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New Economy Roundup: Decolonized Art Tours, Unions Fighting for Affordable Housing, and #CoopMonth!

Oct 4, 2018 | New Economy Roundup

This week we’re talking about decolonized art tours in England, how unions can solve the housing crisis, and October is #CoopMonth in the United States!

PS: NEC is bidding farewell to our Executive Director of the last three years, Jonathan Rosenthal and is proud to introduce interim Co-Directors. Meet them, plus read more about the opportunities and challenges ahead! Want to support us? Make a donation as the current shifts at NEC!


Stories From the Field

October is Cooperative Month: NEC member organization, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, convened hundreds of cooperators last month for the Worker Cooperative National Conference in Los Angeles. Read these reflections by Ricardo Mulenga of The Sustainable Economies Law Center on what went down and how we’re “hearing the song of a better future” as the cooperative movement grows in the US.

Inside the Business of Redistribution: Iimay Ho of NEC member organization, Resource Generation, talked to Business Insider about the organization’s 20 year anniversary and the movement to organize wealthy millennials for social change. “How do we create a world where it's not just the wealthy making decisions, but where we think about where the wealth is going?Read the article.

Worker Ownership Gets A Boost from Congress: Business owners looking to sell their companies to their employees just got a helping hand from the federal government. It’s the first such measure that’s passed Congress in more than 20 years. YES! Magazine reports.

How Unions Can Solve the Housing Crisis: Most activists can reel off a list of demands to address the housing crisis: rent control, community land trusts, affordable housing development. But one of the most effective strategies has been forgotten. A century ago, the labor movement in New York City planned and executed a bluntly practical solution to the problem of housing: Build it. Learn about unions’ role in the housing crisis.

City of Cooperative Love: Learn how grassroots study groups, nonprofit fellowships and municipal fiscal support conspire to seed the cooperative ecosystem in Philadelphia, particularly for people of color. Next City reports. 
 


Solidarity Economies Abroad

Decolonized Art Tours in England: “The South Sea Company did not trade in fish, they traded in something far more valuable to the English monarchy – slaves.” Alice Procter’s “Uncomfortable Art Tours” in England explore the racist narratives and ideologies underpinning objects appropriated from European colonialism. Read more.

Participatory Planning in Bologna, Italy: Bologna, Italy’s Office for Civic Imagination is a professional working group that seeks new solutions to share responsibility of the city’s commons. Working in partnership with the city, participatory public maintenance is now happening in every district in Bologna across the fields of culture, welfare, mobility, and athletics. Leam about their unique model from Shareable.

Worker Coops in Iran: A government survey revealed that 94% of informal street vendors in Tehran wanted to be organized. Now, the government is promoting women-run worker cooperatives, for street vendors as well as in the IT sector, flower growing, and homemade products. Learn about their commitment to employee ownership. Coop News has the scoop.
 


Talking About Race, 6 Words At A Time

The Race Card Project eases people into conversations on the uneasy topic of race and racism by sharing their thoughts about race in six-words. “I asked people to think about their experiences, questions, hopes, dreams, laments or observations about race and identity. Then, I asked that they take those thoughts and distill them to just one sentence.” Businesses, churches, and other institutions are now using it to facilitate conversation on race with their communities. View the Race Card Wall here. 


Economy By People

NEC’s sister organization in the UK, New Economics Foundation, has recently released a new pamphlet outlining how to build a new economy by the people, for the people: “We believe there are six systemic changes that we must achieve over the next decade to create the stepping stones for a new economy.” Check it out online! 


