Essays

Report on a worker cooperative closure

Berkeley’s Missing Link Bike CooperativeA closure in the context of a larger cooperative vision

by Bernard Marszalek

The Berkeleyside story on Missing Link going out of business after 50 years

INTRODUCTION

Missing Link Bike Co-op – founded 50 years ago – was a Berkeley institution much like the Cheese Board Collective. 

Grandfathers of a Just Transition

Those advocating for a Just Transition from fossil fuel jobs to sustainable ones had predecessors in the military-industrial complex

Fifty years ago engineers working in the military-industrial complex used their skills to transition from building machines of war to developing socially useful products They designed solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, hybrid electric vehicles, and even an improved kidney dialysis machine.