It’s the last week of Co-Optober! This week ties in nicely with co-op principle #7: Concern for Community. While all of the principles are important, we feel a particular affinity with this one! Doing good for our community—locally or globally—has always been important to us. One of the best things about being a co-op is that we can continue to prioritize that alongside our day-to-day work.

Co-ops doing good for their communities

This week, we’re highlighting five worker-owned cooperatives that are doing great work in their communities.

One of the co-ops will be familiar if you read our creative co-op interviews last week, but the others may be new to you—like Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, a New York-based collective that facilitates theatre performances meant to engage their local community in a collaborative discussion about social change. Read about all five co-ops here.

If you’re in the U.S. and want to look for more co-ops in your area or industry, check out the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops Directory—it’s a massive directory that we found extremely helpful when building our lists of co-ops to feature this month!

Last week of merch!

Our member-exclusive Co-Optober merch is only available through October 31, so be sure to snag yours before it’s gone! It’s a great way to support the MaxFun cooperative in our first and most expensive year.

MaxFun worker-owner Bikram modelling a grey hoodie that has the text "MaxFun Co-Op" appliqued on the front, as well as a snapback hat with a blue-and-red rocket design embroidered on the front. MaxFun worker-owner Laura modelling a black t-shirt with an illustration of a large group of people building a rocket beneath the text "The Future is Cooperative".

MaxFun worker-owner Julian modelling a bright yellow t-shirt that has "MaxFun Co-Op" screen printed on the front in large white letters. A close-up of a soft enamel pin featuring a red-and-blue rocket design along with the words "MaxFun Co-Op Launch Crew".

We’ve got some great items available, like a rocket pin and hat designed by Tom Deja, an ultra-comfortable hoodie with a special media pocket for your phone or Zune, a bright MaxFun Co-op T-shirt, and—my personal favorite, and one I plan on wearing constantly as soon as it arrives—our “The Future Is Cooperative” T-shirt designed by Geoff Tice.

If you’re already a member, snag this swag by going to maximumfun.org/manage and following the instructions to get the Magic Link to your membership dashboard. Once you’re there, tap the button for the merch store.

If you’re not a member yet, you can become one for just $5/month to get access to all of our sweet Co-Optober merch—plus 500+ hours of bonus content from all of your favorite MaxFun shows.

Co-op interview roundup

Last week, we interviewed folks from creative co-ops who offered compelling insight into the creative industry, why the co-op model works so well, and what it’s like to try to make art in a capitalist society.

Check out all five interviews at the links below:

Artisan’s Cooperative, an artist-owned Etsy alternative

Stocksy, a progressive stock media company

Defector, a worker-owned journalism site founded by former Deadspin staffers

Meerkat Media, a worker-owned film production company and artist collective

Groupmuse, a music collective that facilitates intimate concerts in non-traditional settings

We also had a creative co-op roundtable that was moderated by MaxFun’s Bikram Chatterji and featured Michelle Sadler from Stocksy, Jasper Wang from Defector, and Evan Edwards from Project Equity, the non-profit that helped MaxFun become a co-op. If you missed seeing it live, you can check out the recording over on YouTube!

Whether you’re a member or not, whether you’ve been a fan of the network for ten years or ten minutes, thanks so much for all of your support. We couldn’t do what we do without all of you. We’ve had a really great time celebrating National Co-op Month with Co-Optober, and we hope you have, too!

— C.N. and all your friends at MaxFun