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This week we’re talking about tomorrow’s Global Climate Strike, building plans of community resilience and negotiating new ways of relating to each other.
PS: We didn’t send a Roundup last week because NEC was in Western North Carolina for our annual membership meeting. Close to 70 organizations in the network joined us from around the country to strategize, break bread and learn from the WNC solidarity economy ecosystem! Follow the hashtag #SolidarityEconomyFam on Twitter & Instagram to catch the feeling!
Stories From the Field
Global Climate Strike: Tomorrow, New Economy Coalition staff and countless of our member organizations (like Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC) will join millions walking out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. Our house is on fire – let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone. We recognize that environmental justice is inextricably linked with racial and economic justice and tomorrow is yet another day to make that abundantly clear. Join the climate strike as you are able and encourage others to as well.
New Social Contract Tour: This is an unprecedented historical moment. More than ever, people in the U.S. are hungry for transformative ideas that bring about lasting, comprehensive change. What would our values look like in practice if our whole society was built around them? NEC member organization, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) is bringing together national and local leaders to show how community and social-movement solutions will build what’s next.
Modeling An Equitable Workforce In Eldercare: As baby boomers age, an elder boom continues to emerge. Not only do 10,000 people turn 65 every day — a rate of about one every eight seconds — but people are also living longer than ever before, making home care the fastest growing occupational sector in our economy. Despite the demand for skilled home care workers, middle-aged women earning less than a living wage tend to occupy existing jobs within the field. Read to learn what Cooperative Home Care Associates in the South Bronx is doing about it.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
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Mongolian Herders Borrow a Tool From the Recent Past: When capitalism supplanted communism in Mongolia, state-run co-ops disappeared and rural communities suffered. Now the herders are bringing back the practice for their own survival. Read how the old is becoming the new to build resilience.
The Forest Farms Still Stand: During Indonesia’s cruel military dictatorship, in the mid 1990s, the importance of their forest motivated Krui forest-farmers to build a coalition with activists, researchers, and government to turn back state and agribusiness plans to destroy Krui and develop two sprawling oil palm plantations in the forests’ stead. NEC member organization, Food First explains how Indonesia’s Krui forest farmers persist in the face of Capitalism’s relentless squeeze.
Bahama Cooperative Recovery Fund: With damage to 90-100 percent of businesses and homes on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco, the Bahamas are in need of immediate and long term relief. The cooperative community not only focuses on economic growth and equality but also provides support through times of success and times of crisis. The Cooperative Development Fund has pledged to donate funds to help cooperatives in the Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian rebuild and thrive once again. Learn more and give here.
Shareable Guide: The Resilience We Want
How can we make our neighborhoods more resilient to disasters and other disruptions? What initiatives and communities can we learn from? How can we turn existing community spaces into resilience hubs that can serve the community in an uncertain future? NEC member organization Shareable created “The Resilience We Want: A guide to making your community space into a hub for local resilience & mutual aid” to help groups all over the world develop answers to these basic questions. This 12-page guide introduces the vision and model of a resilience hub, a place where neighbors can deepen a sense of belonging, learn new skills together, provide for basic needs, prepare for disasters, and build a more inclusive and joyful community.
Latinx Co-op Survey
Latinx people have long been an influential and integral part of the U.S. cooperative movement. Although not the first research involving Latinx co-ops, the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives is currently conducting the first national compilation of U.S. Latinx cooperatives of all co-op types and sectors. Done in partnership with Collective Courage author Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard, this research initiative is to recognize and better understand the collective role of Latinx cooperatives in the broader co-op community. Participate in the survey now!
Movement News
- This Trans-Owned Beauty Co-op Wants To Be A Safe Space For Latinx And LGBTQ Workers
- To Avert Global Catastrophe, We Urgently Need To Resurrect The Ancient Ideal Of Solidarity
- Imagining A Just Transition In Western Mass
- LESReady! Brings New York Disaster Preparedness To The Neighborhood Level
- Why Community-Owned Grocery Stores Are the Best Recipe for Revitalizing Food Deserts
- The Workers’ Sabbatical
- Are We Diluting the Mission of Community Land Trusts?
