We’re baaack! After a month of rest, reflection and connection, NEC staff is back online – which means the New Economy Roundup is also back to its bimonthly schedule. This week we’re talking about what the world we want looks like, just recovery after Hurricane Ida, Indigenous resistance and the climate crisis, seed-saving in Tunisia, police abolition, artist-led solidarity economies, and more!

PS: NEC is hiring! Spread the word and apply by Sep 20th. 

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Stories from the Field

ART: Aisha Shillingford / Intelligent Mischief

The World We Want: NEC members far and wide lent their insight to Nonprofit Quarterly’s summer 2021 issue all about the solidarity economy! Get a refresher on solidarity economy principles from members like the US Solidarity Economy Network and the Sustainable Economies Law Center. The issue also features visionary art from NEC member Intelligent Mischief and Creative Wildfire selected artist Aisha Shillingford.

Rural Clean Energy Futures: 42 million Americans rely on rural electric cooperatives (RECs) to power their communities. As we run out of time to act on climate change, we refuse to leave rural communities behind in the transition to clean energy. Join the Rural Power Coalition in calling on Congress to provide funding for Rural Electric Cooperatives to transition to clean energy sources.

Hurricane Ida Just Recovery: Our hearts are with communities in the Gulf South and across the east coast impacted by Hurricane Ida. Mutual aid and just recovery are the bedrock of solidarity economies and resilient communities — please continue to contribute to mutual aid and just recovery efforts across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

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Solidarity Economies Abroad

IMAGE: Arianna Poletti / TRTWorld

Tunisian Seed Sovereignty: In the face of intensifying climate and economic crises, women and youth in Tunisia have organized an association of seed-saving cooperatives in order to build climate resilience, food sovereignty, and economic security. Read more about how seed saving co-ops and other solidarity economy solutions can represent an alternative to neoliberal development in Tunisia.

Clothing Cooperatives in Ladakh: In the Himalayan region of Ladakh, India, a women-owned textile co-op is resisting threats to their traditional practices and resources by creating cooperative, sustainable livelihoods. Listen to an interview with the co-op’s co-founder, and read more about the region’s resistance to extractive development via NEC member Local Futures.

Community Land Trusts in Brazil: Back in June, community leaders across Brazil met to discuss the potential of the community land trust model to protect residents of favelas from eviction and gentrification. Read about how examples from CLTs in the US, Kenya and Puerto Rico can help to strengthen the CLT model for favelas and informal settlements around the world.

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Indigenous Resistance Against Carbon

A new report from the Indigenous Environmental Network shows that Indigenous resistance has stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual U.S. and Canadian emissions. Read the full report to learn about 26 Indigenous frontline struggles against the extractive economy.

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#Coopalooza Week

NEC member organization The Sustainable Economies Law Center is spending the last week of September questioning workplace hierarchies, discussing what shared leadership looks like, and more. They’re calling it #Coopalooza Week! Join in for panels, teach-ins, debates, and knowledge sharing.

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Next Economy MBA

LIFT Economy is offering a re-imagined MBA program to support entrepreneurs who want to build a regenerative economy. The course will examine the patterns and pitfalls of conventional businesses, and provide hands-on support to start cooperative enterprises. Read more about the program and how to join.

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Movement News

• “Turning Point”: Legacy of the U.S. Response to 9/11 Is Terror, Domestic Surveillance & Drones
• “Solidarity investing” club helps plant a new crop of co-ops in Vermont
• Be your own boss: Inside 6 co-op businesses returning power to their workers
• Evergreen Cooperatives helps companies shift to co-ops, share profits with workers
• Fairy Creek: Indigenous-Led Blockade of Old-Growth Logging Is Now Canada’s Largest Civil Disobedience
• How to give the land back
• Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
• Growing food sovereignty on the shores of Lake Superior
• Solidarity Economy: An Economy To Do Good
• State of Insecurity: The Cost of Militarization Since 9/11
• Texas Abortion Mutual Aid Fund Prepares For Effects Of New Law
• While Many in New York Stayed Dry and Safe, Immigrant Gig Workers Braved a Deluge​

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Podcasts of the New Economy

In this episode, NEC member Upstream podcast explores the current establishment backlash against the abolish/defund movement, and asks the questions: what does more cops on our streets actually mean? What is the history and function of policing? How is it inextricably intertwined with racism and capitalism? Whose interests do the police really serve? Is it even possible to reform this institution? And if not, what should take its place? Listen now.

Additional Listens

Belabored – Occupy’s Ten-Year Anniversary, with Stephen Lerner and Jonathan Westin
Local Energy Rules – Queremos Sol: Seeking Solar Power for All Puerto Rican Homes

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NEC on the Gram

Follow NEC on Instagram — @neweconomycoalition — Where we’re sharing about revolutionary culture-building and the work art.coop is doing to support and connect cultural workers through their study-in-action sessions. RSVP to build relationships across culture and the solidarity economy!

