In this week’s New Economy Roundup, we’re talking about the intersections of cooperation and abolition, the historic general strike in India, how organizers are using direct action to build community control of housing, how you can support worker-owned business this holiday season, and more!
Stories from the Field
Art via Ampersand Books
Co-ops Not Cops: Ruth Wilson Gilmore writes that, “abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life affirming institutions.” On this theme, GEO Collective held a beautiful and important conversation earlier this month about the role of co-ops in police and prison abolition work. Watch the recording of “Co-ops Not Cops,” featuring NEC board member Ed Whitfield, Esteban Kelly of NEC member organizations the US Federation of Worker Co-ops and AORTA, Morning Star Gali, and Jessica Gordon Nembhard.
The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism: This week, NEC member organization Resource Generation was profiled in the New York Times! Read how rich millennials are redistributing their inherited wealth to support the solidarity economy, and organizing other wealthy people to move their money to land-based reparations projects like Black Land and Power.
The Driver Cooperative: As companies like Uber and Lyft roll back the clock on labor protections, more gig workers are looking to platform cooperatives for better pay and working conditions. This week, in New York City, drivers announced the launch of the city’s first driver-owned ridesharing service. Learn more and support The Driver Cooperative in NYC via NEC member organization In Our Back Yards.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Community Broadband in Oaxaca: For-profit telecommunications companies often leave out rural and Indigenous communities from their service areas or charge exorbitant rates for service. In Oaxaca, Mexico, a project called Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias (TIC) is challenging this dynamic by offering affordable broadband service that is owned and democratically managed by the community. Read how TIC is building upon Indigenous values of self-determination, while blazing a trail toward the democratization of technology.
Basic Income for Artists: Earlier this month, a COVID recovery taskforce in Ireland called for a universal basic income for 55,000 arts and culture workers across the country. Though the proposal has not yet been adopted, it offers a vision of an economy that values and cares for artists. The city of San Francisco, CA also launched a small-scale UBI pilot program for artists in October.
Lessons from the First Wave
NEC member organization Shareable just released a new e-book featuring 25 case studies, interviews, and how-to’s showcasing community-led responses to the global COVID-19 crisis. From mutual aid funds to seed libraries to crowdsourcing data, read how communities around the world are responding to the pandemic with solidarity.
Movement News
- A People’s Vaccine? Drugmakers Set to Profit from COVID Vaccines Made with Publicly Funded Research
- Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health
- Black Land Matters. But Is Crowdfunding Enough?
- First housing complex purchased by trans community for trans community opens in Queens
- For Owners Looking to Sell, an Option That Keeps Their Company Intact
- Health care toward liberation
- How to Build an Intentional Community
- Immigration + Climate Justice
- It’s Time to Reignite New York’s Social Housing Revolution
- Paying for the Pandemic and a Just Transition
- The pandemic is starving us. Communities — not the government — are stepping up
- To #MakeAmazonPay, Reimagine the Platform Economy
Podcasts of the New Economy
Back in September, the city of Philadelphia agreed to put 60 vacant homes into a community land trust, following months of direct action and organizing by unhoused people. In this episode of the Next World Podcast from NEC member organization Partners for Dignity and Rights, host Max Rameau is joined by two organizers from Philadelphia Housing Action to discuss their victories and setbacks in their work to take over vacant housing in Philadelphia, and explore lessons for the movement for housing. Listen now.
More Listens:
Climate Justice Alliance – Public Banking in California with PODER
Groundings – The Role Of Artists Beyond Celebrity
NEC on the Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram — @neweconomycoaltion — where we’re sharing why you should #shopcoop and support worker-owned businesses this holiday season! Check out our Fire the Bosses merch, printed by Worx Co-op, as well as the Shop Co-op gift roundup from NEC member organization the US Federation of Worker Co-ops.
Jobs
New Job Listings!
Community Development Director, Springboard for the Arts – Dec 13
Communications Manager, Cooperative Fund of New England
Director of Communications, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
Education Team Member for Economics & Governance Program, Highlander Center
Executive Director, Worcester Roots
Organizing Director, PUSH Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
Program Director, Justice Funders
All Jobs
Community Organizer, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Coop – Bay Area
Community Organizer, Northern Plains Resource Council
Development Director, New Economy Project – NYC
Engagement Manager, Moving Towards Justice
Narrative Strategist, Real Food Real Stories – San Francisco area – Rolling
Operations Coordinator, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Coop – Bay Area
Organizing Director, New Economy Project – NYC
Program Manager – Operational Impact, The Movement Cooperative – Remote
Project Manager, Oakland Community Land Trust – Dec 4
Senior Director, The Movement Cooperative – Remote
Senior Policy Analyst: Economic Democracy, Demos – New York, NY
Stewardship Coordinator, Oakland Community Land Trust – Dec 4
Various Positions, Center for Popular Democracy
Various Positions, Economic Policy Institute
Various Positions, PUSH Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
Various Positions, Action Center on Race and the Economy
Various Positions, Highlander Center
Upcoming Events
Against Punishment How do we imagine a world without prisons and policing? Transforming our punishment mindsets is a daily discipline. Mariame Kaba draws on years of creating and facilitating workshops that give people the space to articulate what true justice might feel like for them. Join her as she shares some of the activities developed, co-created, and found along the way. (Today! Dec 3 at 6:30ET – Online)
Workers and Just Transition: A Global View From the experiences of metalworkers in South Africa to coal miners in Spain, to the informal sector workers in Latin America, the struggle for a just transition is truly global. Join NEC member the Labor Network for Sustainability with labor leaders and activist leaders to hear perspectives, stories, and strategies from the frontlines of the struggle for a just transition abroad. (Dec 5 – Online)
Frontline Leadership to Transform the World Join NEC along with our friends at Climate Justice Alliance and Movement Generation to discuss how frontline leadership is the key to: cultivating local, loving, living, linked communities; democratizing the economy (#WealthBack); restoring sovereignty (#LandBack); localizing control of wealth (#Reinvest); and restoring social and ecological well-being ( #JustTransition). (Dec 6 – Online)
How Cities Can Use Participatory Budgeting to Address Climate Change In this online course, participants will learn how to engage more community members in participatory processes to address climate change, together. Experts from local governments and organizations around the world will share best practices, review lessons learned, and help participants plan the next steps for taking action. (Dec 8 – Online)
Returning to the Land: BIPOC in Conversation About Community and Self-Determination Join NEC member organizations Foundation for Intentional Community and Kola Nut Collaborative with Grassroots Economic Organizing to hear the voices of people working to reclaim the land and build community. This session will include panel discussion and live Q&A with BIPOC leaders in the intentional community and land reclamation movements. (Dec 9 – Online)
The Frontline Mass Calls: Learn. Connect. Act. The Election is over, but the fight for our democracy and our future continues! The Frontline, Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project, the Working Families Party, and United We Dream Action invite you to join virtual town halls on Wednesdays in December and January to hear updates and analysis from movement leaders, engage in political education, and take meaningful action. (Dec 9-Jan 13 – Online)
Climate + State Violence: White Nationalism Webinar Join NEC member the Powershift Network for the last discussion in their fall webinar series, which will dive into the impacts of White Nationalism on movements for climate justice and collective liberation. (Dec 10 – Online)
Public Money and Racial Justice Join Haymarket Books with organizers from ACRE, People’s Action, and more for this conversation about public money, its connections to racial justice and how we can organize to demand it serves our interests. We’ll consider the federal government’s terrible response to the COVID-19 pandemic, budgets as political and moral documents, #DefundThePolice and #DefundICE, and police brutality bonds. (Dec 15 – Online)