Photo Credit: Brooke Anderson

Land Back Win in the Bay: Congratulations to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and NEC member organization Movement Generation for rematriating 43 acres of land in unceded Bay Miwok territory! With the support of partners like NEC members the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Nuns and Nones, MG raised the funds for Sogorea Te’ to purchase the land and liberate it from the speculative market. Together, they envision the land to become a Bay Area movement hub for “organizers, healers, cultural and earth workers” and a space to build “Black and Indigenous solidarity for a land-based revolution.”

Queer & Trans Liberation Now: During Pride month, we honor the radical roots of the queer liberation movement and look to the deep networks of care that queer and trans communities have always created to survive. Study up on this history with our Pride, Abolition & Solidarity Economies mini-teach in with Niki Franco, and be sure to support queer cooperators like the Shelterwood Collective!

People’s Budget Battle in Boston: Earlier this month, Boston City council passed a budget that was set to allocate $10 million for participatory budgeting by defunding police. However, Mayor Michelle Wu vetoed this budget proposal. Councilors in support of PB were sent back to the drawing board on June 28th to override this veto, but they couldn’t get a two-thirds majority – so no $10 million. But still, there is hope! Better Budget Alliance Boston, in partnership with NEC member the Center For Economic Democracy, reported from Twitter, “the people power we’re building has already led to a doubling of the funds from $2m to $4m. We’ll continue to build power and win meaningful funding for participatory budgeting and the needs of Boston’s underfunded working class, BIPOC communities.”

Stop Cop City Week of Action: June 24 – July 1 marks a national week of action to Stop Cop City! After the Atlanta City Council voted against its constituents in early June, community members are now organizing a people’s referendum to cancel the lease for the massive police training center. Though it may seem like a local fight, we’re reminded that stopping Cop City is part of a “global struggle against fascism” and that Atlanta’s attacks on protestors should be a warning to us all. Check out the event calendar and join in solidarity actions near you.

 

 

 

Cuba #OffTheList: On Sunday, dozens of actions took place in Washington DC and across the US, calling on the Biden administration to remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list and end the blockade. Organizers included NEC member CODEPINK. Earlier last week, the New York City Council also approved a resolution calling on the US government to lift sanctions. Learn more about the revitalization of the movement to end the US blockade on Cuba.

Shipwreck in the Mediterranean: Last week’s parallel news stories of the migrant shipwreck off the coast of Greece and the lost Oceangate submersible showed the cruelties of a system that decides whose lives are worth saving. While the hundreds of migrants who lost their lives were largely ignored, seemingly limitless eyes and resources were focused to search for five wealthy passengers and a billionaire’s plaything. Read about the ongoing migrant crisis in the Mediterranean sea – the deadliest migration route in the world – and how wealth and poverty are intrinsically linked under capitalism.

Communal Socialism in Venezuela: Particularly in the context of US sanctions, communes in Venezuela are a vivid example of collective governance and self-determination. There are an estimated 3,000 communes across Venezuela, each of which is home to thousands of families networked into councils. Within the councils, resources — whether farms, schools, factories, care centers — are all democratically-owned and the community comes together to decide how they want to live and meet their needs. Learn more about the history and scale of Venezuelan communes in the latest episode of Half Past Capitalism.

 

• Abortion Bans Exacerbate the US’s Existing Black Maternal Health Crisis
• Abortion Rights are Trans Rights
• Artificial Intelligence “Godfathers” Call for Regulation as Rights Groups Warn AI Encodes Oppression
• As the ‘silver tsunami’ hits small businesses, could worker co-ops be a solution?
• Community Land Trusts on the Rise!
• How to create a debt co-op to take back your student loans
• Kenya’s tea pickers are destroying the machines replacing them
• This Farmworker Community Garden is Facing Eviction
• The First Nations at the Frontline of Canada’s Fires
• The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy: Community Ownership
• The Nation’s First Green Bank Dedicated to Affordable Housing
• The unions and workers supporting Cop City protestors
• Ujima Fund Achieves Historic Milestone – $1M in Democratic Investments
• US supreme court upholds protections for Native American children
• What Ohio’s Co-op Evangelists Learned From Spain’s Thriving Union Co-op Network

 

 

PODCASTS

• “We Don’t Get There Without The Shared Struggle” – Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba’s Let This Radicalize You
• Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee – Upstream Podcast
• Nia Evans: Building a Community-Based, Democratically-Instituted Economy – Lift Economy
• Productive Justice with Ed Whitfield– The Road to Repair

TOOLKITS & RESOURCES

• REgeneration Zine – Just Transition Alaska
• Anti-Racist Co-op Development Facilitation Guide – Solidarity Resource

• Social Justice Access Toolkit! – Detroit Disability Power

 

 

 

Follow us on Instagram — @neweconomycoalition — This month Niki Franco took over our reels for Juneteenth, educating our followers about the history of Black cooperativism in the United States. Check out the video and resource list

 

 

 

NEW LISTINGS!

