‘
This week we’re talking about the Detroit neighbors investing in land together, Asian solidarity, and a Brazilian town’s local currency. Plus, register for NEC’s biennial conference, CommonBound, coming to St. Louis, MO on June 22 – 24th!
Stories From the Field
Cooperative Detroit: While real estate companies are redeveloping Detroit’s abandoned houses, locals often feel they don’t have the resources—or cash on hand—to take part in their cities recovery. But a new fund is launching that will allow neighbors to invest in housing together, and as the community develops, get a financial return. Read about Cooperative Capital here.
Hawaii’s Push Forward: A 22-year-old Hawaiian state representative sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for trying to keep native Hawaiian’s from exercising gathering rights on his land. Now he’s running for Congress with a platform of 100% renewable energy, universal basic income and a jobs guarantee. Can Hawaii make it happen?
#AsianSolidarity: Sparked by the idea that Asian culture is filled with examples of solidarity economy, mutual aid, cooperativism, our friends at US Solidarity Economy Network and Solidarity Economy St. Louis created a webinar series exploring examples in the Asian American immigrant and refugee experience. Check out the first installment.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Community Capital: A neglected Brazilian fisherman community with no infrastructure was struggling to provide its residents with opportunity or basic goods. Then a donation seeded a community development bank designed to address local unemployment and stimulate local spending. In 2003, “Banco Palmas” even launched a local currency designed to foster local pride by local artists complete with security features. Still running today, Banco Palmas aims to keep the money spent in the neighborhood circulating in the neighborhood to ensure local development. Read more.
Coop Clout: In British Columbia, employment at co-ops grew by 22% between 2011 and 2016. Today, nearly 17,000 people work at co-ops around the province. The growth is driven in part by a desire for good jobs following the 2008 financial crisis. “When times are good, economically speaking, it’s easy to make money on your own. When times are more challenging, you generally have to overcome those distances between people and work together.” Read more.
The Grocer Next Door: The German town of Freiburg has found a new way to connect urban dwellers and farmers: make them all shareholders. Consumers, farmers, food processors, and retailers share the responsibility and the benefits of investing in sustainable food production within the region. Read about it here.
CommonBound 2018
Last week, we were thrilled to reveal CommonBound 2018’s logo, designed by St. Louis illustrator Zach Otte.
St. Louis, Missouri is a city where local organizing is creating a vibrant and burgeoning new economy. NEC is excited to partner with Solidarity Economy St. Louis – a network of St. Louis organizations and individuals – to ensure it both adds fuel to local organizers’ efforts and grounds visitors in the critical work happening there.
CommonBound participants will be able to see some of that work with visits to places in St. Louis like historic Pruitt-Igoe, The Ville, Black Girl Heal, and more.
Check out more of CommonBound’s program and register!
Movement News
- This Is How We Take Power Back From Facebook (And Every Other Monopoly)
- The gender pay gap isn't the half of it: our economy runs on women's unpaid work
- 'This Is Huge': Opposition Forces Kinder Morgan to Halt Trans Mountain Pipeline
- Addressing the Systemic Challenge at the Heart of Escalating Inequality and Environmental Destruction
- Students Look Beyond Gun Control Laws to Prevent Violence—and It’s Working
- The Mexican indigenous community that ran politicians out of town
- Organizing for Freedom Cities, Building For Liberation
- The Souls of Poor Folks
Job Board
Development Associate, New Economy Coalition
Operations Associate, Power Shift Network
Program Manager, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Justice and Equity coordinator, 350.org
Developer, Position Development
Multiple Positions, Beneficial State Foundation
Digital Media Organizer, Center for Media Justice
Upcoming Events
This year, the Public Forum is proud to host The Poetic Address to the Nation in partnership with the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. In this culmination of the 2018 People's State of the Union, an amazing line-up of playwrights, poets, and musicians will create a stirring evening of performances drawn from two weeks of Story Circles across the country. (Online, April 15)
Cultivating Climate Disaster Capacity
Join Climate Justice Alliance for the Funder Briefings for Just Transition, a four-part series organized by Climate Justice Alliance, to learn how Just Transition principles, strategies, and practices of frontline communities provide systemic solutions for the planet. (Online, April 16)
UMass Amherst: Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson
Join us for a public talk with activist, scholar, and theorist Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson, co-author/editor of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy & Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi. (Amherst, MA, April 27)
Women of Color in Solidarity 2018 Conference
This gathering was cultivated to provide women/femmes/gender non binary people of color with the necessary tools and guidance to form radical spaces of healing rooted in love and liberation. This conference engages people in workshops and conversations that will amplify us to not only connect our different struggles but to provide ways to heal through them. (New York, April 21-22)
Worker Cooperative Startup Webinar
The Democracy at Work Institute hosts this monthly webinar to for groups and people at the very early stages of their worker cooperative project. The webinar describes key steps toward getting off the ground, and where problems often occur. It includes chapters on building your group's democratic capacity, business, and environment of support, in a participatory conversational format. Attendees are offered 30 minutes of free consulting after the webinar from the Democracy at Work Network. (Online, through August 3)
‘