[act-ma] 4-18 @ 6:30 PM at Citywide Senior Center, Cambridge, Harvest Member Forum, site of a developing Co-op Member Revolution

[R. Wayne Clark]

Fellow Activists,

 

On Tuesday evening (04-18) @ 6:30 PM at Citywide Senior Center, 806
Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA, the Harvest Board is hosting a “Member
Forum”.  This will be the first opportunity for Members to tell the Board what
we think about how they have been managing our co-op.

 

In the opinion of many Members, the current Harvest Board has been doing a very
inadequate job of guiding and managing our co-op.  We should all attend and tell
them this in the strongest language.  If the Members finally stand up to the
Board, this could be the start of a Member Revolution in the Co-op Movement in
Boston.

 

Previously, I have discussed why we should do this – if you did not get the
message, please send me a request and I’ll provide it.  Now, is the time to lend
your voice of the chorus of Members taking control of their co-op.  Come join
the Member Revolution.

 

See you on the front lines, Wayne.

 

 

From: R. Wayne Clark [mailto:rwayneclark at igc.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2017 07:56
To: act-ma at act-ma.org
Subject: 4-14 @ 6 PM at Spontaneous Celebration, Harvest Co-op Member's Summit
II

 

Fellow Harvest Members and other Activists,

 

Time draws near.  Within the next few weeks, Harvest Co-op will either
experience a Member Revolution or the Board will lead Harvest Co-op Markets into
bankruptcy.  On Friday night, April 14th, 2017, we will continue to plot the
Revolution @ 6 PM for potluck & 7 PM for meeting at Spontaneous Celebration (45
Danforth St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, Phone: 617-524-6373).  There, some
Members of Harvest Co-op will be holding a Second Member Summit to extend our
strategy for turning Harvest into a Real Co-op, with Member Involvement &
Participation primary and with Member Empowerment as its core value.

 

Come, help our Members save Harvest Co-op from destruction.

 

I hope to see you there, Wayne.

 

PS:  Be sure to put the Harvest Board-convened “Member Forum” on your calendar
for Tuesday, April 18, 2017 @ 6 – 8:30 PM, at the Citywide Senior Center, 806
Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA (across street from Cambridge City Hall ).
There might be interesting fireworks – it could be destination viewing for
enthusiasts of political struggle.  Thx, WC.

 

 

  _____  

From: R. Wayne Clark [mailto:rwayneclark at igc.org] 
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2017 07:45
To: 'act-ma at act-ma.org'
Subject: 3-31 @ 6 PM at Spontaneous Celebration, Harvest Co-op Member Summit

 

Comrades,

 

I have written to you before about the political struggle at Harvest Co-op.
Last October, I circulated "An Open Letter to the Left Community on the future
of the Revolution", although I admit its circulation was not wide. [If you would
like a copy of this short missive, please send me an email request.]  In this
Letter, I explained the historic juncture for co-ops in general and Harvest in
particular that is occurring right now.

 

This coming Friday evening (2017-Mar-31) @ 6 PM, at Spontaneous Celebration (45
Danforth St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, Phone: 617-524-6373), some Members of
Harvest Co-op will be holding a Member Summit to plan a strategy for turning
Harvest into a real co-op, with Member Involvement and Participation, with
Member Empowerment as its core value.

 

Right now, Harvest Co-op is dominated by a management-centered approach to
co-ops, in which “professional” Management is all that is needed to run the
co-op efficiently and Members just get in the way; so, their input should be
ignored.  In this approach to operation of a co-op, Management lords over not
only the Members, but also over the Workers.  Unfortunately (or, fortunately,
depending on how you look at it), this Management approach is failing and
Harvest Co-op Market is losing significant money daily.

 

The Harvest Real Co-op Initiative (Harvest_RCI) is attempting to turn Harvest
into a Member-centered co-op, where the purpose of management is to deliver what
Members want and not the other way around.  In this approach, Members are
Empowered to participate actively (or, as actively as they want) in making their
own food choices and in becoming involved in the operation of the co-op, which
they own.  If we can change Harvest to emphasize Member Empowerment, then we may
be able to turn around these losses and save Harvest as a co-op.