- First US Industrial Union Endorses Green New Deal and Global Climate Strike
- The Amazon Is Burning. Fair World Project Says Big Ag Is To Blame.
- The Peace Economy: Jodie Evans of CODEPINK with The Laura Flanders Show
- Created Equal: A Curriculum for High Schoolers and Middle Schoolers on Class and Classism
- Fermenting Workplace Democracy Using Worker Ownership To Change Our Food Industry
- Why Don’t We Just Call Agile What It Is: Feminist
- USDAC Building Strategy and Co-Creating Culture: Artists Unite for a GND Call #3 Summary
- Youth Climate Strikes: Looking Beyond Greta Thunberg
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – Where we’re sharing stories like how the trans women of Mirror Beauty Cooperative are building a business without bosses to protect workers from discrimination. You can support NEC member organization, NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives’ “Coop Caravan” so worker-owners like Mirror Beauty can attend the national “Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy” happening in October and convened by NEC member organization, US Federation of Worker Coops!
Job Board
Coalition Coordinator, NY Renews
Co-Director, Allied Media Conference – Detroit, MI – Priority October 1
Collective Member, Movement Generation – San Francisco
Digital Product Manager and Developer, Green America – Washington, DC
Entrepreneur in Residence, New Media Ventures – Deadline Sept 20
Housing Director, Cooperative Development Institute – Northampton, MA – Deadline Sept 20
Marketing & Communications Manager, Recompose, Seattle, WA
Press Officer, Corporate Accountability – Boston, MA
Research Internship, Democracy Collaborative – Washington, DC – Deadline Oct 11th
Senior Research Analyst, Action Center on Race and the Economy – Location is flexible
Senior Staff Attorney, New Economy Project – New York, NY
Various Positions, Color of Change – New York, Washington D.C., Oakland, Los Angeles
Various Positions, Democracy Collaborative – Washington, DC
Various Positions, Groundswell
Various Positions, Groundwork Collaborative
Various Positions, Opportunity Finance Network
Worker, Palante Technology Cooperative
Upcoming Events
7th Climate Justice Youth Summit
UPROSE will be hosting the 7th Climate Justice Youth Summit in Brooklyn, NY. The summit is the largest gathering of young people of color in the country on climate change. It will focus on ways to operationalize Just Transitions. (Sept 20-21 – New York City, NY)
Governing With Communities w/ Boston Ujima Project
Join The Boston Ujima Project for a panel and breakout discussion about the intersection of politics and worker power with, the Workers Lab, and Mayors Lumumba, Tubbs, and Carter. How can our cities shift political and economic power directly into the hands of community members, and create cooperative economies that support the wellbeing of our people and our planet? What can we make happen when our people are in power? How can our communities and businesses prepare to govern ourselves? (September 22 – Roxbury, MA)
Green America: Plastic Soup Solutions – How Business Can End Plastic Pollution
Join NEC Member Green America for a conversation about how businesses can drive us away from our dependence on plastic pollution. Panelists include:
– Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution author Michiel Abbing
– Bee’s Wrap founder and winner of the People and Planet Award Sarah Kaeck
Shilpi Chhotray, Senior Communications Officer/U.S. and Global Communications Officer, of #breakfreefromplastic to moderate. (September 24 – Online)
People First Economy Online Summit
A Free Online Event Bringing Business Together to Build a More Equitable Economy and a Better Future. Join 30+ of the world’s leading experts, with organizations like NEC Member Organization B Lab to gain practical exercises, strategies, and tools you can use immediately to grow your business and shape the future of the economy. (September 17-26 – Online)
Roundsky Solutions: Cooperative Leadership Certification Program – Level 1
Increase your facilitative leadership capacity in this training by strengthening alignment & accountability in yourself & your team, building community & hashing out real world complexities in democratic management, and honing in on and adding cooperative facilitation skills. (September 30th – Online)
Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference
An estimated 1,000 urban, suburban, and rural leaders will gather in Atlanta, Georgia, for the ninth Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference (RVP), the only national conference of its kind. Attendees will represent nonprofits, government, business, and community organizations, and many different professional disciplines, but they’ll share a commitment to strengthening their communities. (October 2-4, Atlanta, GA)
