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This week we’re talking about kale not jail, how to teach for black lives, the sharing economy in Rio, and so much more. Scroll to the bottom for the job board and events!
Stories From the Field
More U.S. Businesses Are Becoming Worker Co-ops: With new tools and policies in place to support them, there could be a boom in employee-owned business as baby boomers retire and sell their companies to their workers. Read this feature article in Fast Company.
Democratizing Community Economic Development: The Urban Cooperative Enterprise Legal Center is launching this June in New Jersey to create and support cooperative enterprises within marginalized communities to promote local sustainability. Learn more.
Kale, Not Jail: Planting Justice is a Bay Area nonprofit that combines urban farming with environmental education and job opportunities for recently released prison inmates. Read about their inspiring story and business model.
Land Trusts in Mississippi: After centuries of housing racism, local residents and members of Cooperation Jackson are pursuing community land trusts as a key to fair and affordable development. Read this piece from the latest issue of YES! Magazine.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Keeping Each Other Safe in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro is a city of extremes. Inequality is rampant, and while a small elite enjoy the "luxury" of housing, high quality education, and concentrated public funding, the majority of its citizens share the rest. The best examples of sharing are born not out of excess but from scarcity and collective problem solving. Learn about six powerful projects here.
How Basic Income is Affecting Three Canadian Towns: Ontario’s basic income program, launched in April 2017, is currently operating in three towns ― Thunder Bay, Lindsay and Hamilton. The scheme has enrolled more than 4,000 low-income people living on less than CA$34,000 ($29,500) individually, or CA $48,000 as a couple. This includes those who are working, in school or living on financial assistance. Read about the impact on community residents.
Using Video Games for Participatory Planning in Kenya: Urban planning has historically relied on top-down processes in which technical experts create land use designs that are then authorized by municipal officials. Even though international development agencies and professional planners have endorsed the research supporting participatory approaches, a variety of challenges has made it difficult to establish transferable methods. How can organizations collaborate to create public spaces in impoverished areas such as the Kibera neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya? Find out about the project here.
Costa Rica to Ban Fossil Fuels: Costa Rica’s new president has announced a plan to ban fossil fuels and become the first fully decarbonised country in the world. Learn more.
Building an Economy for People and Planet
In her recent paper “Solidarity Economy: Building an Economy for People and Planet” through The Next System Project, organizer Emily Kawano explores the history of solidarity economies across cultures, defines identifying principles and practices, and provides case studies that illustrate the solidarity economy in practice. A welcome read for practitioners interested in the history of the movement or how it can be defined by underlying universal principles.
Download a PDF of the paper and learn more here.
Teaching for Black Lives
Published this week by Rethinking Schools, Teaching for Black Lives aims to provide educators with critical perspectives on the role of schools in perpetuating anti-Blackness, along with offering them concrete examples of what it looks like to humanize Black people in curriculum, teaching, and policy. The book is a collection of essays, teaching activities, poems, and artwork, discussing various topics including loving Blackness, teaching Blackness, the school-to-prison-pipeline, Black history, exploring identity, and more.
Learn more and preview the book online.
Movement News
- A Guide to Racial Justice Projects from NEC member ioby
- Bye, Spotify: Musicians Take Back Ownership With This Cooperative
- Senator Gillibrand Promotes Bill That Would Help Small Businesses Transition to Employee Ownership
- 3 Ways People are Challenging Traditional Work Structures
- Affordable Housing Advocates in CA Fight to Protect Renters’ Rights
- Building Cooperative Power: Strategies from the Connecticut River Valley
- Undesign the Redline: An Interactive Exhibit on Structural Inequality
- Nick Offerman Investigates the Collapse of the Coal Industry
- Seattle City Council Member Takes On Amazon
- Urban Farming Nonprofit Helps Formerly Incarcerated Re-enter Society
- Class, Race, and Privilege in the Intentional Community
- An Economic Case for Protecting the Planet
NEC on The Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram – @NewEconomyCoalition – where we’re talking about CommonBound site visits to some of St. Louis’ most historic neighborhoods, cultural landmarks and institutions.
