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This week we’re talking about John Oliver lifting up resident-owned communities as a solution to rent hikes, corporations reckoning with their Nazi-affiliated past, and how aboriginal people of Australia had their native title rights recognized. (Thanks CEANYC for the banner meme!)
Stories From the Field
John Oliver Shouts-out Resident Owned Communities: In a segment about mobile homes and real estate speculation, Oliver raised ROC USA as a potential solution builder. NEC member, the Cooperative Development Institute is one of 9 affiliates helping ROC USA build Resident-Owned Communities across the U.S. Watch around 13:00 to see ROC United mentioned and learn about ROCs from Next System Project
The Green New Deal Should Include Reparations: How can we repair the demise of an extractive economy without restoring the relationship with communities who's labor was exploited? The earth is not for our disposal, and human labor is not for our disposal. Read about how recognition and compensation for economic injustice goes hand in hand with environmental sustainability.
What an Empire Built on Nazi Collaboration Says About Our Economy: What happens when it becomes public that the corporation that owns companies like Krispy Kreme and Panera Bread was affiliated with Nazi regime slave labor? John Duda of The Democracy Collaborative, an NEC member, grapples with what it means to reconcile corporate past with present wealth and accountability.
Can We Reinvent Democracy for the Long Term?: Modern democracy – especially in wealthy countries – has enabled us to colonize the future. Our current representative democracy systematically ignores the interests of future people. Future generations are now disenfranchised in the same (or similar) ways that their ancestors were. Read how governments are attempting to incorporate the 7th generation principle of defending future well being.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Australian Indigenous Rights Win: The High Court of Australia has handed down the biggest "native title" ruling affecting Aboriginal ownership of the land in decades, amid claims that billions of dollars in compensation will need to be paid by governments to indigenous groups. Read what this means for native land and water rights.
Bolivia Approaching Food Sovereignty: The Government of Bolivia has just invested $40 million to support small and medium farmers in food production. 20 food security projects are already underway across the country with the goal of being completely food independent in 2020. Read how Bolivia is investing in small farmers and check out this video of Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture, Marisol Solano, explaining the program.
Doing More (Happiness) With Less: Developed countries with much smaller per capita emissions than the United States are hardly dystopias. Happy countries’ investments in collective consumption and their shorter work weeks allow for a whole host of activities that make us happier — and happen to not destroy the planet. Read Kate Aronoff’s Hot Take on lessons we can learn from policies abroad.
Participatory Budgeting Project Tracker
The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), an NEC Member, has introduced a new online tool in celebration of the first 10 years of the organization. The online tool includes a map of PB across the U.S. and Canada to help us look back as we plan for the next 30+ years of PB. Each dot on the map represents a place where democracy has been deepened by bringing people together to decide together how to invest public resources in their community. The map is linked to the database that PBP maintains to try to track every PB process in the U.S. and Canada. For example, you can find out that in 2018 there were 56 PB city-wide, county-wide, and district-level processes in the US and Canada – Explore the map here!
Wall Street Bonuses, Gender, and Race
Since 1985, the average Wall Street bonus has increased 1,000 percent, from $13,970 to $153,700. If the minimum wage had increased at that rate, it would be worth $33.51 today, instead of $7.25. This is just one of the findings of the Institute for Policy Studies study on Wall Street bonuses. Read the report for more analysis on minimum wage comparisons and gender and race gaps.
Movement News
- Collaborating to Advance Justice for Women: Solidago Foundation
- Cross-Class Cooperation and Land Access
- Transformative Climate Action is Possible — if Polluters Stay Away
- How Neoliberalism Reinvented Democracy
- Victory! Boston Challenges Corporate Control of our Food System
- A Comprehensive Study on Child Removal in Native Communities
- Rebuilding Indigenous Economies & Remembering How to Creatively Thrive
- How Seoul is Confronting its Deadly Isolation Epidemic with Sharing
- We Need Retirement Systems and Public Benefit Programs That Don’t Exclude Immigrants
- Confronting Racism is not About the Needs and Feelings of White People
- The Next Egg: Investing our Retirement Savings in our Local Communities
- Grassroots Gardens Hopes to be First Accredited Community Garden Land Trust in the Country
- How We Power Down the Fossil Fuel Machine
- 10 Tips on Receiving Critical Feedback: A Guide for Activists
- 30 Years of Building a New Food System: An Interview with Equal Exchange
- MA Lawmakers Revive Effort to Spur Employee Ownership
- 2019 Izzy Awards Honor Earth Island Journal & The Laura Flanders Show
- The Study Group Bringing bell hooks to Prisons
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – and see how NEC members are making national news, like hOurworld Cooperative bringing light to time banking in Salon.com. Read the full piece!
