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Stories From the Field
Land-Based Reparations & a Black Commons: Studies show that between 1920 and 1997, the number of Black farmers and farmlands have decreased by 98%. From W.E.B. DuBois to Fannie Lou Hamer to Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Black cooperators have long argued that the creation of a Black commons – based on shared economic, cultural and digital resources as well as land – is key to repairing this racist legacy of dispossession and chattel slavery. Check out Reparations Summer for a wealth of resources on what a land-based movement for Black liberation looks like.
#CancelRent: When rent came due this week on July 1st, millions remained unable to pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now face evictions. Read how cancelling rent and investing in community-owed housing can make this year’s eviction crisis our last via NEC member organization Partners for Dignity and Rights, and download these political education and organizing tools about how to build the movement to cancel rent from Right to the City.
Calls for a Green Stimulus: In a letter sent on Wednesday, 60 Congress members highlighted the urgent need to address the dual crises of coronavirus and climate change in the next stimulus package. The letter was written in partnership with energy and policy experts who put out “A Green Stimulus to Rebuild Our Economy” back in March, including NEC member organization Democracy Collaborative.
Story of Stuff: Last week, NEC co-director Shavaun Evans aired live on the Story of Stuff with Andrew Delmonte of NEC member organization PUSH Buffalo to discuss mutual aid, collectivism, and cooperation. Tune in to hear Shavaun and Andrew explain why the “new economy” isn’t new, the work our member organizations are doing to build solidarity economies, and more.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Free Palestine: As the Israeli government declares their intention to annex a third of the already illegally occupied West Bank, Salam Barahmeh of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy argues that the resistance is about more than annexation, it’s about stopping a system of apartheid. Barahmeh writes that Palestinians need other nations to use political and economic pressure to support the resistance; take action via NEC member organization CodePink to tell Congress to stop annexation and defund apartheid.
Credit Union History: In 1964, a group of British-Caribbeans set up the Hornsey Co-operative Credit Union, the first credit union in Britain, as a reaction to discrimination by major banks. By 1974, Britain had 48 credit unions with 39,000 members — around two-thirds of whom were of West Indian origin. Learn more about the history of how British-Caribbean people led the creation of credit unions in Britain.
#Coops4ClimateAction: The International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July to increase awareness of the international cooperative movement. This year’s celebration falls on July 4th and will focus on how co-ops are combating climate change. See what co-ops around the world are doing to celebrate, and follow NEC member organization the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives for stories about the intersection of climate and economic justice.
White Supremacy is the Preexisting Condition
As uprisings against systemic anti-Black racism enter their sixth week, increased attention is being focused on how economic inequality creates and maintains racial hierarchies. NEC member organization the Institute for Policy Studies underscores this point in their new report, “White Supremacy is the Preexisting Condition,” showing how billionaire wealth has surged by more than $600 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities have been economically hard hit. Download the report for more data and policy tools to address the financial legacy of centuries of white supremacy in the U.S.
Movement News
- Abolition Can Keep Us Safe
- Beyond ‘White Fragility’: If you want to let freedom ring, hammer on economic injustice
- Black Economic Council calls for $1b from Mass. business community to address racial inequity
- Coronavirus Is Hitting Black Business Owners Hardest
- Covid-19 and the Navajo Nation
- From Policing to Climate Change, a Sweeping Call for a ‘Moral Revolution’
- How a coalition of activists forced Los Angeles to consider defunding the LAPD
- In Seattle, Protests Over Racial Equity Turn to Land Ownership
- It’s Time to Invest in Black Trans Power
- Owning Our Future After COVID-19
- "The old ideas are collapsing": an interview with Gar Alperovitz
- The Oligopoly That Controls Our Digital Infrastructure Has Deepened Economic and Racial Divides
- The Pandemic Shows It’s Time for an Alternative to American Capitalism
- The Time For Reparations Is Now
- Why Banking needs a co-operative revolution
- Who Will Pay for the Crisis?
Podcasts of the New Economy
In this episode of This is Hell!, political scientist Cedric Johnson examines the collisions of race, class, policing and activism in the wake of George Floyd's murder, saying: “We have to get back to the question of inequality. I'm less concerned with the abolition of police, than with the abolition of the very conditions that police are there to manage. We want to scale back some of these overblown police departments, but if we don't also deal with inequality, we'll be right back in the same place we are now.”
Additional listens:
The Next Move: A Homes Guarantee with Tara Raghuveer
Intercepted: The Rebellion Against Racial Capitalism with Robin D.G. Kelley
Rest in Power Lorna C. Hill <3
Jobs
New Listings!
