A New Place to Have an Old Battle. Talking with Working World Founder Brendan Martin

Summary

Brendan Martin was deeply moved by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis’s 2004 documentary, The Take, about worker takeovers of abandoned Argentinean factories. Young and idealistic, Martin had left Wall Street with a little bit of money and a lot of ambition. He cornered Lewis in the movie theater lobby after the premiere with a plan to go to Argentina to start a loan fund.

Fast-forward twelve years: Martin’s group, The Working World, has invested millions of dollars in co-ops in Argentina, Nicaragua, and now the United States. The loan fund operates on a model that puts people before profits, and still has achieved a 98 percent repayment rate.