In a recent article, Ralph Nader laments the government’s focus on large corporate builders in reconstructing New Orleans, and calls for the community to assert itself via cooperative economy.

New Orleans, the largest city devastated by two Hurricanes, lies in ruins. The reconstruction plans are forming and the usual commercial interests are in the forefront to receive large subsidies, federal overpayments and special immunities from having to meet labor, environmental and other normal legal safeguards for the people. The corporate looting of New Orleans is underway.

The full article outlines the nature of cooperatives and includes a number of interesting resources. Nader is both realistic about the obstacles NOFC and other efforts face, but seems optimistic about the opportunity:

It will not be easy for cooperatives, large and small, to pull together for the renaissance of New Orleans and other neighboring towns in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. But, oh, how important a contribution it could become for our entire economy, so gouged, so controlled by absentee multinationals, so inimical to community economics and control, to succeed in the wake of these Hurricanes.