Rural Arts & Culture Summit
The Rural Arts and Culture Summit is a biennial, practitioner-driven gathering that celebrates and expands the field of rural arts-based community development by providing a space for learning, relationship building and celebration of the role of art and creativity in building strong, healthy and resilient rural communities. NEC Member Organization Springboard for the Arts is pleased to offer registration scholarships ($300 value) and travel support (up to $500 to help cover travel and/or lodging expenses) to Native American and Indigenous artists and leaders in the United States. (Oct 3-5 – Grand Rapids, MN)
Participatory Management Certificate Program
Hosted by NEC member organization, Democracy At Work Institute and their partners at Rutgers, this program will help business owners and managers understand and use open book management tools, broad participation and multi-stakeholder decision-making tools and high-performance human resource tools and techniques to enhance employee engagement, improve performance, develop effective communication skills, and promote leadership development. (Oct 7-11 – New Brunswick, NJ)
The Resurgence: North American Forest and Climate Convergence
Hosted with the Indigenous Environmental Network, Shawnee Forest Defense and the Global Justice Ecology Project, this convergence will be an opportunity to come together as many people working on the interconnected issues of forest destruction, climate change, Indigenous sovereignty, racial and gender oppression, corporate domination, fossil fuel extraction, and social and environmental injustice. (Oct 11-14 – Shawnee National Forest, IL)
Community Development Practitioner Intensive Training
This training is designed for organizers and community development professionals in civic sectors such as transportation, planning, and economic development who are interested in addressing community challenges and strengthening places by implementing local artist-centered creative placemaking programs. Learn how to support and train artists and develop customized programming suited to your context. We will also visit local creative placemaking efforts in action.(Oct 16-18 – Denver, CO)
Green Worker Cooperatives: Owning Our Power – 15 Years of Cooperation
Celebrate 15 years of building worker power throughout NYC as NEC Member GWC honors their co-ops & highlight a few that have been doing exceptional work in their fields. Raise a toast, vibe to dope music, meet their diverse worker-owned co-ops, try amazing co-op prepared food from Asia & the African Diaspora, learn how business dreams like yours become a reality through GWC’s Co-op Academy. (October 17 – New York, NY)
Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD)
The ECWD, founded in 2002, is a conference that builds awareness of worker-owned businesses while strengthening existing worker co-ops. For 17 years, the ECWD has forged relationships between democratically-owned businesses, labor institutions, and cooperative resource organizations to expand workplace democracy. (October 18-20 – Baltimore, MD)
Imagining America National Gathering
The Imagining America National Gathering is an annual gathering of public scholars, artists, students, designers, and cultural organizers who are addressing the nation’s most critical issues. (Oct 18-20 – Albuquerque, NM)
2019 CoopZone – Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation Conference
CoopZone invites you to join them for its workshops, presentations and panels on worker co-operative model in the renewable energy sector. (October 24-26 – Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia)
Social Cooperatives International School 2019
The Social Cooperatives International School is an annual event that promotes the exchange of experiences and the innovation of social cooperatives, both at the local and transnational level. Addressed to cooperative entrepreneurs, and open to social enterprises, thinkers and practitioners, the school aims to foster the connection and development of the social cooperatives and promote their international dimension. (October 24-27 – Naples, Italy)
North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) Institute 2019
Cooperatives have long embodied self-help and mutual aid. This year’s theme will encourage us to take a look at how we have built cooperatives with and for our whole community. This theme will delve into the hard work of community organizing as well as the mindfulness it takes to co-create with existing communities when starting a new cooperative. (November 8-10 – Austin, TX)
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