this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
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Let's immediately acknowledge that the title is lighthearted, and that "communist company" is an oxymoron. The better choice would've been, "which is the most worker-owned, egalitarian, power-structures-free cooperative?", which SEO experts told me was too long of a title. With that said, let me tell you about Igalia and other tech cooperatives

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I remember Huawei claimed that its employees owned the company. It would be nice to have a list of these "kind of odd" companies

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They are a massive megacorp though. It always leaves me to wonder "how much".

Tons of capitalist companies do stock options where "technically" the employees own a share of the company, though that percentage is usually extremely small, even collectively such that they have no decision power. I can't help but think that it is similar with huawei, but with better marketing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Vivaldi is an employee owned cooperative

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

There is this showcased at the end of the article.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Wonder:

  • How do they handle someone who may not be performing as well as others?
  • What's the process for conflict resolution? Both professional and inter-personal.
  • Not sure if they've been through a big global recession yet. That's usually when companies and their policies get tested.

Not to take away from their unique model. Just curious how the idealism handles the messy parts of human nature.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

There was the 2008 crash they survived?

[–] Wobble 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fascinating read. Thank you for sharing!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

You're welcome 😊

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yea, agree with the description for this post. This is an example of a worker cooperative, which is certainly a form of business that usually is much better for the workers involved, but calling it Communist is certainly a stretch, as Communism is more about full public ownership of an economy than it is carving a niche out of a broader Capitalist system. Not saying it's bad! Just that the title is definitely toungue-in-cheek, if I'm going to be annoyingly nitpicky.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

However, that comes with some extra requirements, such as having 85% of the partners be from Spain, a limitation that Igalia did not want.

How does that comply with EU law? Is not most discrimination between citizens of different EU member states prohibited by it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Good point not sure. There must be some exceptions because I'm certain there are citizenship requirements in France for some jobs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

This sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. I'm not sure I'd be happy in a fully remote role where you've got hundreds of employees voting on how you build stuff, but I know that there are lots of people who dig this pattern, and they're clearly doing Good work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Amazing, thank for sharing!