‘
This week, we’re talking about how Dollar Stores ravage local economies, a 17-year campaign for peasant rights, and the first of its kind democratic investment fund!
P.S. In 2018, the New Economy Roundup reached more than 500,000 emails with 25 editions, full of countless articles, jobs, and events – and we are excited to continue it again this year!
Stories From the Field
Why Dollar Stores are bad for local economies: Did you know Dollar Stores outnumber Walmart and Starbucks, combined? A new report from NEC member Institute for Local Self Reliance reveals how this chain is pushing out local business and extracting wealth from communities. Learn more in this Fast Company piece by Eillie Anzilotti, a NEC New Economy Reporting Project fellow.
Millennials Didn’t Kill the Economy. The Economy Killed Millennials: A saddle of enormous debt, a fossil fuel tied energy system, and stagnant wages among other things have left Millennials with all the blame for an economy that they did not build. Statistics about declining car and home ownership don’t tell enough of the story, read more here.
Trailblazing Democratic Investment Fund Launches in Boston: NEC Member the Boston Ujima Project recently launched their innovative $5 million democratic investment fund. Loans will go to businesses in communities of color around Boston. Working class Massachusetts residents can invest for as little as $50. Read more about the details of the fund and its future here.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding a New Kind of Politics: If the next generation of climate leaders are anything like Greta Thunberg, we might just be alright. Read Greta’s inspiring story from protesting on Sweden’s Parliament steps to a UN podium.
UN Declaration of Peasant Rights Adopted: After a 17-year struggle and legal process, international law now recognizes protections against land grabbing, forced evictions, gender discrimination, lack of social protection, failing rural development policies and more. Read La Via Campesina’s Statement here.
CONSUL – The Next Generation of Digital Democracy Tools: Developed by the City of Madrid and collaboratively supported by a network of individuals and organizations, CONSUL is a digital tool that facilitates civic engagement by connecting citizens to governments. CONSUL can be used to discuss and vote on proposals within a participatory budgeting process, as well as to engage participants in debates, decision-making, and collaborative legislation. Learn more in this blog post by the Participatory Budgeting Project, an NEC member.
How Rural America Got Milked
Wealth has concentrated not just into fewer hands, but also primarily to urban areas. How did this happen? Absentee landowners and managers, agricultural monopolies, and the subversion of farmer cooperatives are a few of the reasons. Leah Douglas of the Open Markets Institute explains through this case study of dairy cooperatives how wide the threats of accumulated economic power can span. Read more and find her suggested solutions here.
Resource for Black & Brown Cooperators
The co-op world is a large one, and when looking for resources it is often hard to know where to begin.
NEC Member, Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFed) has put together a list of organizations and resources for young Black and Brown folks of color who are just beginning to seek out or expand their knowledge of co-ops. This list is by no means exhaustive, but covers a number of different aspects of cooperative liberation, including food and land information, consulting and financial services, grocery co-op resources, resources for immigrant-led co-ops, etc. Check it out, and add to it!
Movement News
- American Capitalism Isn’t Working.
- The Next System Podcast: The Green New Deal
- Class Dismissed: Defending Equity in our Workforce Field
- Comcast rejected by small town—residents vote for municipal fiber instead
- Minneapolis Confronts Its History of Housing Segregation
- The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren’t Satisfied With Their Wealth
- The 9.9 Percent is the New American Aristocracy
- Pop-Up Museums as Political Organizing: Can Totem Poles Help Turn the Tide on Fossil Fuels?
- Southern communities revitalize their connection to electric co-ops
- Climate Jobs for All
- The Typical Workplace Is a Dictatorship. But It Doesn’t Have To Be.
- Affordable Housing Is Disappearing. These Mobile Home Residents Fight to Protect Theirs
- New York City passes nation’s first minimum pay rate for Uber and Lyft drivers
- Black-Owned Banks Keep Community Money Where It Belongs
- Public Banking made simple from Public Banking Institute
- Finding the Magic in a Collective Model for Childcare and Co-Working
- The Case For Small-Business Collusion
- Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won’t Destroy the Environment
- Planet Community – Episode 3: Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage
- Are Cooperatives Really So Difficult to Finance?
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where our #FridayFacts series reminds us to focus what we want the goals of our economy to be.
Job Board
Finance Coordinator, Grassroots International
Communications and Cooperative Developer, Center for Family Life Sunset Park
Director of Equitable Development, Open Buffalo
Commit to Co-ops! Research Projects, Austin Cooperative Business Foundation
Research Intern, Community & Social Justice Partnerships Program, Transform Finance
Operations and Communication Coordinator, Fair World Project
Winter/Spring Intern, Laura Flanders Show
Co-op Development Coordinator, Worcester Roots
Senior Climate Organizer, Corporate Accountability
Solutions Journalism Reporting Internship, Yes Magazine
Castanea Food Systems Fellowship
New England Regional Fellowship, Environmental Leadership Program
Various Positions, Intentional Endowments
Various Positions, Center for Cultural Innovation
Cooperative Business Support Officer, Cooperative Fund of New England
Various Positions, CODEPINK
Various Positions, Transform Finance
Various Positions, Real Food Challenge
Various Positions, The People’s Forum
Senior Program Associate, ReFrame
Policy Director, National Family Farm Coalition
Program Manager, New York Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative
Solar Installation and Generator Sales, SolPower
Seeding Power Fellowship, Community Food Funders
Upcoming Events
The People vs. Wall Street: SF Public Bank Coalition Launch
The San Francisco Public Bank Coalition is launching January 10th. Learn how a city-owned public bank can bring San Francisco's $11 billion budget "From Wall Street to Our Streets!" Eat good food and dance with good people from a wide range of justice movements across San Francisco! Strategize with working groups on student debt, affordable housing, green energy, or something else! (January 10 – San Francisco, CA)
Healing for Healers: Self Care & Sustainability for QTPoC Mental Health Practitioners and Healers
Join the second webinar of this Winter Series by the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network exploring how to fully show up for ourselves, so we can show up for our community. How do we turn our attention to our own healing and care? Featuring an amazing panel of QTPoC practitioners, participants will be able to: share skills around self care; share practical tools and strategies that can be applied to their practice and day to day lives; and discuss what it really takes to sustain ourselves in this present socio-political moment in time.(January 10 – Webinar)
Think Resilience Guided Course with Transition US
Think Resilience is partnering with NEC member, Transition US, which supports grassroots sustainability and relocalization activism nationwide, to bring a special offering an online course complete with video lessons (about four hours of viewing), plus weekly, hour-long group webinars with course host Richard Heinberg from NEC member, Post Carbon Institute. (From January 10th to February 28th – Webinar)
Racial Justice Institute 2019
The Racial Justice Institute is an opportunity to gather in Detroit with 1000+ of the brightest souls across the US to ask ourselves what we are hearing and experiencing on the ground, and how we will forge the future our peoples deserve. How will LGBTQ* people organize and transform to win racial justice? Through games, storytelling, personal reflection, and participatory learning, we’ll explore and strategize.
(January 23 – Detroit, MI)
A Lakota Translation of Community Wealth Building
Organized by The Democracy Collaborative, an NEC Member, join Stephanie Gutierrez of Hope Nation LLC as she presents her new report An Indigenous Approach to Community Wealth Building: A Lakota Translation and discusses the importance of grounding community wealth building efforts in the values and culture of the communities they serve. Stephanie will be accompanied by a representative from the Learning/Action Lab who will share their experience working collaboratively to develop social enterprise in their own Native Community.
(January 29 – Webinar)
‘