As a bi-national US/México cooperative effort, May First Movement Technology remains rather unique. Why did you get involved?

I’m not a “techie”! I’m a journalist, and internet services have always been essential for me. But I’m also on the political left, and I didn’t want to use mainstream providers who gather information on you to make profits for themselves and their advertisers. I also didn’t want to be part of technology that could potentially aid our political opponents. So I was happy to find May First, an effort that for 16 years now has been putting technology at the service of social movements and people organizing for social change.

May First offers an alternative way of organizing and administering infrastructure for electronic communications. With a governing board elected by members, May First’s decision making has always been transparent and advances through member dialogue. The May First technology rests on “free software,” so improvements can come from anyone who has innovative ideas.

May First also hosts political debates that help activists reach common agreement about what’s happening in our countries and in our world, and these debates shape how technology can serve social justice. And the biggest benefit from the May First user point of view may be security. With May First, Big Brother cannot watch you.

How does May First overcome differences in language and culture and ensure equality for people on both sides of the border?

We make a major effort to be bilingual, and you can see this commitment at all levels of our work. Real challenges do arise, with technical documentation one example. Simultaneous translation can also be difficult. We use the free tools available, but better technology still could be developed.

Another way we ensure equality is by raising the level of dialogue in all our live meetings, whether online or in person. Our goal: making sure viewpoints on the different situations, needs, and analyses from two different countries get solicited and heard. By achieving all this, we enrich the work we do.

Can you tell us about cooperatives in México? Is the cooperative sector growing?

In México, no laws forbid or regulate workers who want to self-manage, either in providing services or producing goods. But we can’t tell if cooperatives are growing because no adequate data about them exists.

With decent jobs in México hard to come by, much of the population has to make a living informally, as street vendors or in whatever day jobs people can find. Many small collectives and cooperatives exist in this environment. For example, in the middle of the pandemic, the Multitrueke Mixiuhca group built an initiative to acquire food for distribution directly to campesinos. Other cooperatives for consumers, local currencies, and networks of fair commerce are also operating.

Can we be doing things to encourage more cooperatives in México?

Yes! Many initiatives are already promoting and strengthening the cooperative movement. One of these, La Coperacha: Información Cooperativa Fresca y Solidaria, tells the stories of workers who’ve become their own bosses and owners of their own workplaces.

We can draw inspiration and lessons from other countries as well. “Fábricas recuperadas” has become a powerful movement in Argentina, where over 300 factories went bankrupt during the neoliberal economic meltdown two decades ago. Workers took over many of these factories.

In México, two companies, TRADOC and Pascual/Boing, have been “recovered,” but only after years of strikes, conflicts, and deaths.

We have no blueprint for moving ahead. How cooperatives will form will vary from country to country, workplace to workplace, since each has its own characteristics and contexts. But one thing we can be sure of: Workers across the world will continue to organize for control over their own labor.