Job Board
Cooperative Development Consultant, Keystone Development Center
GIS Fellow, Ioby
Solutions Journalism Reporting Internship, YES! Magazine
Development and Marketing Associate, Tree Street Youth
Executive Director, Third Wave Fund
Multiple Positions Available, GreenWave
IT Intern, New Economy Coalition
Housing Program Specialist, Cooperative Development Institute
Youth Organizing and Leadership Development Support, Highlander Center
Economics and Governance Education and Community Support, Highlander Center
Member Services Manager, Cooperative Federal
Supervising Attorney, Urban Justice Center
Development & Outreach Internship, Democracy Now
Upcoming Events
Worker cooperative leaders can unlock the true strength of democratic management through tested tools and training; the School for Democratic Management helps managers build the strong participatory ownership culture that a worker cooperative needs. Launching this month, the bi-weekly What Works Webinar Series covers key elements of Finance, Governance, and Human Relations. Each 75 minute webinar is taught by a manager of a successful employee-owned company who speaks from their direct experience. (Online, May 23-August 1)
Join the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) at their public launch of A New Social Contract! A New Social Contract advances comprehensive, transformative, community-led solutions that protect human rights, build equitable systems for everyone and deepen our democracy. We need a new social contract, one that values every human life, treats all people with respect and dignity, recognizes our interdependence with each other and our planet and enables everyone to reach their full potential. (New York City, May 24)
It's 1939 and a group of famous Black intellectuals and civil rights leaders are gathering to discuss the future of the Negro race…and you're invited! Come mingle with W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Gwendolyn Brooks and many others in this 360° interactive theater event. Inspired by the book "Collective Courage" by Jessica Gordon-Nembhard. (Brooklyn, May 24 – May 28)
Demos Action, Anat Shenker-Osorio (ASO Communications), and Ian Haney López (author of Dog Whistle Politics), have partnered in an ambitious multi-phase project to craft an effective new narrative on race, class, and democracy. The central question explored has been how to engage simultaneously around race and class in ways that strengthen social solidarity, reduce division and scapegoating, and create a viable foundation for progressive policy and electoral victories. Organizers have crafted, empirically validated, and field-tested a range of narratives, compared these to existing frames, and are now ready to announce the findings including c4 specific results. (Online, May 29th)
10 Principles For a Federal Job Guarantee
Amid rising economic insecurity, persistent racial inequities, and an uncertain future of work, a federal job guarantee is a big idea whose time has come. By ensuring that every person who wants to work has access to a quality job, a job guarantee could eliminate involuntary unemployment and raise the floor on low-wage work while building stronger communities. Via NEC members, Policylink. (Online, May 30th)
New Economy Project Summer Kick-Off Party
Join NEC member organization, the New Economy Project, for their summer kick-off party at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. Enjoy food, games, and sunshine with new economy change-makers. (New York City, June 3rd)
Banking for Justice: Public Bank Rally and Campaign Launch
Join the Public Bank NYC coalition to hear from frontline groups about how big banks strip money from our communities and our city, and why the city should DIVEST from Wall Street; learn about public banking as a strategy to advance racial, economic and environmental justice; speak out about how a public bank can meet critical needs in your community — such as permanently affordable housing; worker, food and financial cooperatives; renewable energy; local small businesses. (New York City, June 5th)
NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives Conference
The NYC Worker Cooperative conference is a co-production of the Community and Economic Development Clinic at CUNY School of Law and NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives. The 2018 theme is “Owning our Labor” and attendees can expect a full day of workshops, member gatherings, strategy sessions, networking events, and movement building. (New York City, June 9th)
The Allied Media Conference celebrates its twentieth anniversary with an exciting roster of special guests, critical conversations, and moving performances. Tarana Burke, activist and founder of the #MeToo movement, is headlining as the conference’s keynote speaker, in conversation with long-time AMCer Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA. The AMC Opening Ceremony is produced by multimedia performance artist Tunde Olaniran. (Detroit, June 14-17)
On June 22-24, 2018, over 700 people across the new economy movement will come together in St. Louis, MO for CommonBound 2018 to connect with one another, share our resources, and demonstrate our power in creating systems that truly meet the needs of our communities. In past years, CommonBound has answered the questions of what is a new economy, why do we need one, and who is it building it. Next June, CommonBound will connect these threads and focus on another question: How do we build a new economy? Registration opens in March. Scholarships available. (St. Louis, MO, June 22 – 24)
View all NEC member events on our website »
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