Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, a Tool for Building a New Democratic Economy, Released

For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian Van Slyke, 708-707-1784; Andrew Stachiw, 860-208-1404

Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives, a Tool for Building a New Democratic Economy, Released

What: Co-opoly, a powerful resource for cultivating democratic communities, comes at a time when people are struggling to envision a new world. This game has been hotly anticipated with pre-orders from around the globe.
Released: November 28, 2011

Northampton, Massachusetts, Nov 28, 2011 – As the cooperative movement gains global traction, with 800 million co-op members and 100 million employees in 2011, the launch of The Toolbox for Education and Social Action’s (TESA) latest tool “Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives” marks another milestone for the cooperative movement.

Produced by TESA, a worker cooperative based in Massachusetts, Co-opoly is a new game of skill and solidarity: where everyone wins or everybody loses! While promising to keep players on their toes and in stitches of laughter, Co-opoly is much more than just a board game – it’s a tool that helps people break away from the ‘winner takes all’ mentality and discover the boundless possibilities that arise from cooperation.

Communally developed over a three-year period of playing, testing and revision, Co-opoly hits the stage not a moment too soon. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement in the U.S., people are demanding more democratic communities and economies. Frustrated by banks, businesses, and institutions that do nothing for the majority, citizens around the world are
pouring into the streets looking for alternatives.

And Co-opoly provides just that. From the classroom to the factory, the farm, the independent start-up, the grocery store, and more, this tool offers players the chance to think outside the box of pure profit and imagine new ways of social organization.

It’s perfect for educators trying to facilitate creative discussions about the world economy, for workers looking for ways to develop their own cooperative work-places, and for households that want to have a great time while creating true democracy. In fact, Co-opoly is launching just as cooperatives are stepping into the spotlight with the United Nations declaring 2012 to be the International Year of Cooperatives.

Already Co-opoly has received orders from countries on nearly every continent, from Massachusetts to Morocco and from Scotland to South Korea!

TESA aimed to reflect Co-opoly’s core values of democracy and a just economy in the game’s very production. Every component of the game was created in the U.S., using primarily recycled materials and produced predominantly by worker cooperatives, all of them within 70 miles of TESA’s location!

The ethical production of Co-opoly has made its manufacturing costs much more expensive than games produced in sweatshops. Yet, TESA is proud to keep the game’s price comparable to other independent board games. Co-opoly is for sale at CoopolyGame.com for a sliding scale price of $42 - $65. This means the consumer decides how much they pay! What’s more, free additional resources on cooperatives will come with Co-opoly, including lessons plans, Introduction to Cooperatives literature, and more!

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