Funding worker coops.

Buenos Aires 

"These are people that have been completely marginalized from the system, who have never had bank accounts, yet they make their loan payments every month like English gentlemen," says Cecilia Sainz, referring to members of the Tren Blanco recycling cooperative. An offhand remark from a callous IMF staffer? Not exactly.

Sainz is part of the Working World team, a new nonprofit organization in Argentina that provides credit to democratically run worker cooperatives. Many of these cooperatives have risen out of the ashes of the economic collapse of 2002. The recycling cooperative in question, whose members make a living by collecting bottles and cans on the streets of Buenos Aires, used a loan to purchase equipment and rent a larger warehouse. This growth has enabled the group to hire new members from its community--a huge feat in a neighborhood where the unemployment rate is almost 90 percent.

"The fund is a common property," says Lalo Paret, one of the organizers involved in the project. "It is a tool to give more independence to these cooperatives, which are doing amazing things, for example--my shoes." I take a peek. They are stylish, indeed. A cooperative produced the shoes, and a loan from Working World is helping it conduct a guerrilla marketing campaign in Buenos Aires. Sales are already surpassing expectations. It turns out that "Under worker control" can be a brand concept just as appealing, or more so, than "Just do it."

For more information, go to www.theworkingworld.org.