Central/Eastern MA Regional Field Coordinator, Neighbor to Neighbor Education Fund
College Organizer, Resource Generation – Remote – July 12
Communications & Development Coordinator, Powershift Network – Remote
Communications Manager, Nellie Mae Education Foundation – Quincy, MA
Food Security/Access Contributor, Food and Environment Reporting Network – Remote
Head of Investments, New Media Ventures – Remote/S.F. – July 14
Membership Coordinator, Resource Generation – Remote – July 12
Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizer, Resource Generation – Remote – July 12
Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, Nathan Cummings Foundation – Remote
All Jobs
Associate Director: Media Strategy, Demos – New York, NY
Development Manager, Bread & Roses Community Fund – Philadelphia, PA – July 10
Director of Administration and Finance, Peace Development Fund – Amherst, MA
Director of Investment, Boston Ujima Project – Boston, MA
Economic Justice Organizer, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos – Chicago, IL
Editor in Chief, Real News Network – Baltimore, MD
Education Team Coordinator Highlander Center – New Market, TN
Foundation Associate, Peace Development Fund – Amherst, MA
General Coordinator, Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC – New York, NY
Grants Manager, Highlander Center – New Market, TN
MA Resident Owned Communities Intern, Cooperative Development Institute – Mass.
Marketing and Communications Associate, Cutting Edge Capital – Bay Area/Remote
Partnership Engagement Director, Green America – Washington D.C./Remote
Program Manager, Capital Strategies Program, Transform Finance – New York City
Senior Manager: Individual Giving, Demos – New York, NY
Senior Communications Coordinator, Grassroots International – Boston, MA
Solidarity Philanthropy Director, Grassroots International – Boston, MA
Suburban Legal Clinic Coordinator, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos – Chicago, IL
Various Digital Disruption/Organizer Positions, Better Future Project – Cambridge, MA/Remote
Various (Movement Support/Admin/Instructors) – Social Movement Technologies – Remote
Web Developer, Foundation for Intentional Communities
Upcoming Events
Union Co-op Solutions : A Manifesto
A Union Co-op is a fully unionised, worker co-operative, owned and controlled by those who work in it. As the world of work looks set to change beyond all recognition as a result of COVID-19, this is a model that has the potential to offer hope to millions of people across the globe. (Today! July 2 4PM ET – Online)
CoFED: Build, Unlean, Decolonize Academy
Formerly known as CoFED’s Summer Co-op Academy (SCA), the Build, Unlearn, Decolonize (BUD) learning series is a 5-week virtual education intensive from September 24-October 19, 2020 designed with love for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander youth who are working in co-ops and collectives to grow community health and wealth through food and land. (Applications Due July 7)
Policy and Practice: Critical Strategies for Dismantling Structural Racism
Racism is a system and needs to be dismantled as a system. This includes policy, practice, strategy, and norms. Join series facilitator, Erika Seth Davies, along with practitioners and cross-sector experts to look at best practices, tangible examples and next steps for action for system level conversations with a hyper-local lens. Interactive and solution oriented sessions. (July 8 – Online)
Web Security for Activists and Organizers with CoLab and Michael Loadenthal
This webinar with CoLab and anarchist activist Michael Loadenthal will focus on mapping political repression, understanding security threats, and developing strategies to organize more securely in digital environments. What does political repression look like today? How can it be reflected in past eras? How has it changed? We will begin by exploring how repression operates generally, and how to understand these strategies historically. How can repression be examined psychologically, legally, in policing and intelligence practices, and through the lens of language? (July 9 – Online)
Schumacher Conversations: Revisiting Past Lectures, With Updates for the Present
Schumacher Center speakers have been at the forefront, envisioning and applying the concepts of a new economics nationally and internationally. In celebration of 40 years of the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, and in anticipation of the October 25, 2020 Lectures with Kali Akuno and George Monbiot, they are highlighting the work of past speakers and asking for updates of their earlier remarks in light of recent events. (Thursdays; July 9-September 10 – Online)
#RaceAnd The Gender Binary
Have you ever wondered why mainstream society reduces the full diversity of humanity to "two genders"? The answer has more to do with white supremacy and colonialism than you might think. This webinar is an introduction to the past and present connections between race, colonialism, and the gender binary. (July 9 – Online)
Community Building for a New Shared Ownership Agenda: Unleashing Cooperative Principles for a New Economy
Join this Q&A session co-hosted by NEC member organization the Community Purchasing Alliance to learn more about their upcoming 4-week virtual workshop on cooperative economics. The workshop itself will run weekly from August 1 – 28, 2020 and is for leaders seeking to reflect on what cooperative economy principles have to offer us in this unique moment as we seek to build an economy for our collective flourishing. (July 10 – Online)
Allied Media Conference
For over 20 years, AMC has been curated with care by people making media for liberation: film, radio, zines, dance, technology, magic, and much more. Organizers were already exploring how to grow the virtual components of AMC, in order to make the conference more accessible and do less harm to the environment. Due to the current global pandemic, AMC will be entirely virtual this year. Registration costs for the virtual AMC are on a sliding scale from $0-$600. (July 23-26 – Online)
View all NEC member events on our website »
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