This week we’re talking about congressional hearings on the Public Banking Act, the expiring eviction moratorium, the history of solidarity economy ecosystems, building economic resilience through cooperation in Lebanon, Downtown Crenshaw Rising’s campaign to cooperatively purchase a mall in LA, and more!

PS: NEC is hiring, and our offices will be closed in August! We’ll be back with a fresh New Economy Roundup in early September.

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Stories from the Field

llustration by Haley Hughes for Debt Collective/ Public Bank NYC

Public Banking Act: Last week, the House Committee on Financial Services held one of its first hearings on public banking. Deyanira Del Rio, Co-Executive Director of NEC member organization the New Economy Project, testified in support of the Public Banking Act, saying, “our current financial system serves to extract wealth…we must focus on creating public banks and other institutions that are designed to build community wealth and serve the public interest.” Hear Del Río’s full testimony and plug into local public banking campaigns.

From #CancelRent to Community Control of Housing: 7.4 million renters are at risk of eviction when the federal eviction moratorium expires this later week. Studies show that lifting eviction moratoriums has already resulted in over 10,000 COVID deaths, and with the alarming number of renters in debt, that number is sure to grow. Find rental assistance, and tell lawmakers to save lives by cancelling rent and investing in permanently affordable, community-controlled housing.

Building Solidarity Economy Ecosystems: Back in May, NEC member organization the Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC (CEANYC) hosted the first in a series of events called Rebuilding with Our Powers Combined, creating space for organizers across solidarity economy sectors to learn about each other’s work and strategize around future collaborations. Hear from the brilliant Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard, as she unpacks the key term “solidarity economy ecosystem” and explaining why that concept is so central to building a people-centered and anti-racist economy.

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Solidarity Economies Abroad

Co-op Resilience in Lebanon: Since opening last October, the Dikkeneh Co-op now has more than 100 members, drawing from a cooperative model that was popular in Lebanon in the 1970s and 80s. Read how the Dikkeneh Co-op has adapted through overlapping crises — including the 2020 Beirut explosion, hostile legal structures, and lack of funding — in order to continue serving their community and building a culture of solidarity. 

Kazakhstani Trade Unions: Workers who have been pushed into unstable jobs by the pandemic are organizing to form a trade union, with over 200 couriers from different companies ready to sign on. In May, after Wolt, a major food delivery company in the country reduced their wages, couriers organized a strike – one of the largest actions by non-unionized workers in the past decade.

Care Workers on Strike in India: The millions of women who work as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) form the backbone of India’s healthcare system and are on the frontlines of COVID-19 defenses. Read how after over a decade of poor pay, irregular hours and little government support, tens of thousands of ASHAs are on strike with support from various trade unions in India.  

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Thank you to our Solidarity Circle members!

Thanks to everyone who has committed to being a member of our solidarity circle, we’ve hit our goal of reaching 150 sustaining members by the end of July! 
As a special thank you, we’ll be sending all solidarity circle members a #FireTheBosses t-shirt or tote bag. You can still sign up through the end of the week. Be it monetary resources, knowledge, care work, education, creative endeavors and just plain learning about and sharing the work of our members, we’re grateful for all the contributions folks are able to make to the solidarity economy!

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Movement News

• ​Defund is the Strategy
• Farmer Co-ops Are Giving Latinx Communities Room to Grow
• How Athletes Use Their Platform to Fight for Social Change
• If you grew up with the US Blockade as a Cuban, you might understand the recent protests differently
• It’s Literally Impossible to Afford Rent on the Minimum Wage
• Memoirist Details Growing Up In A Utopian Community That Wasn’t So Ideal
• Renew Missouri joins national push for $100B in clean energy loans
• Solidarity Economy Leader Scores Stunning Win in Buffalo’s Mayoral Race
• The emerging solidarity economy: A primer on community ownership of real estate
• The Utility Repossessed Their City’s Streetlights. Now They’re Re-Lighting the Night
• You Can Work But Not Stay

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Podcasts of the New Economy

On this episode of the Be Antiracist podcast, Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DG Kelley talk about the history of Black and multi-racial labor unions movements, why police unions are inherently anti-worker, and anti-capitalist organizing over time. Listen Now. 

