This week we’re talking about the growing wave of anti-Asian violence in the US, how you can redistribute your stimulus check, solidarity economy organizing from Chicago to India, Amazon strikes in Italy, a new report on funding artists and culture workers in the solidarity economy, how participatory budgeting builds community control, and more.
Stories From the Field
Stop AAPI Hate: We send love and righteous rage to everyone in pain, grieving, and healing after the acts of Anti-Asian violence in Atlanta last week. Violence against AAPI communities is deeply ingrained in U.S. history, and we are in solidarity with our members and movement partners in calling for an end to all white supremacist and gender-based violence. We know that this economy forces Asian workers, and Asian women in particular, into jobs that are more dangerous and susceptible to this kind of violence. For collective healing and more on how capitalism, white supremacy, and cis heteropatriarchy fuels anti-Asian racism, join the Solidarity Is Our Survival town hall this Saturday.
#ShareMyCheck: If you’ve received a stimulus check that you don’t need urgently, please consider sharing the wealth! Millions are still facing food insecurity and eviction during the pandemic, and local mutual aid networks need community support. We also encourage you to pitch in to preserve this community center and organizing space in Worcester, and to give to NEC member organization Cooperation Jackson’s water crisis relief and disaster preparedness efforts.
Solidarity Economy in Chicago: Local mutual aid groups, funders, and legal organizations are working together to build momentum for the solidarity economy in Chicago. Read how organizers like Mike Strode of NEC member organization the Kola Nut Collaborative, and NEC board member Renee Hatcher are approaching this transformational work to “give ownership and agency to actual people and communities.”
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Historic Co-op in India: “In Kerala, India, a remarkable worker cooperative has defied the predictions of mainstream economists for over 90 years. Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS), a 2000 member-strong worker-owned construction cooperative, builds large infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and building complexes.” Learn more about the history of India’s oldest cooperative.
Women & Cooperatives: Watch this short video from Around The World Co-op about the role of co-ops in building gender equality and economic democracy for women around the world. Vandana Shiva makes an appearance, reminding us that, “cooperatives must use their organized collective voice for another world that will give a future to our species and other species.”
Solidarity not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy
“Solidarity not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy” went live this week! The report was co-written by NEC’s own Nati Linares, and features the work of many NEC members working to build a solidarity economy by and for artists and culture workers. You don’t need to be a grantmaker to benefit from the breadth of knowledge in this report! Download the report, learn about examples of artists and culture bearers transforming the economy, join the community, and take action.
NYC’s Future is Cooperative
NEC member the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives just dropped a new policy platform! The time for worker control is now, check out the policies to learn how.
Movement News
- A New Business Model Emerges: Meet the Digital News Co-op
- Banking co-ops run by Black women have a longtime legacy of helping people
- Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry
- Billionaire Wealth Gains Could Pay for Two-Thirds of Covid Relief Bill
- Can Cooperatives Build Worker Power?
- Chinatown Banquet Hall’s Workers And Supporters Propose Collective Ownership Plan To Launch New Restaurant
- Coronavirus Made the Radical Possible
- Democratic Management: A Practical Guide for Managers and Others
- How a Queer and Trans Latinx Gardening Collective Is Working to Reverse Food Insecurity in Atlanta
- Jackson’s water crisis: How to help
- Public banking initiatives picking up steam across several states
- Rural Power Coalition to Congress: support rural electric co-ops for recovery & energy transition
- The Year That Broke Care Work
- This Is What the Beginning of a Climate-Labor Alliance Looks Like
- This Ride-Hailing Platform Wants to be Better for Everyone, Starting with Drivers
- Scaling up employee ownership is key to an equitable economic recovery
- Women Run the Climate World. Just Ask Elizabeth Yeampierre
- What Happens When 10 Million Tenants Can’t Make Rent
Podcasts of the New Economy
Tune into the Reasons to be Cheerful podcast to hear how participatory budgeting (PB) is building community control and letting citizens decide how public money is spent. They ask Shari Davis of NEC member org the Participatory Budgeting Project what happened when Boston gave young people control of a $1 million budget. Brazilian political scientist Rebecca Abers explains how the city of Porto Alegre pioneered the idea back in 1989. Listen now.
Additional Listens
Black Land & Liberation, Did We Go Too Far?
Fairtrade: From Movement to Market, Fair World Project
Feminist Voices: International Anti-Imperialist Festival, Recording
NEC on the Gram
Follow NEC on Instagram — @neweconomycoalition — Where Repaired Nations’ Collective Courage book club is still going strong! Read along and tune in M-F at 12:30PT to learn about Black cooperative economics throughout history.
Jobs
New Listings!
Co-Director of Leadership Programs, Justice Funders
Deputy Communications Director, Movement 4 Black Lives
Digital Organizer, Movement 4 Black Lives
Director of Administration, National Coalition for Community Capital
Program Associate for Climate and Rural Communities, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy – Minneapolis – March 29
Network Engagement Manager, Center for Story-based Strategy
All Jobs
Artist and Culture Organizer, Working Families Party
Business Transfers Program Manager, Democracy at Work Institute – April 5
Campaign Organizer, New Economy Project
Co-Executive Director, Powershift Network
Communications Coordinator, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives – March 25
Communications & Digital Organizer, Stop the Money Pipeline
Development Manager, Project Equity
Executive Director or Co-Director Team, Resource Generation
Food, Ag & Finance Analyst, Croatan Institute
Membership Manager, Black Feminist Future – Atlanta
Project Coordinator, MAYDAY Space – May 12
Various Positions, Action Center on Race and the Economy
Various Positions, Color of Change
Various Positions, Center for Popular Democracy
Various Positions, Dream Defenders
Various Positions, NDN Collective
Various Positions, Highlander Center
Various Positions, PUSH Buffalo
Various Positions, Right to the City
Upcoming Events
#AntiAsianRacism Town Hall: Solidarity Is Our Survival
In response to the ongoing anti-Asian hate and the most recent tragic shootings in Atlanta, GA, join the People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation for this Town Hall to provide historical context of how white supremacy and cis heteropatriarchy fuels anti-Asian racism. The town hall will also offer moments for collective healing. (March 27)
Building Leaderful Groups
This Peoples Hub training will support your ability to tap into your power and the power of your team, recruit new members, delegate intentionally, and create a healthy leadership culture within your group. Join this workshop to learn how to acknowledge and leverage this power and privilege to create a strong and sustainable impact in your community, group or organization. (March 31)
Labor and a Jobs Guarantee
Join this three-part popular education training on the Jobs Guarantee, which will look at the potential of a JG through the lenses of racial justice and climate justice, while building links with the labor movement. (April 1, 8, 15)
The Global Movement for Black Lives
Join the New School in a discussion on the politics and recent history of the global movement for Black lives with voices from the US, Brazil, the UK and South Africa. (April 6)
After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked
Recapturing the initial potential of a genuine “sharing economy” requires a reinvention of the structures underlying not only the “tech platforms” but capitalism itself. Join this discussion to explore alternative and democratic visions for how the sharing economy can be organized and how we can get there. (April 14)
Fighting Corporate Land Grabs in CA & Know Your SB 1079 Rights
This Know Your Rights Workshop from the Sustainable Economies Law Center will cover the following issues: History of foreclosures in California; History of SB 1079; Case Studies and Strategies; Next Steps to Fighting Corporate Land Grabs; and How to buy foreclosed homes. (April 15)