Bilingual Co-Op Business Developer, Center for Community Wealth Building
Co-Directors, Third Wave Fund
Communications Coordinator, Shareable
Communications Intern, Sins Invalid
Content Manager, Taproot Earth
Development Director, Critical Exposure
Events/Rentals Coordinator, Earthseed Land Collective
Executive Director, Center for Story-based Strategy
Field Organizer, Dissenters
Inclusive Economies Program Officer, Surdna Foundation
Instructor/Coach (occasional), Social Movement Technologies
North America Campaign Lead / Senior Campaigner, Social Movement Technologies
Policy Associate For Community Land Trusts, New Economy Project
Racial Justice Research Design Partner (RFP), Beneficial State Foundation
Roddenberry Fellowship, Roddenberry
Senior Energy Communications Strategist, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Small Business – Anchor Liaison, Center for Community Wealth Building
Strategic Communications Manager, Beneficial State Foundation
Various Positions, Groundswell Fund
Various Positions, Jobs with Justice
Volunteer Managers, Movement Generation
Program Coordinator – MSCL Program, The People’s Solar Energy Fund
Program Coordinator – CBSC Program, The People’s Solar Energy Fund
Fund Development Consultant, The People’s Solar Energy Fund
Finance Manager, Alternate ROOTS
Cultural Organizing Programs Manager, Alternate ROOTS
Member Services Assistant, Alternate ROOTS
Justice Advocacy Fellow, Alternate ROOTS

 

The International Conference ‘Cooperative for Sustainable Development’
Cooperators from all around the world will discuss the relationship between the cooperative movement and each of the Sustainable Development Goals, from the first to the 17th. The format will be very dynamic and can be followed online in English, Spanish and Basque. (July 1-17 – Online)

#UjimaWednesdays – Abolition Summer
This June and July, Boston Ujima Project is exploring abolition in all its forms. Immerse yourself in a summer of study alongside dedicated practitioners, scholars, and community members committed to dismantling oppressive systems locally and globally. (Wednesdays – July – Online)

Building Blocks: Cooperative Basics, Building Capacity, and Developing Leadership
Building Blocks (formerly Session 1) provides a thorough but introductory overview into the field of cooperative development. This session lays out the basics of the cooperative model, including governance, feasibility, business basics, and memberships. We’ll cover topics ranging from cooperative history to building your cooperative ecosystem. Participants will learn from case studies that delve into particular topics in co-op development, such as investment cooperatives, conversions, and assisting groups in low-resource communities. Additionally, tours to local co-ops and ample networking opportunities in this intensive, productive, and meaningful training. (July 6-27 – Hybrid)

Social Ecology Summer Intensive
We are excited to announce that this year’s summer intensive course will be hosted in Detroit, Michigan in partnership with the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center, from July 7 to 13. This year’s theme is All Power to the People!: Social Ecology and the Black Radical Tradition in Today’s Revolutionary Movements. Participants—local as well as from across North America—will spend six days together studying and learning the core ideas of social ecology, popular movements for direct democracy and community power, and the practice and legacy of transformative community action in the City of Detroit. Four half-days will be spent on site tours around Detroit, while the remaining time will be spent in group talks, presentations, and discussions covering topics ranging from communal stewardship of land to the Rojava Revolution. Participants must register in advance, as space is limited. (July 7-13 – In-person)

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: How Narratives Are Steering Community Development and What to Do About It
In “The Stories We Tell Ourselves,” our panel will explore long-standing, hardwired narratives that show up in the community development sector and keep us from doing the racial equity work that so many of us are trying to do. We’ll also look at specific, practical ways that you can creatively push back against those narratives, at the neighborhood level, the city level, or even nationally. (July 12 – Online)

Resource Generation Internationalism Summer School
The Internationalism Summer School is an opportunity for a multiracial, cross-class space at Resource Generation to explore the connections of local and national struggle with international solidarity. Class struggle is deeply tied to the global economy and it is crucial for people with wealth, social class mobility, land, and power, to investigate these connections. In this program, we will collaborate with frontline organizations, foundations, and funders to expand our understanding and position towards redistribution and solidarity work that is more deeply connected to the international struggle against global capitalism. (July 12 – August 16 – Online)

Liberatory Methods for Investigating and Generating Non-Capitalist / Anti-Colonial Social Power
We will look at how the persistent relationships among people, territory and non-human others have been devalued in Capitalist / Colonial systems and as such the very existence of all life is in peril. On the other hand, the persistence of relationships as relationality, comunalidad, and non-capitalist economic systems have also been the first-line of resistance, perseverance and creation of other ways of doing and being life. As scholars and activists we have a responsibility to break away from hierarchical structures of knowledge creation and practice while embracing the many forms of knowing and being that are the majority forms of existence. Let us come together in this seven-week workshop to dignify hidden and untold histories while creating futures that embrace flourishing. (July 12 – August 23 – Online)

The Work of Abolition: Health, Housing, and Jobs
This Interrupting Criminalization event considers the point, made by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, that “abolition isn’t just absence,” but is also “a fleshly and material presence of social life lived differently…It’s about making things.” We will explore the presence of abolition and what this means for our labor, political demands, budget priorities, mutual aid, and the scale of our efforts. In the process we will address the role of the state and the relevance of public money, public goods,and policy in abolition. (July 13 – Online)

Southern Unity for Racial Justice & Equity (SURJE) Summit
For three days, prepare to be engaged, celebrated, and inspired through a series of events that include networking, expert panels, workshops, and more. Set against the backdrop of a culturally rich and soulful city, we will come together as a call-to-action for the mobilization of a just equity ecosystem and unite in the spirit of restoration; exploring Memphis and its offerings. Within the scope of Racial Equity, special topics include: Energy, Health, Growth, Youth Leadership, and Opportunity. (October 5-7 – In-person)

Resist & Build Summit
The Resist & Build Summit will host an in-person gathering to bring together key trans-local and national organizations working for post-capitalist system change. (October 20-22 – In-person)

2023 Union Co-op Symposium
Co-op Cincy presents its 6th biennial Union Co-op Symposium, which will take place in-person on Oct 20 and Oct 21 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Symposium will focus on combining the best of the co-op and union movements to forge a new economy rooted in connection. Activities will highlight equity, labor, community wealth-building, and care for the earth and ourselves. (October 20-21 – In-person)