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Stories From the Field
Using Art to Map Segregation in Chicago: Folded Map is an interactive art exhibit by south side photographer Tonika Johnson who photographed city residents from corresponding addresses on the two opposing sides of the segregated city. The photos bring to light the city’s sharp inequality, the result of decades of redlining and disinvestment in black and brown neighborhoods. Learn more from Next City.
Unhappy With Your Dining Hall? Start a Coop: NEC member organization, Co-FED featured in this feature about Oberlin College’s Pyle Inn dining hall coop. Learn how students who are passionate about ethical, affordable, and healthy food are taking control of what they eat by forming student-run dining hall coops at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Maryland, Oberlin, and in QTPOC youth communities as well. Catch the story from the Washington Post.
11-Year-Old Activist: 15,000 Flint children went back to school last week with new backpacks, some including letters of encouragement and support from people across the globe. The initiative is a project by Mari Copeny, an 11-year-old Flint sixth-grader using her budding celebrity to draw attention to the city’s water crisis. Get inspired by Mari’s story in Yes Magazine.
White Men Are Minority of House Democratic Nominees For First Time Ever: This election year women and people of color make up the majority of politicians running for House seats on the Democratic ticket for the first time in history, according to Politico. But building party support can be an uphill battle. Broadly reports on the challenges these candidates face within the larger party system.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Labor Movement Gains Momentum in China: China’s economic slowdown and lack of state protection are driving a growing number of workers to protest and go on strike for higher wages and better working conditions. “Social media has made it easier for workers to communicate with each other and to connect with labor NGOs.” Read this comprehensive review of the Chinese labor movement from People’s World.
No Managers, No Bureaucracy. “Neighborhood Care” in the Netherlands: Dutch “neighborhood care” eliminates administrative and management jobs and is instead run by self-managing teams of nurses. The result is improved care and greater satisfaction among both patients and care workers. Can this model be implemented outside of Holland? Apolitical reports.
Women-Run Purchasing Coop in Japan: In the mid 1960s, a group of Japanese housewives got together in response to rising food prices and decided to start a buying club to purchase milk. Today, they form a consumers’ cooperative called the Seikatsu Club with more than 370,000 members, 95% of whom are women. They still buy milk, but now they own the factory and the trucks to ship it too. Learn from them in person with NEC member CEANYC on September 20th in NYC.
Free the Land
A historical legacy of displacement and exclusion has fundamentally restricted access to land and housing and shaped ownership dynamics, particularly for people of color and low-income communities. This topic is explored in a new report from NEC member organization, Democracy Collaborative, that is exploring strategies for combating displacement, expanding ownership, and building community wealth.
The Platform Coop That’s Saving Lives
This week, Vancouver-based platform coop Brave was a prize recipient in Ohio’s global technology challenge seeking scientific breakthroughs to address the U.S. opioid crisis. In collaboration with people who use drugs, frontline workers, and community advocates, Brave is developing a suite of technology services to prevent accidental deaths from opioid use.
Learn more about their collaborative approach to saving lives.
Stories of Survival
While NGOs and government officials convene in California this fall at the Global Climate Action Summit, Stories of Survival will tour across the Gulf South and Puerto Rico bringing residents together to learn, deepen connections, and share stories about community-centered solutions and strategies for survival in the face of climate change.
Track the tour’s film screenings, and skills training, and community storytelling.
Movement News
- 10 Years After The Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing
- Protesters Disrupt Governor’s Task Force on Climate and Forests
- My Trust Fund Made Me Miserable
- What’s Next for Platform Coops?
- Ayanna Pressley and the Rise of Black Progressives
- Workplace Solidarity in the Equitable Economy
- Berry Farmers Break Free From Big Agriculture
- What’s the Real Impact of Participatory Budgeting?
- Art’s Valuable Role in Climate Change
- 3 Ways for Activists to Stay Hopeful During Difficult Times
- How the Rich Exploit Charitable Giving
- Cleaning Workers Organize for Benefits and Better Pay
- Community Land Trust Models and Housing Coops from Around the World
- Jackson Rising: An Interview With Kali Akuno
- Indigenous People Fight For Their Rights. Governments Call Them Terrorists
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where NEC is on the ground with grassroots climate leaders from the world as part of the It Takes Roots, Solidarity To Solutions (#Sol2Sol) week on Ohlone Territory in San Francisco!
Executive Director, Meadville Redevelopment Authority
Community Development Officer – Housing, Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Director of Planning and Development, University City, Missouri
Institutional Giving Manager, The Trust for Public Land
Senior Director of Communications, Change.org
Deputy Director, Business Development and New Economy Initiatives for the City of New York
Program Manager, The Grassroots Fund
Director of Planning & Strategy, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI)
Development & Communications Manager, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
Operations Manager, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
Manager of Donor Stewardship, Yes! Magazine
Communications Director, Democracy at Work Institute
Upcoming Events
Stories of Survival: Puerto Rico
Stories of Survival Tour will convene frontline communities in Houston, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico through film, visual art, culture and healing during hurricane observances, and the Global Climate Action Summit. (Sept 14-17 – Puerto Rico)
Worker Cooperative National Conference
This three day conference in Los Angeles, California will make space for connection, education, skill-building, and sharing, for worker-owners and our partners working to create better jobs and a fairer economy. (Sept 14-16 – Los Angeles, CA)
This event aims to explore and advance arguments for a shift to an economic model rooted in wellbeing for people and planet. We will also reflect on the financial crash ten years ago to consider how we might now build and bolster connections across the U.S. for those working towards a wellbeing economy. (Sept 20 Fordham University, NY)
The Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City and Seikatsu Club Consumer Cooperative Union invite you to join us at a reception and presentation to honor Seikatsu’s 50 years of groundbreaking cooperation among consumer and worker cooperatives in Japan. (Sept 20 – NYC, New York)
Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group
The goal of this gathering is to understand how Black communities have historically developed cooperatives as a solution to their economic challenges and determine their relevance for changing our current conditions while building powerful movements which can transform our communities. (Sept 25 – Chicago, IL)
US Food Sovereignty Alliance National Assembly
Grassroots organizations, activists, faith-based community, scholars, union members, farmers and fisherfolk, and other food chain workers from around the US and the world will converge on Bellingham, WA, for the IV National Assembly of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA). The Assembly will provide a space to learn about food sovereignty, share struggles and collective wins, and build solidarity. (Oct 12-15 Bellingham, WA)
Towards a New Reconstruction: Land, Racism, and Economic Emancipation
On Saturday, October 27th, Leah Penniman and Ed Whitfield will deliver the 38th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of W. E. B. Du Bois. (Oct 27, NYC, New York)
Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF) Conference
The Global Social Economy Forum GSEF is an international network that brings together local governments and civil society stakeholders committed to supporting the development of the Social Economy. GSEF aims to serve as a hub for sharing visions and experiences through cross-border collaboration and cooperation based on multilateral partnerships for an inclusive, equitable and human centered world. (Nov 1-3 – Bilbao)
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)
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.)
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