It’s Co-op Week in Canada. Unfortunately, the co-operative movement has a communication problem. Even though economists, journalists, academics, activists, titans of industry, and communities from around the world laud the traditional, yet disruptive, business model, co-operators often struggle to simplify the nuance of how they work while also telling compelling stories about what makes co-ops different and valuable for non-billionaires.
I think this is rooted in how Western culture, especially modern Hollywood, glorifies individuals. Films and TV shows consistently demonstrate an inability to tell a story where the hero is the collective. But what if fiction has been imitating reality? Subtly. What if pop culture recognized some missed opportunities to tell more co-operative stories? I have answers. Here is the definitive analysis of how co-operatives show up in pop culture.
Definitely co-operative
In these examples most or all of the co-operative principles are on full display, especially the co-operative differentiator of democratic ownership. Even if they’re not called out or named we notice them and elements of co-operativism define the film or show:
- It’s a Wonderful Life – George Bailey establishes Bailey Park, an inclusive housing development financed by Building and Loan (which is still solvent thanks to his honeymoon savings), and he doesn’t get arrested because the townspeople crowdfund the tearing up of a warrant.
- Fight Club – Tyler Durden and, um, himself start Fight Club; membership for Project Mayhem Co-operative is two black shirts, two pairs of black pants, one pair of black boots, two pairs of black socks, one black jacket, and $300 personal burial money. And while Durden is the visionary behind this worker co-op, it’s clear that many of the principles, especially economic participation, autonomy, brutal training, and not talking about Fight Club voluntary and open membership (as long as you’re cool with a very twisted way to demonstrate your concern for community).
- Expanse – I have never watched this series, but Mike has and he says that the novels on which the series is based have credit unions and that Rocinante and her crew are a co-operative resistance to a galactic conspiracy (also, the show was saved by cancellation through nerd-inspired-crowdfunding).
- Finding Nemo – Fish co-operate to escape the dental tyranny of a fishbowl and reunite a father and son.
- The Breakfast Club – my friend and colleague, Paula, describes this movie as “the ultimate manifestation of an egalitarian co-operative utopia if ever I imagined one” and she’s not wrong. I mean, the Breakfast Club Co-operative’s letter to the miserly principal clearly reads as a co-op charter of incorporation.
The greatest example of co-ops in pop culture is The Smurfs because “the Smurfs’ community generally takes the form of a co-operative, sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes to Smurf society as he or she can.” I felt a lot of concern for community in Wikipedia’s description.
A shorter note about superhero movies/shows
Several folks argued that superhero communities represent co-operativism at its best. I can dig it. Hero collectives organizing to address unmet needs of people on the margins because other businesses, governments and Gods of Thunder failed them sounds pretty darn co-operative. The things is that most of these hero collectives are bankrolled by a couple of people. Remember, Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are the one percent, man,
- Justice League – I’m fairly confident that Batman and Wonder Woman put in more share capital to create a multi-tiered member structure that gives them more power/profit sharing than the other heroes receive (like, Aquaman and The Flash, as producer members, probably get half a voting share compared to Batman, a worker owner).
- Guardians of the Galaxy – if there ever was an East Vancouver vigilante/activist/dark-web/space-pirate hero co-operative that valued diversity, education, environmentalism, and sweat equity this is it.
- Black Panther – very co-op minded, but also super-exclusive, secretive and, while sort of democratic, Wakanda is a monarchy.
- X-Force – the rag-tag, diverse collective of heroes who organize to take on a time-traveling menace assemble in a very co-operative way, but most of ‘em meet their demise because Deadpool isn’t very democratic and makes everyone jump out of a plane when it wasn’t safe to do so; co-ops have a much, much better record of delivering on fiduciary responsibilities.
Strong co-op vibes
In these examples not many of the co-operative principles can be noticed, but there are some pretty strong vibes that the audience experiences.
- Old School – founded as “an egalitarian brotherhood”, the fraternity founded by Beanie, Mitch and Frank basically solves inter-generational strife, but only for men, which is a pretty critical barrier to co-operativism. Also, it’s not totally clear if Mitch’s residence is a housing co-op or if Beanie is just setting it up that way for tax evasion purposes.
- The Office – when Michael Scott or any of his successors cross the line (or many lines), the collective interest of the Dunder Mifflin – Scranton Branch is served by the employees exercising their collective voice. Prison Mike is just one example of how much education and training is valued in the branch.
- Heist movies, like The Italian Job or Ocean’s 11 – one of my co-operative role models, William, struggled with these sorts of films because capers have some very co-operative elements, such as dividing the loot equally amongst the crew. Most of the capital for heists come from guys like Reuben Tiskoff, not through collective investment in the effort. And while some of the principles are adhered to well, it just doesn’t seem co-operative when a crew is literally named after one guy instead of calling it The Three Casino Robbery Vegas Co-operative or when Charlie Croker calls most of the shots on a revenge heist.
The greatest example of strongest co-op pop culture vibes in absence of any concrete examples of co-operativism is in The Big Lebowski because of the how The Dude’s crew shares ownership in their mission and how they present a unique alternative to capitalism as represented by Jeffrey Lebowski. And, like, The Dude, Walter and Donny are probably members of The Venice Bowling Co-operative. Just saying.
How do sports movies factor into all of this?
Many sports franchises around the world operate as co-ops (with the fans being the owners of the enterprise). However, the players on the team, although they work together, are not governed by democratic principles because coaches and guys named Michael Jordan are dictators with very little accountability.
- The Mighty Ducks – could be a non-profit, could be a charity or it could be a social enterprise. Nothing about this model is particularly co-operative other than how it addresses the needs of a community on the margins.
- A League of their Own – sure, it’s a compelling and awesome story, but let’s be honest that privileged captains of industry, like Tom Hanks’s Jimmy Duggan, league management and team owners, own the capital in this situation.
- Space Jam – Okay, a diverse group of seemingly underwhelming cartoon characters and one hero of modern spor- Alright, there was going to be a “Monstars are to rampant intergalactic capitalism as The Toon Squad is to…” but it just doesn’t fly for so many reasons.
- Field of Dreams – this is one of the strongest sports-movie examples because a diverse group of stakeholders work together to create shared value around baseball, restitution and community-building.
Missed opportunities
In these examples I ask powerful questions designed to illuminate what might’ve been had Hollywood stretched just a little bit in order to underscore the spectacular value of the co-operative movement.
- Charlie’s Angels – what if three incredibly brilliant and capable women had an equal ownership share in a detective agency?
- Game of Thrones – what if Westeros was governed by the collective interest of the commons instead of greed, murder and incest?
- The Big Short – what if Mark Baum’s team visited a few credit unions or co-ops with deep investments in the real economy and then those enterprises were re-visited after the crash so that their resilience could be evaluated in comparison to the “too big to fail” banks and similar corporations?
- The Hunger Games – if District 13 was a co-operative enterprise would that have limited the power struggle between Katniss and Alma Coin and if so would that mean that there only would’ve been three movies?
The greatest missed opportunity to represent the co-operative movement on film is absolutely The Social Network. What if the story of Facebook actually explored an alternative reality where Mark Zuckerberg created a democratically owned and governed platform co-op designed to enhance community well-being?
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This article was originally published on October 17, 2018.