This week we’re talking about solidarity with Stop Cop City protestors and ATL forest defenders, mutual aid at the center of climate disaster recovery, and deepening our engagement with the Solidarity Economy Movement from the U.S. to Latin America.
PS: NEC is Hiring! We’re looking for a Donor Engagement Director to guide our efforts in building a cross-class, multi-racial network of people bringing resources into the solidarity economy movement. Spread the word and apply by Feb 23rd!
Stop Cop City: The Weelaunee Forest and Atlanta community are under attack as the Atlanta Police Foundation prepares to build “Cop City” — a $90 million police-military compound on 381-acres of stolen Muscogee land. Last week APD escalated violence against protestors, when they shot and killed forest defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Páez Terán. May Tortuguita rest in power, and their presence live on in our collective memory as a visceral reminder that the struggles for abolition and environmental justice are deeply intertwined. Please support Tortugita’s family, those who are taking to the streets, and the ongoing organizing to Stop Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest.
Mutual Aid & Just Recovery: In 2022 alone, there were 18 extreme weather events in the US that exceeded $1 billion each in costs. In the absence of government aid and comprehensive climate action, communities affected by climate disaster continue to turn to mutual aid to meet their needs. Even though the news cycle has moved on, communities affected by the historic floods in California and winter storm in Buffalo need your solidarity.
Solidarity Economy 101: Whether you’re solidarity economy-curious or looking to deepen existing practices, the new year is full of opportunities to renew your commitment to study and political education. If you want to…
- Listen while you clean house or head to work: tune into the brand new podcast, Remember the Future, from our friends at Art.Coop!
- Get a deep dive into theory: Check out “Why Black Feminists Choose to use the term Solidarity Economy” by Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein.
- Study at your own pace: You’ll love Art.Coop’s free Solidarity Economy for Artists series.
- Learn in community with live facilitation: Don’t miss NEC member PeoplesHub’s SE Movements and Liberation Culture workshops Feb 13th and March 6th.
Campesinos fight for self-determination in Peru: Last week, tens of thousands of peasants and Indigenous Peruvians marched to Lima to participate in a national strike, demanding their right to live in dignity and the restoration of democracy. Learn more about the historical context of these contests and Peru’s current political crisis. Lee en español una entrevista a la líder campesina e indígena Lourdes Huanca sobre las demandas de los pueblos originarios, y una conversación sobre el estado de la lucha.
Co-ops & Land Return in India: The Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC) is a mass movement of Dalit landless farmers who played an important role in the historic protests in India in 2020-2021. Learn about the role that cooperatives and communally-owned land play in the ZPSC’s work to reclaim their land in the Punjab region.
Solidarity Economies in Latin America: Fascism is loud and present in Latin America, but resistance and solidarity economies are too. From federated cooperatives in Haiti to mutual aid housing cooperatives in Uruguay, comunidades en resistencia continue the world building efforts of ancestors past. Check out our resource guide to Solidarity Economies in Latin America to explore these worlds.
- At first, locals protested Alaska’s land sale. Now, they’re reclaiming it
- Birthing Black: Community Birth Centers as Portals to Gentle Futures
- Healing the Land and Themselves
- Kola Nut Timebank: Building Community, One Hour at a Time
- Lula’s New Government Is Taking Steps to Combat Racism in Brazil
- Monterey Park Lunar New Year Victims Fund
- Oil Companies Have Plundered Louisiana’s Coast. They Owe Us Reparations.
- Reflections on Vienna’s Social Housing Model From Tenant Advocates
- Resident-owned communities intersect housing and climate justice
- The ‘Shameful’ Ways We Misremember MLK
- Worker Cooperatives: Building A Better Workplace
- Ujima’s Tenets for Resisting White Supremacy Culture (and Burnout) in the Workplace
PODCASTS
- Black Food: Liberation, Food Justice and Stewardship, Bioneers: Revolution from The Heart of Nature
- Food Justice & Traditional Hawaiian Farming – People Over Plastic
- Remember the Future, Art.Coop
- Silvia Federici on Feminism, Communal Spaces, and Collective Memory, Democracy @ Work
EVENT RECORDINGS
- The Limits of Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy, Miliaku Nwabueze at Regens Unite
- Feminist Alternatives to the “New Normality”, Global Tapestry of Alternatives (2021)
TOOLKITS & RESOURCES
- In It Together, Interrupting Criminalization & Dragonfly Partners
- Guidebook to Cooperative Community Lending, Salish Sea Cooperative Finance
- She Safe, We Safe – BYP 100
- Solidarity Economy for Artists – Art.Coop & Creative Study
NEW LISTINGS!