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Jobs

NEC is Hiring! We’re seeking a  Director of Donor Organizing to guide our efforts in building a cross-class, multi-racial network of people bringing resources towards the Solidarity Economy movement. We strongly encourage people of color, working class, LGBTQ, and/or womxn candidates to apply. This is a full-time 32 hours per week position with a compensation range of $68,000 – $80,000. Plus a generous benefits & PTO package. Click here to apply, and please spread the word!

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Upcoming Events

Introducing the Capital for Cooperatives Act
“In May, Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper introduced the Capital for Cooperatives Act, an historic proposal for opening the doors of the Small Business Administration to cooperatives of all kinds. If made law, this bill would enable member-owned businesses to access resources that other kinds of businesses have long enjoyed. In this webinar, we will hear from leaders in the Colorado cooperative sector about the importance of capital access, as well as a representative from Sen. Hickenlooper’s team, who will discuss the bill’s progress so far.” (September 20 – Online)

Highlander’s 89th Homecoming
“Since 1932, Highlander has been a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the U.S. South …We’re bringing that spirit online to honor and recognize our 89th anniversary with the theme ‘Reflecting and Rising’ … We will take this Homecoming weekend as an opportunity to look back over the last 10 years and reflect on the political landscape and lived realities that brought us to this moment. (September 24 – 26 – Online | Registration Open)  

Conference on Black Cooperative Agenda: Black Wealth Through Equity & Ownership
“Network for Developing Conscious Communities’ national conference will focus on “Deepening Black Wealth Through Building Equity and Ownership” echoing their commitment on expanding cooperative models in Black communities as a means for broadening a collective understanding of how cooperatives can tackle economic disparities and challenge systemic racism and inequality.” (Sept 27 – 29 – Baltimore, MD | Registration Open)

Funding BIPOC Communities Like We Want Them to Win: A Conversation with the Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective
“Join us for this webinar and meet the nine women of color movement leaders who make up this collective. During their conversation, they will share: How the EJRC built trust, developed funding priorities, and made collective decisions; What environmental justice means to frontline communities; How the EJRC engaged in movement-led grantmaking that shifts power and supports self-determination.” (September 29 – Online)

Activating Grants and Investments to Fund Solidarity Economies
“Join us for an interactive webinar to: Learn about BIPOC-led efforts to nourish local, regenerative solidarity economies that transition us away from the extractive economy; Make connections between the work of transforming our economic system, and the work of racial, economic, and climate justice movements that social justice funders are already supporting; Shift mindsets and practices from “what we can fund” to “what we must fund” in order to achieve systems-level change; Reimagine how both grants and investments can be activated to fund a wide breadth of projects that are critical for building economic power in BIPOC communities.” (September 30 – Online)

Pathways to Power Shift: Movement-led Funding in the Age of Billionaires
“The Regenerative Economies Organizing Collaborative (REO), in partnership with Climate and Energy Funders Group, EDGE Funders Alliance, Health and Environmental Funders Network, Justice Funders, and Neighborhood Funders Group, is hosting an info-share webinar for funders interested in hearing a full, connected story of the various moving pieces that have developed over the past year in relation to the Bezos Earth Fund, the Fund for Frontline Power, and related organizing among grassroots intermediaries.” (October 1 – Online)

Making Money Make Change
“MMMC is an intimate space that uses workshops, storytelling, and skill-building to create a space for young people with class privilege and wealth to explore questions of identity and responsibility in a supportive environment. MMMC programming is dynamic and specific to young people with wealth who are interested in social justice. Whether you have been grappling with what it means to have class privilege and value social change for some time or are new to thinking about these topics, we invite you to attend and explore these topics in community.” (October 15 & 16 – Online | Registration Open)

41st Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture – Schumacher Center for a New Economics
“Julian Aguon, a writer, lawyer, and activist from Guam, will deliver the 41st Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture virtually, titled “Felled By Beauty: Guam and The End of American Empire.” Following his lecture he will be joined by respondent Lisa Linda Natividad and host Jodie Evans for a question and answer period. The event will feature an introduction by Naomi Klein.” (October 24 – Online)

North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) Institute 2021
“Since 1977, NASCO’s Cooperative Education & Training Institute has been widely recognized as one of the most important training and networking opportunities available to members, directors, staff, and managers of group-equity cooperatives. The annual NASCO Institute is always a one-of-a-kind opportunity to network with hundreds of cooperative leaders and employers, to caucus about pressing issues, and to work on building an inclusive and accessible cooperative movement.” 2021 theme: Mutual Aid (November 12-14 – Online | Registration Open)