This week we’re talking about why the COVID crisis calls for a solidarity economy, local wins for economic democracy, mutual aid hurricane recovery in Central America, the imperialist origins of the US constitution, and how you can support our network.
Stories from the Field
Solidarity Beyond the Crisis: What does it truly mean to “build back better” in the wake of the pandemic? Francisco Pérez of NEC member organization the Center for Popular Economics and Luis Feliz Leon asked this question to leading movement organizers, and their answer was clear: build a solidarity economy. Read how we can build collective ownership and direct democracy across workplaces, housing, finance, and governance in their cover story for the new issue of Dollars & Sense Magazine.
Local Elections Wins: From universal preschool to possible student debt cancellation, we’re seeing a mandate for bold moves toward a democratic economy coming out of this month’s elections. As organizers continue to shape a national-level vision for the next four years, check out this roundup of successful ballot initiatives to reduce inequality that show what’s already possible at the local level.
Remaking the Economy: Last week, Nonprofit Quarterly held a special webinar to take a look at the state of economic democracy and the movement for economic justice in the wake of the 2020 elections. Check out the recording to hear from founding NEC board member Gar Alperovitz, Laura Flanders, and Stacey Sutton about the state of worker co-ops, community land trusts, participatory budgeting, and more.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Mutual Aid after Iota & Eta: This week, Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta caused widespread devastation across Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama. Read how, in the absence of government aid, Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities are organizing grassroots mutual aid efforts to recover from the storms.
Agroecology in Brazil: The Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil has a long history of fighting for land reform, food sovereignty and justice for landless workers. Now during the pandemic, agroecological farmers associated with the MST have produced and donated over 2,800 tons of food to struggling communities, saying, “solidarity isn’t giving what’s left over. Solidarity is sharing what we have.” Read more about the history of the MST and how they’re practicing solidarity in the pandemic.
Global Solidarity Economies: This week, a group of researchers from RIPESS (the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy) released a new international manifesto for the solidarity economy. Check it out to learn about the principles and history of the solidarity economy movement, and see how the solidarity economy takes unique forms and offers “plural alternatives” on each continent.
NEC Annual Giving Campaign
As this tumultuous year comes to a close, we must stand more firmly in our values than ever. We don’t want a return to “normal,” because normal was never working for our communities.
We know that what we are building works — that local solidarity economies can provide enough food, housing, safety, and healthcare for all of us. And our 200+ member organizations are on the ground working to make these solutions real, now. If you’re able, please give to our Annual Fund to ensure that we continue to fight, mend, and build together as a network in 2021.
Movement News
- Activists Win Control of Vacant Philadelphia Buildings: Now What?
- Camp Mniluzahan: ‘It’s a sovereign place’
- Cancelling Student Debt Via Executive Action Would Build Working-Class Power
- Defund the Police and Refund the Communities
- Global Fair Trade Enterprises & Cooperatives Joining Forces
- Hurricane Relief Through Mutual Aid
- Platform Cooperatives could be Promising Solution for Gig Workers
- Rapid City Council votes in favor of returning land to Native American community
- Saving childcare: The essential value of a worker-owned childcare ecosystem
- The Election Is Over. Here’s a Vision From the Left for the Next Four Years.
- We Don’t Need to Raise Taxes to Have ‘Medicare for All’
- What Stockton, California city can teach America about basic income
- Universal healthcare ‘critical’ in COVID-19 pandemic
Podcasts of the New Economy
In this episode of the Red Nation podcast, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz explains how the drafting of the US Constitution aimed to finance endless wars and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. The episode is essential listening for anyone looking to understand the imperialist underpinnings of US democracy — listen now.
Additional Listens:
Cooperative Conversations – Economic Justice and Cooperatives with Ricardo Nuñez
Guerrilla History – Washington Bullets w/ Vijay Prashad
NEC on the Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram — @neweconomycoaltion — where we’re cooking up wholesome, homemade memes about the solidarity economy!
