This week we’re talking about powerful farmworker organizing on the West Coast, recent wins for community-controlled housing, LA’s stripper cooperative, first-of-its-kind federal legislation for co-ops, and a special issue of Hammer & Hope focused on internationalism and Palestinian liberation.
PS: We’re looking for feedback on the Roundup as we change things up! Let us know your thoughts here.
Land Workers Build Power on the West Coast: In Washington state, the farmworkers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia has been using powerful organizing tactics and cross-border solidarity to secure safer working conditions across the state. Members of the union, which is largely made up of Indigenous people from Oaxaca, have also been involved in organizing Tierra y Libertad — the first farmworker-owned cooperative in the Pacific Northwest. Further down the coast in Northern California, Indigenous and immigrant landworkers are collaborating with North Bay Jobs with Justice to reclaim their labor and deep knowledge of land stewardship to build climate resilience.
Community Controlled Housing Wins: This week, the East New York Community Land Trust is celebrating the purchase of their first apartment building! All across the US, communities are resisting rising rents by bringing housing into community control. Back in January, NEC member the Guild supported the People’s Community Land Trust to buy an apartment building in Atlanta, promising an immediate rent decrease for all tenants. And in Chicago, two women gave their homes to the Here to Stay Community Land Trust to help long-time neighbors buy homes in the gentrifying area.
Building the L.A. Stripper Co-op: Last year, dancers at the Star Garden strip club in Los Angeles became the first unionized strippers in the US. But after ongoing issues with management, the dancers are looking to start a worker cooperative to build greater control over their working conditions. Currently run as a pop-up, the Stripper Co-op is working with NEC member L.A. Co-op Lab in hopes of opening a “brick-and-mortar stripper-owned-and-operated club.” Tune into the 4-episode series for the full story.
Federal Support for Worker Co-ops: On Monday, Representatives Ro Khanna (CA) and Jamaal Bowman (NY) introduced the National Worker Cooperative Development and Support Act! The bill is a landmark piece of legislation offering comprehensive federal support for the development of worker cooperatives. We offer our congratulations to NEC members the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the Democracy at Work Institute, who have been stewarding the development of this legislation with their members for many years. Sign on to show your support for the bill.
Hammer & Hope magazine just launched their third issue; a special edition on Palestine and the revival of internationalism. The collection of stories is a powerful call into deeper solidarity and more effective action.
- 50,000 People Say Another World is Possible
- Abortion Access After Dobbs: Visions for Reproductive Justice & Radical Care
- Banking for the People
- Building Stability Through Resident-Owned Mobile Home Parks
- Coalition seeks increase in worker-owned companies
- Detroit Has No Time to Waste Food
- From Factory to Civic Powerhouse: Rebuilding Local Democracy in Barcelona
- From Puerto Rico to Palestine: Reimagining New Futures
- Haiti’s freedom flood can’t be dammed forever
- If the Workers Take a Notion: ‘Works for All’ Showcases Union Co-ops
- Media continues to frame mass starvation in Gaza as a natural disaster rather than a deliberate siege tactic
- Ohlone People Rejoice After City of Berkeley Votes to Return Sacred Land
- Participatory Budgeting Project Resource Library
- Signature Collection Begins for Ballot Measure That Would Allow Portlanders to Choose 2% of the City’s Annual Budget
NEW LISTINGS
Communications & Digital Strategist, Red Cypress Consulting
Communications Director, Center for Community Wealth Building (Deadline of March 31)
Cooperative Developer, Cooperacion Santa Ana
Cooperative Economics Small Business Manager, Unite Oregon
Development Director, U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Development & Investment Relations Director, Black Farmer Fund
Executive Director, Corporate Accountability
Program & Communications Associate, Wellspring Cooperative
Research Fellow, Participatory Budgeting Project
Special Projects Coordinator, Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC
Tech Support Worker (NYC), Palante Technology Cooperative
Unite- EJ Finance Manager, Climate Justice Alliance
Unite- EJ Program Coordinator, Climate Justice Alliance
Story, Power, Place: Cultivating Liberatory Power Through Story