Additional Listens
Red Nation Podcast – In memory of Haunani-Kay Trask
Upstream – Feminism for the 99%

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NEC on the Gram

Follow NEC on Instagram — @neweconomycoalition — Where we’re amplifying solidarity economy campaigns like Downtown Crenshaw Rising’s work to bring the Crenshaw mall into community ownership. Sign their petition to stop the sale of the mall to corporate developers before July 30th.

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Jobs

NEC is Hiring! We’re seeking a  Director of Donor Organizing to guide our efforts in building a cross-class, multi-racial network of people bringing resources towards the Solidarity Economy movement. We strongly encourage people of color, working class, LGBTQ, and/or womxn candidates to apply. This is a full-time 32 hours per week position with a compensation range of $68,000 – $80,000. Plus a generous benefits & PTO package. Click here to apply, and please spread the word!

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Upcoming Events

Legal Structures for Radical Real Estate
“In this presentation, Sustainable Economies Law Center’s cartoonist/attorney Janelle Orsi will offer practical and engaging tools to support radical real estate groups. They’ll help answer questions like: How do we permanently remove land from the speculative market and move away from individual ownership models? What entity, title-holding, governance, financial, and tax structures can support this? And what matters most in these decisions?” (July 29 – Online)

The Economics of Queerness
“We will hear from QTBPOC activists and artists who are challenging the economic system through building cooperatives and community wealth building models, creating radical alternative community spaces for healing, developing ideas and spaces that challenge our culture of scarcity and using art to reimagine queer economic futures.” (July 29 – Online)

Mayday Space: Gentrification x Theatre Training
“Mayday Space is hosting a Gentrification x Theatre training to engage our local communities in important struggles around land use, housing and anti-gentrification work using applied theatre. Participants will learn a range of theater skills and develop their own creative workshop to conduct later this summer.” (July 31 – in-person, NYC)

Contesting for Narrative Power: Changing the Story of Philanthropy
“Interactive sessions will provide participants with the critical narrative strategy skills to better support frontline-led social movements and to advance institutional change in the field(s) of philanthropy and beyond. Participants will explore what it means to apply a ‘narrative power analysis’ to social change philanthropy and investing, and practice creating narrative intervention prototypes with peers.” (August 18 & 25 – Online)

Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Abolitionist Propaganda and Zine Fair
“Over the past few months and years, PIC abolition has become more popular as a politic, ideology and organizing strategy. The abolitionist propaganda and zine fair will offer a space where people who have created educational and organizing materials including zines, pamphlets, posters, stickers, buttons and more can share abolitionist ideas and messages, and can freely give away, trade and sell some of these items.” (August 21 – in-person, NYC)

Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival 2021
“This is not just for economics students, but for anyone who wants to understand how the world can and should change. The Festival will bring together a diverse range of experts and students from around the world to debate five key aspects of our possible economic futures: Political and Economic Impacts of COVID-19, Social Economics of Climate Change, Digital Economy, Informal, Forgotten and Hidden Economies, Global South Economics.” (August 31 – September 2 – Online)

Cooperative Academy
“Cooperation Buffalo’s Cooperative Academy is an intensive 13-week training program that helps teams of cooperative entrepreneurs develop worker-owned cooperative businesses … teams will engage in classroom training with experts in business development, finance, governance, democratic decision making, and participatory management, and will learn about the rich history and culture of cooperative economics.” (August 31 – November 23 – Online | Applications due August 1)

Dissenters DisOrientation
“DisOrientation is an immersive 3-day virtual convergence for youth people to get trained on critical organizing skills, build community, and grow powerful anti-militarist campaigns on their campuses and communities.” (September 3 – 5 – Online)

Conference on Black Cooperative Agenda: Black Wealth Through Equity & Ownership
“Network for Developing Conscious Communities’ national conference will focus on “Deepening Black Wealth Through Building Equity and Ownership” echoing their commitment on expanding cooperative models in Black communities as a means for broadening a collective understanding of how cooperatives can tackle economic disparities and challenge systemic racism and inequality.” (Sept 27 – 29 – Baltimore, MD | Early Bird Registration Open Now)