Mondragón, a Basque cooperative - VPRO documentary - 2012

Original title: Mondragon's Miracle
Backlight is staying in the Basque village of Mondragón, where the majority of the population works in cooperatives. All employees are also co-owners and together they decide on the company policy. Even in today’s harsh economic climate, this approach is successful. Mondragón manufactures high-grade technological products and is now the seventh largest company in Spain, a multinational with branches all over the world.

While the global crisis grimly continues to wreak havoc all around us and criticisms are heaped on the neoliberal model, the UN declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. Boards, authorities and economists are keen to establish a model that functions properly and is above all internationally competitive. Mondragón is always used as an example and is flooded with visitors from all over the world. The American government is currently facing the choice whether to privatise General Motors again after salvaging it in 2008. Its future is causing heated debate. One idea is not to float the company but convert it into a cooperative.

Backlight investigates the cooperative model in times of crisis. How firmly is this model anchored in society? Are notions like solidarity, participation and self-support generally accepted? Backlight follows some of the key people.

Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2012.
© VPRO Backlight March 2012

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Credits:
Director: Kees Brouwer
Co-director: Maren Merckx
Research in Basque, Spain: Maialen Arratibel Garcia
Camera: Jacko van ‘t Hof
Sound: Kees Brouwer
Editor: Arno Ouwejan, Calten Houwing
Re-recording mixer: Mark Meewis
Color grader: Xandra ter Horst
Producer: Mariska Schneider
Commissioning editors: Henneke Hagen, Jos de Putter
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.