We find that a couple of visionary entrepreneurs can establish a mutuality of interests with those employed in their company. It can be done. The operations of American Roots exemplify Anonymous’s harmony of interest as the owners of this company have asked all of its employees to help meet the unique challenges that the COVID-19 virus poses to this company (and virtually all other companies in the United States).
The American Roots Business
I first offer a bit of background information. In its original form, American Roots produced more than four million pounds of cotton per year for many years, beginning in 1866. The fourth floor of the old mill was newly occuped in 2014 by Ben and Whitney Waxman, who now make hoodies, T-shirts and fleece vests. They have hired a staff of about two dozen people to produce these products, and founded their company to prove that the production of high quality union-made and American-made clothing is feasible. The inspiring story of Ben and Whitney’s business centers on coping wih the Covid-19 virus. However, I will focus on those aspects of their story that align with and provide concrete expression of several points regarding harmony and secular coherence.
There is, first, a founding story. It begins with Ben’s belief that:
“. . . capitalism could be a force for good, if companies were created to benefit communities instead of shareholders. [Ben] dreamed of building a business where every employee was unionized and received a living wage, paid vacation time, unlimited sick leave, and access to health insurance. He’d ensure that executives never earned more than a few times the median worker pay – unlike at many big American companies, where an executive might make thousands of times the median pay of workers. (At American Roots, Ben says ‘I am the CEO, but I will never make half a million when a worker only makes $30,000 – it’ll never, ever, ever happen.’)” (Slade, 2020, p. 94)
This vision and commitment on Ben Waxman’s part is directly aligned with the spirit and vision of Anonymous’ harmony of interest and is founded on Ben’s own history as a “union man” and political organizer.
There is another part of the American Roots narrative that touches directly on the themes of privilege and inclusion that reside at the heart of any harmony of interests. This part of the story has to do with a specific day when a decision had to be made about how the organization would respond to shifting market conditions following the outbreak of Covid-19 (Slade, 2020, p. 95):
“On Monday morning, the Waxmans gathered their workers one more time. Ninety percent of them had come to the U.S. from abroad, most fairly recently. Ben told 18 of them he would have to lay them off, at least temporarily. Then he raised the prospect of reopening. He and Whitney would do everything they could to create a safe environment, he said, but there would still be risks. He asked the room, ‘If we convert the factory to produce PPE, will you come back to work?’ Every single hand went up. Khalid Al Kinani, a worker who had fled Baghdad years before, announced to the group, ‘This is our duty as new Americans.'”
This is a remarkable example of what happens when workers feel included in their community (or at least in their organization).
