its staff overnight, soon after workers had voted to unionise. Except on ‘Bandcamp Fridays’, a decent chunk of the pay for albums and tracks goes to the company.
Subvert is a new type of tech company called a platform cooperative: it’s owned and controlled by its members, both artist and listeners. I joined as an artist-member a few months ago, which has made me entitled to participate in discussions and vote on decisions about the platform. Today is their launch, and to support I’ve put up the music that was on my Bandcamp as well as a new release exclusive to Subvert called Soft Body Death Highway. You can listen (or purchase if you like) here.
In 2020 I completed a course ‘How to start a worker cooperative’ run with the support of Earthworker Cooperative. The course was a pilot program taught primarily by Katherine Cunningham who I was shocked and saddened to learn passed away only a few days ago. Her passion and generosity with this course really impacted me. It was packed full of ideas and useful information and above all a spiritual drive to find a pathway to sustainable new models for how to live our lives and work to make our communities better under the misery of capitalism.
There’s a lot to be said about Katherine who I knew only for a short period and in only a few of her many capacities but it’s clear she was a brilliant person who was dedicated to making life richer. So much love and respect to her family and close people <3
Cooperatives are a big topic I have a lot to say about but perhaps a few points Katherine made so clearly in that course can help speak to what I find compelling about them:
For-profit corporations are legally bound to act in the interests of shareholders which is always defined as maximising profit
Cooperatives, whether for- or not-for-profit, are legally bound to act in the interests of members, and these interests can be defined in whatever way the members see fit
This means if protecting the environment, or contributing to community resources, or creating excellent working conditions, is defined as higher priority than profit, that is how the cooperative will act. The other big point I found compelling:
Corporations gain market power by exploiting economies of scale - by operating at a large scale they can extract efficiencies from their production processes that would be unachievable at smaller scales
Cooperative agreements can allow individually resource-constrained actors to access the benefits of economies of scale by working together, making it possible to compete with capitalist incumbents
I’m not under any illusions that these structures are the silver bullet to overthrow capitalism, but I do believe they are a pragmatic model that in some situations can provide real benefits and support people to practice the kind of participatory democracy that would be require of us in any real successor to our current alienating system. I hope that is enough reason to see this new platform as a sliver of hope worth being excited about.
That’s all for now! Much love, Meri x
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