Movement News

A Green New Deal Is On The Ballot In Washington State
Supermarket Chains Ignored This Black Community, So Residents Opened a Co-Op
Seoul and Barcelona Work on Friendship Status
What Does a More Thoughtful Disaster Response Look Like?
Why Bay Area Residents Want Their Governments to Get into Banking
#MeToo Hits Fast Food: Why McDonald’s Workers Are Out on a Historic Strike Today
5 Rebel Movements Changing How Money Works
Rural Residents Organize to Fight Industrial Agriculture
How Retrospectives on the Financial Crisis Are Ignoring Its Victims 
30,000 Steel Workers Threaten to Strike
Do Labor Strikes Matter?
Educational Resources for Worker Coop Startups
8 Artists Taking on Climate Change
Fairness for Farmers: A Report Assessing the Fair Trade Movement
The Case For Cooperative Businesses
Citing Racism, Federal Judge Blocks DHS Plan To Deport 300,000 With Temporary Protected Status


NEC on The Gram

Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where we’re talking about NEC member organization, The Working World’s growing Financial Cooperative to resource community needs through non-extractive loans and sharing resources.


Job Board

Deputy Director, Business Development and New Economy Initiatives for the City of New York
Multiple positions, Corporate Accountability
Project Coordinator, Participatory Budgeting Project
Campaign Coordinator, Fair World Project
Administrative Assistant, Transform Finance
Midwest Regional Organizer, Resource Generation
Program Associate – Clean Vehicle Assistance Program, Beneficial State Foundation
Director of Movement Support and Innovation, Rhize
Program Manager, Buffalo Purchasing Initiative
Program Manager, Grassroots Fund
Manager of Donor Stewardship, YES! Media
Operations Manager, Movement Media


Upcoming Events

Converting Cooperatives: Legacy Conversions & Micro Businesses
The fourth act of the five-part Asian American Solidarity Economies Webinar Series, will feature guest speakers talking about converting legacy businesses into cooperatives and the various ways micro businesses can cooperate. (Oct 12 – Webinar)

Rebuilding The Farm Commons
What does a community-controlled food & farm economy look like? Join the Sustainable Economies Law Center for a facilitated discussion on strategies and examples of community control and community investment that are bringing back the notion of a "Food & Farm Commons." (Oct 17 – Berkeley, CA)

Supporting Permanently Affordable Housing
As the affordable housing crisis continues in California, demand is growing for long-term solutions that enable greater community control of land and permanently affordable housing. Join the Northern California Land Trust, Oakland Community Land Trust, and Sustainable Economies Law Center for a lunch-in and webinar for housing-focused attorneys and legal aid groups. (Oct 18 – Oakland, CA & Online)

Bioneers Conference
The Bioneers Conference is a leading-edge national forum where you can see tomorrow today: a future environment of hope. This year’s conference theme is “Pathways Forward.” Check out "How To Build An Alternative To Our Current System" featuring Democracy Collaborative's Gar Alperovitz, Rco Tire's Niki Okuk, Public Banking Institute's Ellen Brown, Coop Jackson's Kali Akuno, UJIMA Boston's Aaron Tanaka on October 20th. (Oct 18-22 – San Rafael, CA)

Culture/SHIFT 2018
US Department of Arts & Culture's CULTURE/SHIFT 2018 will include 2.5 days of participatory workshops, performances, talks, interactive art-making and more. More than forty-five workshops and sessions will touch on timely and resonant regional and national themes: immigration, indigenous cultural rights, climate justice, public memory, cultural resilience, ethics of community-based arts, community development/displacement, and more. (Nov 1-3 – Albuquerque, NM) 

NASCO Conference 
Since 1978, 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. Attend this 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. (Nov 2-4 – Ann Arbor, MI)

Platform Cooperativism Conference
Experiments with cooperatively owned online platforms are demonstrating that democratic business models can be a dynamic force in building a more equitable economy. This event will define how platform cooperatives can address some of the world’s most urgent challenges. (Nov 10-11 – The New School NYC)


Fun and Inclusive Decision-Making
Sociocracy, also known as dynamic governance, is a whole systems approach to collaborative decision-making, project management, and organizational governance. It creates more inclusive and effective organizations, in which all stakeholders’ voices matter. Learn more at this interactive conference. (Nov 29-Dec 2 – Washington, D.C.)

View all NEC member events on our website »

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