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Mondragon 2: Getting down to business

On the first day of our formal education, we went right to the middle of things…in more ways than one.

I’ve known that this trip is going to reveal a system that is more complex and less perfect than the myth of Mondragon. I know that they are doing things that I don’t agree with, and am sure that I’ll learn about more. But I’m impressed by how frank they’ve been so far. Our first day included two presentations that plunged deeply into these controversies, and raised difficult issues about how a cooperative economy can be developed. Therefore, this post might not be the best sales pitch for MCC other than praise for their admirable transparency and honesty.

We started at the headquarters of the  Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (MCC) . It is clearly a corporate campus, with nearly a dozen large buildings housing the major central institutions of the cooperative system: the bank (Caja Laboral), social services, research and development, the polytechnic school campus, and a student cooperative.  It overlooks part of the city of 22,000, which is located in the middle of a mountain range and frankly not a great place to put a bunch of factories.

After a round of introductions, our host Mikel Lezamiz brought us into a small theater where we watched a 15 minute movie. It was slick and a little bit too loud, with pulsating background music and a soothing accented narrator telling the history and successes of the system. It felt like a PR piece for GE Capital, but it was all about worker-owned and democratic cooperatives. It was an overwhelming blur.

MCC has built and designed bridges and skyscrapers around the world, because most types of auto parts and machines to do the rest (although they were apparently smart enough to avoid the cars themselves) , washers and dryers, bicycles, buses, technical assistance to other companies. The video went on and on and on, describing the products offered and with the billions of euros generated by each division. If nothing else, the MCC is a huge success, creating 100 000 jobs in an area formerly depressed.

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