 

I would like to remind activists that historically, co-ops have been a source of
strength and of many different types of support for the left in its struggle
against rule by the 1%.  Unfortunately, this has not been true of Harvest Co-op
in a while.  We need to return the co-op movement to its historical role by
returning Harvest to being a Real Co-op.

 

Please come plan the revolt.

 

Co-operatively, Wayne.

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Act-MA [mailto:act-ma-bounces at act-ma.org] On Behalf Of Adam Frost

Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 00:33

To: act-ma at act-ma.org

Subject: [act-ma] Invitation to co-operate

 

Invitation to co-operate

 

Dear Friends,

 

The following are some thoughts and an invitation about our local Boston food
co-operative, Harvest Co-operative Food Markets.  But it is also a meditation on
what makes our community healthy, and a brief memoir about what I’ve learned as
a member of a co-operative, and how that learning has woven into my efforts to
be a computer helper, business co-ordinator/owner and educator.  I hope you’ll
find it interesting, and I hope it will encourage all of us to find ways to be
part of the co-operative movement.

 

I lived for many years in New Haven, Connecticut, and then found myself
commuting on Amtrak to Boston to visit my girlfriend Nina. One day, we were
walking by a non-descript, large building—it had formerly been a tire
warehouse—and Nina said, “I think you would like this place”.  It was the Boston
Food Co-op, which twenty-five years ago was thriving in Allston, occupying a
building our co-op owned entirely—we were even collecting rent from the Mazda
repair place next door.

 

The Boston Food Co-op had a large community room that hosted yoga classes, films
– delightfully called “Cinema Coöp”. the umlaut emphasizing how European and
sophisticated we were—and a weekly Sunday brunch attended by dozens of members
from all walks of life.  We had a large member work program that allowed folks
with lower incomes to afford organic and natural foods—if you worked 2 and half
hours a week, you got a 24% discount.

 

As with many other food co-ops across the country, the co-opy parts were
gradually dismantled by leadership and consultants who placed the emphasis on
being a food store first and a community center third or fourth. The member work
program was shut down, and with it the discount many of us needed. We sold the
building and rented in JP, giving up the community room, bathroom, and virtually
all community activities, since there was no room for them. When a new store was
opened in Forest Hills, it too had no community space and no member activities
to speak of.

 

Now, in 2017, with a radical conservative administration in Washington, and
disruptive and often regressive economic institutions dominating our economy,
the Harvest Food Co-op is getting ready to close its doors as it faces another
year of huge losses.  Why is the co-op doing so badly?  Many on the board and
the co-op’s consultants blame competition from the many other stores selling
organic and natural foods. This is an accurate diagnosis as far as it goes, but
it mixes up the cause of the disease with the symptom.  People aren’t shopping
at the co-op because they are not committed to it and involved in it—in so many
ways, it is not a co-operative place.

 

The essence of a co-operative place is where each person who comes in is
welcomed not just for her shopping dollar, but for her mind, her interests, her
desire to collaborate with other people. And the rewards of this kind of
organization are huge. I’ll just mention one of them, which affected my life and
my job. When I first became a member of the food co-op, I had just moved to
Boston, knew few people, and had no business connections. I was starting my
computer helping business in this new city. To make money while I gradually
built up my practice, I did gardening in the summers. I posted a note on the
board outside the Allston store offering my gardening services (“The Quiet
Gardner—lawns and gardens gently tended, hand tools used only”).  A member saw
it, liked the vibe, and told a friend, who hired me. It turned out my new
customer also ran a non-profit organization, which became my one of my first
Boston computer customers.

 

I had posted flyers about my computer business all over, but my gardening flyer
at the co-op achieved much more than dozens of flyers in places without a
trusting and connected community. This just a tiny example of the way a co-op
can bring a community together and let us help each other.

 

I would love it if we can build these kind of co-operatives in Boston.

Would you like to start with this failing co-operative, to rebuild it and
re-create it together?  I think it will bring us joy and profit to do so.

 

Email me if you’d like to join our online efforts
(adamfrost at computerCareandLearning.com), come join us at a planning meeting at
Spontaneous Celebrations, Friday March 31st at 6 pm, or call me at

617-325-9526 to talk about how you can get involved in a way that enlarges and
strengthens your life and work.

_______________________________________________