Through Story, Power, Place, participants learn how to guide relational and generative storytelling processes with individuals and groups, centering practices of mutual belonging and connection as the roots of lasting change. Above all, Story, Power, Place is a beloved community of practice to cultivate the skills of liberatory power—to help us collectively navigate the waves of planetary change and disruption currently taking place. (March 26 – May 24 – Apply in Advance)
Civic Assemblies Learning Session
This workshop will be facilitated by Alex Renirie who is the Program Co-Director at Healthy Democracy where she focuses on process design, facilitation, and partnership development. (March 27 – Virtual)
Spokes in the Wheel: Building a Regional Solidarity Economy in the DC Area
Whether you’re a co-op owner, a worker, a business owner, or someone interested in alternatives to capitalism, we’d love to have you come dream with us! While this event will be focused on the DMV region (DC, Maryland, and Virginia), cooperatives and individuals interested in the solidarity economy are also welcome to join from wherever you live. Come learn about DC’s regional solidarity economy— an alternative to capitalism based on the well-being of people over profit! (March 27 – Virtual)
Farmers and Land Stewards Legal Cafe
ATTENTION farmers and land stewards transitioning to resilient local economies! RSVP to the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s online legal cafe. Get legal advice and info from the comfort of your home. (March 28 – Virtual)
Facilitating Cooperation: Embracing Complexity and Navigating Uncertainty with Collective Power
Facilitation skills and tools can help you to hold your plan firmly (yet loosely), listen to your team members, and bridge the individual with the collective. When this all clicks together, it’s magical. To facilitate cooperation, you have to be able to pivot, hear tensions, honor differences, and offer collective connection. Come to this free webinar to learn cooperative practices* to listen in your facilitation, engage your team members and self, and align the collective. (April 4 – Virtual)
Trademark for Artist Legal Cafe
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice, via Zoom, by appointment. If you need advice about starting a worker-owned cooperative, converting an existing business into a cooperative, organizing a housing cooperative, founding a nonprofit or other social enterprise, please RSVP! (April 16 – Virtual)
Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC Presents: Solidarity Economy Spotlight SERIES
A key part of CEANYC’s work is getting groups together across sectors and movements. One way we’ll be making that happen in the coming months is by hosting a series featuring co-ops and community-controlled groups working in banking, housing, mutual, food, and beyond. Do you want to hear these remarkable groups tell you about their work so you can join them? Then this series is for you! (April 16 & May 21 – NYC Hybrid)
Intro to Power Research
What is power research? This training will explore how to identify key networks of corporate power that uphold and profit from systemic injustices, how research into these networks can be used to challenge their power, and how LittleSis can help researchers bring together information from free public sources to inform campaign strategy and tactics. (April 18 – Virtual)
Decolonizing Economics 2024: Earth Day to May Day!
Decolonizing economics is an explicit challenge to ourselves and participants to center Indigenous wisdom, perspective, and knowledge. Our summit aims to demonstrate real solutions to heal the land and people, through educating attendees about our economic system, the failings of putting profit over people, and the ways in which groups around the world are working towards economic and social justice. (April 21 – McKinleyville, California)
5 year Celebration with Cleveland Owns
This is our fifth year incubating economic democracy in Greater Cleveland – time flies when you are building people power! To celebrate five years we are throwing a party. This is also the kick-off of our fundraising campaign! We’re raising $1,000 in monthly recurring donations to accelerate our fight for economic democracy. If you believe in the power of collective ownership to build community wealth and power, we ask that you become a Sustaining Supporter of Cleveland Owns. Your monthly recurring donation will help keep economic democracy blossoming! (May 4 – Cleveland)
9th National Conference On Community and Restorative Justice
Join us in this defining moment as we envision, explore, and take action to ensure community and restorative justice principles not only survive but thrive within our own lives, families, and communities, and as we reimagine the systems and structures that underpin our society. By joining together, we will create impactful connections, enable the exchange of ideas and knowledge, and provide experiences that inspire tangible change. Together, we have the capacity to establish a legacy that is inherently restorative, leaving a profound and enduring mark on our world. (July 29 – Aug 1 – Washington, D.C.)