Job Board
Apprenticeship Program, Women Innovating Labor Leadership
Chief Financial Officer, Mountain Association for Community Economic Development
Communications Assistant Summer Intern, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Communications Coordinator, 350.org
Community Energy Advisor, PUSH Buffalo
Cultural Organizer, Highlander Center
Development & Financial Innovation Manager, Center for Story Based Strategy
Development Director, United For A Fair Economy
Digital Engagement Organizer, Corporate Accountability
Loan Administrator, Shared Capital Cooperative
Member Organizer, Boston Ujima Project
National Communications Organizer, Right to the City
Office Manager/Bookkeeper, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Political Education Manager, HEAL Food Alliance
Project Officer, Cooperation Richmond
Staff Director, Northern Plains Resource Council
State Organizer, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Various Positions, Beneficial State Foundation
Various Positions, Better Future Project
Various Positions, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
Various Positions, Center for Family Life
Various Positions, Cero Cooperative
Various Positions, Democracy Brewing
Various Positions, National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Various Positions, Office of the Public Advocate for NYC – Jumaane D. Williams
Various Positions, Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP)
Various Positions, Race Forward
Upcoming Events
A Webinar on State & Gender Violence in Black Communities
Join NEC Member BYP100 for this virtual political education session on state and gender violence impacting Black communities as a part of the launch of their She Safe, We Safe campaign. BYP100 believes that by centering the experiences of violence that uniquely impact Black women, girls, femmes, and gender non conforming people, we will be able to build solutions, outside of police and prisons, that will keep all of us safe. (April 11 – Online Webinar)
Remaking the Economy: The Critical Role of Advocacy
This webinar includes an interview with Esteban Kelly, executive director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and a panel with three expert speakers: Evette Roots, a social enterprise specialist at the Office of Community Wealth Building in Richmond, Virginia; Yassi Eskandari-Qajar, policy director at the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland, California; and Anthony Flaccavento, a candidate for Congress in 2018 from Abbington, Virginia, and author of Building a Healthy Economy from the Ground Up. (April 11 – Online Webinar)
Boston: Launching the Green New Deal Tour
Join the Tour Launch of the Road to a Green New Deal. Explore what the pain of the climate crisis looks like for Boston and the nation, and what the promise of the Green New Deal will look like, too. Hear from political champions, including Senator Markey and Representative Pressley, and community and movement leaders, including Reverend Mariama White Hammond and the students who led the Boston Youth Climate Strike. (April 17 – Boston, MA)
2020 Divestment Day National Escalation Call
Fossil Free Future and Divest Ed are hosting an open discussion call to talk about coordinated national escalation for National Divestment Day, February 13th, 2020 Join to learn how to get your campus involved, and how to get involved in planning the national escalation. (April 17 – Online)
Restore and Repair: A New Social Contract to Decolonize Our Institutions
How do we tackle the devastating harms of criminalization imposed on communities of color that continue, among other things, to prevent us from creating an inclusive democracy? The movement for restorative and transformative justice in schools offers a path forward. Parents and students have built an alternative framework to repair and restore relationships and decolonize how our institutions work. Please join this conversation with The New School on how we can move from social control and criminalization to inclusive democracy and liberation. (April 17 – New York, NY)
East Oakland Cooperative Book Club – Collective Courage
If you are an African American entrepreneur starting a business, an existing business owner thinking about succession plans and you have Black workers, or an existing worker coop with black worker-members looking for a refresher, this book club is for you! Organized by NEC Member, Sustainable Economies Law Center and their partners. (April 22 – Oakland, CA)
2nd MACED/Project Equity Eastern KY Worker Co-op Training
More than 26,000 Kentucky businesses, employing more than 300,000 people, are owned by baby boomers. Many have not identified the next generation of ownership and could be at risk of closing their businesses when they retire. One way to keep these businesses thriving and locally-owned is transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative or other form of employee ownership. Presented by Project Equity, these workshops explore worker-owned cooperatives and other employee-owned models, as well as best practices in helping businesses transition to employee ownership. (April 30 – Morehead, KY)
Thank U, Next (System): a May Day Party for a Solidarity Economy
Enjoy a powerful evening of solidarity this May Day as the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) invited you to dance, drink, eat, and play to support New Yorkers advancing a cooperative future for New York City. (May 1 – New York, NY)
People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature and Environment Conference
PGM ONE convenes emerging and established professionals of color/the global majority who work in the environmental and outdoor movement to share, learn, collaborate, heal, celebrate, build community, find support, and sharpen their analysis of racial equity in their fields. PGM ONE is a project of NEC Member, Earth Island Institute. (May 8-10 – Philadelphia, PA)
2019 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise
Social enterprise is a growing movement in communities across Canada. For 10 years, the Social Enterprise Council of Canada has been bringing community developers, social entrepreneurs, and policy makers together to envision how these businesses can solve our biggest problems. Join NEC Member, the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) to learn together, celebrate incredible progress, and set the stage for the next decade of social impact. (May 8-10 – Quebec, Canada)
2019 Spring RootSkills
The RootSkills series is about building networks and strengthening movements by making powerful, intersectional connections between a broad spectrum of participants all working towards a common goal. The workshop agenda and learning objectives are co-created by a planning committee. An open call for workshop sessions has resulted in offerings that are about helping grassroots organizers develop their own solutions to complex environmental and social justice issues that affect where they live. Workshop sessions are both process- and issue-based. This event will focus on racial and economic disparities to consider in/equity in rural, New England communities. (May 18 – Brattleboro, VT)
10-Year Anniversary Party for the Participatory Budgeting Project
For the past ten years, PBP has been the lead organization growing participatory budgeting across North America. They've launched and supported PB processes in over 30 cities, empowering 400,000 people to decide how to spend $300 million, funding more than 1,630 community-generated projects. To celebrate, they’re hosting a 10th Anniversary Benefit at Prime Produce in New York City. Come toast to the past 10 years, and many more ahead – reflect and share what we hope to accomplish moving forward. (May 23 – New York, NY)
5th Annual Conference of the Cooperative Professionals Guild
The Cooperative Professionals Guild is a home for attorneys and accountants who specialize in cooperative business models. The Guild provides a forum in which its members advance their professional development and jointly promote a cooperative economic future for the United States. (May 30-June 1 – Chicago, IL)
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