Bilingual Organizer, City Life/Vida Urbana
Capital Strategies Associate/Manager, Center for Economic Democracy
Co-Executive Director, Pa’lante Transformative Justice
Communications Associate, Center for Economic Democracy
Communications Associate, Black Farmer Fund
Communications Director, Abolitionist Law Center
Communications Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Communications Director, National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ)
Community Director & Manager, Investment Operations, Common Future
Content Engagement Manager, Momentum
Chief Organizing Director, The Chisholm Legacy Project
Data Analytics Software Engineer, Drivers Seat Cooperative
Development and Communications Associate, NYC Environmental Justice Alliance
Development Director, Arizona Center for Empowerment/ Living United for Change in Arizona
Development Manager, Pa’lante Transformative Justice
Development Organizer, Labor Notes
Director, LA Black Worker Center – California
Director of Finance and Administration, CFNE
Director of People & Talent and a Program Manager, Thousand Currents
Donor Engagement Director, New Economy Coalition
Education Director, Shareable
Education Programs Manager, Frontline Farming
Executive Director, Ecotrust
Executive Director, North Carolina Employee Ownership Center
Just Transition Lawyering Network Manager, Taproot Earth
Legislative & Policy Director, Green New Deal Network
MI Field Campaigner, Climate Jobs National Resource Center
Operations and Finance Director, Springboard for the Arts
Offshore Wind Campaign Director, Climate Jobs National Resource Center
Paralegal, New Economy Project
Program and Communications Manager, The Disability & Philanthropy Forum
Program Director, All Due Respect
Project Coordinator, Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance
Racial Justice Organizer, Essex County Community Organization (ECCO)
Resource Development Manager, The Community Power Collective
Resource Mobilization Director, Momentum
Senior Principal, Grounded Solutions Network
Social Media Manager, Roosevelt Institute
Technical Assistance Organizer, Appalachian Community Fund
Various Positions, Environmental Grantmakers Association
ALL JOBS
Communications Director and Development Associate, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project
Digital Manager, The Forge
Director of Political Strategy, WePower
Energy Program Director, Community Purchasing Alliance
Fort Berthold Field Organizer, Dakota Resource Council
National Development Director, Critical Resistance
Operations and Administrative Support, Open Collective
Operations and Finance Leader, Open Collective
Organizer for Community Defense, Justice Committee
Sales Representative, Real Pickles
Solidarity Economy Coordinator, PeoplesHub
Summer Research Fellows, Climate + Community Project
Various Positions, Black Futures Lab
Various Positions, Catalyst Miami
Various Positions, Highlander Center
Various Positions, ICA Group
Various Positions, NDN Collective
Various Positions, Participatory Budgeting Project in Seattle
Various Positions, U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Mastodon How-To For Activists, Organizations, Movements & Journalists
Join Social Movement Technologies for a two session training on setting up your own community Mastodon site and leveraging it for Twitter. (January 31 and February 2)
Building a solidarity economy: Creating a cooperative economy for activist translators
Learn about the work of Guerrilla Translation — a commons-oriented cooperative that is building a unique governance model that redistributes the collective’s income from paid work in order to give value and recognition to care work that doesn’t directly generate income. (February 1)
Filling Leadership Roles in Your Community
Join this learning session for advice on how to prepare your community for cooperative leadership, and unpacking the dynamics of power and leadership. If you can’t join live, you can register to receive the event recording. (February 2)
Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals Training
AORTA is offering a 3-hour training on anti-oppression facilitation. In this training, participants will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities, an introduction to AORTA’s facilitation pedagogy, and is a deep dive into two of our key principles: removing barriers to full participation and yes to Principled Struggle. This course is available at sliding scale rates for individuals and organizations. (February 8, 9, 20)
Introduction To Solidarity Economy Movements
PeoplesHub is offering a learning session for a dive into the movements that power the Solidarity Economy. Join to learn how it works, and ways we can stay oriented to movement-building even as we navigate against the tides of capitalism and oppression. (February 13)
The Black Cooperative Movement: Past Present and Future
Black Liberation movements have organized themselves with cooperative practices throughout history in the United States. In this session, participants will learn how communities of color are reclaiming Cooperation as a Black technology to rethink community economic development. (February 15)
A Breath Away From Freedom
This event, facilitated by Autumn Brown, will guide participants through a Black Feminist approach to healing the wound of disconnection inherent in white supremacy and racial capitalism. Participants will map the practices that will build a vibrant, multiracial movement, and remedy the fault lines that we are so often re-inscribing within our movements from the very culture of dominance and control we want to dismantle. (February 24)
Liberation Culture: Applying Solidarity Economy Principles and Practices
The solidarity economy movement relies on liberation from all systems of oppression for historically marginalized groups. PeoplesHub is hosting this gentle space to apply Solidarity Economy principles and practices that directly support a liberation culture. (March 6)
Labor Spring: Nationwide Worker Justice Teach-Ins, Events, and Actions
Join Georgetown University Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor for a series of teach-ins and events centered around ongoing current campaigns, pivotal historical moments for workers, racial and gender equity in the worker justice movement, and the crucial importance of this moment in labor’s history. (March 20 – April 21)
Autonomies in Practice: Colectiva El Cambalache
This gathering is the first of many to begin to define how people can incorporate autonomous decolonial and anti-colonial thought into their lives, work and knowledge. Colectiva El Cambalache invites everyone interested in learning, deepening and sharing, to this three and a half day meeting. (March 29 – April 1, 2023)
The Power Shift Network 2023 Convergence
Join the moment for young people to come together and learn how to create change while faced with the climate crisis. Power Shift is inviting you to be a part of that effort. (April 2023 – In person)