Jobs Board
New Job Listings!
Director of Development, Partners for Dignity & Rights
Engagement Manager, Moving Towards Justice
Operations Coordinator, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Coop – Bay Area
Program Manager – Operational Impact, The Movement Cooperative – Remote
Project Manager, Oakland Community Land Trust – Nov 30
Senior Director, The Movement Cooperative – Remote
Stewardship Coordinator, Oakland Community Land Trust – Nov 30
Various Positions, Highlander Center
Various Positions, Economic Policy Institute
All Jobs
Buen Vivir Fund Manager, Thousand Currents – Remote – Nov 20
Community Organizer, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Coop – Bay Area
Community Organizer, Northern Plains Resource Council
Development Director, Momentum – Nov 30
Development Director, New Economy Project – NYC
Director of Communications & Strategic Initiatives, PUSH Buffalo
Frontlines Communications Coordinator, Climate Justice Alliance
Grants and Contracts Manager, Democracy at Work Institute – Oakland, CA/Remote
Loan Outreach Officer, Cooperative Fund of New England
Narrative Strategist, Real Food Real Stories – San Francisco area – Rolling
Organizing Director, New Economy Project – NYC
Philanthropic Partnerships Coordinator, Thousand Currents – Remote – Nov 20
Senior Manager: Individual Giving, Demos – New York, NY
Senior Policy Analyst: Economic Democracy, Demos – New York, NY
Social Media Manager, Free Press
Various Positions, Audre Lorde Project
Various Positions, Center for Popular Democracy
Various Positions (Organizing, Community Development), PUSH Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
Various Positions (Organizing, Research), Action Center on Race and the Economy
Upcoming Events
Climate + State Violence: Immigration
Join NEC member organization Powershift for a discussion of the U.S. immigration system and its impact on our movement for climate justice and collective liberation. (Today! 7pm ET – Online)
Out With the Debt! Solidarity in the Student Debt Crisis
Join NEC member organization Salish Sea Cooperative Finance (SSCF) to learn how the student debt crisis is weighing heavily on a generation of powerful local organizers and what we can do about it. (Today! 9pm ET – Online)
Teachgiving: UnSelling MamaEarth & How To Build A Homeless People’s Solution to Homelessness
Join NEC member organization the Sustainable Economies Law Center with The Homefulness Project and POOR Magazine to learn about the victories and challenges of poor and indigenous people-led solutions to houselessness. (Nov 20 – Online)
Chicagoland Regional Worker Cooperative Convening
Over the past few years, the worker cooperative movement in Chicagoland has been building significant momentum, especially in communities of color.This online event aims to help build a local/regional worker-owner network and serve as a learning opportunity and motivation for all the new groups who are considering a cooperative business model. (Nov 21 – Online)
Transforming the Transition
Is 2020 an opportunity to fundamentally shift deep cultural narratives toward a system that supports life rather than destroying it? Join Culture Hack Labs and NEC member the Schumacher Center for a series of four webinars about how we develop a narrative framework around this transition. (Weekly, Nov 23 – Dec 16 – Online)
Indigenous Food Sovereignty
Join the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and Stephanie Morningstar for this Sankofa Series webinar about how Indigenous food sovereignty can change the food system. (Nov 24 – Online)
Community Organizing Grants Program
Peace Development Fund’s Community Organizing Grant cycle opens for application on December 1st. We fund grassroots, power-building organizations that are: 1) Organizing to Shift Power; 2) Working to Build a Movement; 3) Dismantling Oppression; and 4) Creating New Structures. (Application opens Dec 1)
Workers and Just Transition: A Global View
From the experiences of metalworkers in South Africa to coal miners in Spain, to the informal sector workers in Latin America, the struggle for a just transition is truly global. Join NEC member the Labor Network for Sustainability with labor leaders and activist leaders to hear perspectives, stories, and strategies from the frontlines of the struggle for a just transition abroad. (Dec 5 – Online)