We’re back in 2022 to bring you more solidarity economy news, resources, and events! This week we’re talking about community care in the midst of the pandemic, a new toolkit for union co-op organizing, strategies for community-controlled housing, food sovereignty in Brazil, recuperated factories in Argentina, and more.
PS: Thanks to everyone who filled out our Roundup Reader Survey at the end of last year! We were touched by all the kind words and positive reception of this newsletter. Based on your feedback, we’ve cut back a few areas, added a section for NEC News and a Resource Library, and given the Roundup a fresh look. We hope you enjoy the changes!
Community Care & Omicron: The push to return to “normal” in year two of the pandemic has dramatically intensified the crisis of care that has always existed under capitalism. Disabled and immunocompromised people, teachers and students, parents, and healthcare workers are being told to fend for themselves as the pandemic rages on. It’s clear that capitalism as a system is incapable of caring for our communities. Solidarity to all the communities who continue to resist the injustices of this system and build new economies of care.
Labor Organizing and Co-ops: Over the last few months, union and labor organizing has continued to explode, with record numbers of workers participating in strikes and walkouts, and even cooperating across industries in what is being called a General Strike. Check out this new report about how unions and co-ops can work in tandem to build worker power, including seven successful case studies. Report contributors include NEC member organizations the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and Co-op Cincy.
“No Landlords:” In Colorado, residents of a mobile home community just organized to cooperatively purchase their park from a private landlord. After putting the park into community ownership, one of the first things residents decided was that they “would not allow anybody to be forced out of the park because of an inability to pay the rent.” Animas View is one of 1,000 resident-owned communities (ROCs) across the country. Learn more about ROCs and other cooperative development strategies on the rise.
Land Reform & Occupation in Brazil: January 22nd marked the 38th anniversary of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil. Read how they have donated over 6,000 tons of food during the pandemic, and how they continue to fight for popular agrarian reform through land occupation.
Self-Management in Argentina: In the midst of an economic crisis in 2001, Argentinian workers took over hundreds of factories and converted them into worker-owned cooperatives. Read about the legacy and current state of the recuperated factory movement 20 years later, via NEC member organization GEO Collective.
Co-op Housing in Denmark: Today, about 7% of the Danish population lives in cooperatively-owned housing, which accounts for one-third of the housing stock in Copenhagen. Read about how the andelsbolig co-op system builds “autonomy and community” by decommodifying housing, and how it fits into the history of co-op organizing in Denmark.
BLACK SOLIDARITY ECONOMY FUND GRANTS AWARDED
This past December, NEC’s Black Solidarity Economy Fund team redistributed $150,000 to 21 Black-led solidarity economy projects! Learn more about the project and re-granting process.
WELCOME NEW NEC MEMBERS!
We are excited to start this year with 23 new organizations as members of the NEC network! They are bringing important sectors, regions, and strategies that were underrepresented in the network — get to know them and their work to build the solidarity economy.
- 150+ NY Groups Back Public Banking Bill to Declare ‘Independence From Wall Street’
- A global wealth tax is the least we can do to curb runaway wealth concentration
- Apply for $1,800 grants to tell stories about the collective power of workers
- Cuba pledges “lifesaving package” of Covid-19 vaccine support to Global South
- Free Abortion Across Borders
- How the Pandemic Threw Fuel on a Growing Housing Movement
- Incarceration, Abolition, and Liberating the Food System
- Program seeks to launch more worker cooperatives focused on social justice
- Serving More Than Food: Restaurant Co-Ops Put Economic Justice on the Table
- Unions Have the Potential and the Responsibility to Advance a “Just Transition”
- Your Debt Is Someone Else’s Asset
- Where Are New Co-ops Emerging? The Changing Map of Co-op Development
PODCASTS
How the left can govern with Gopal Dayaneni – Half Past Capitalism, ft NEC member org Seed Commons. “Non-extractive finance is the idea of reorganizing our relationship to capital, so that capital is a tool that people and communities control.”
A People’s Guide to Capitalism with Hadas Thier – NEC member org Upstream Podcast
Cooperatives and Economic Democracy – Everything Co-op ft. NEC member org The Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative
TOOLKITS & REPORTS
Social Movement Investing: A guide to Capital Investing for Community Power – NEC member org the Center for Economic Democracy.“While we cannot ‘impact invest’ our way out of capitalism, a new form of finance that operates with grassroots social movements could become a more forceful tool to create the world we desperately deserve.”
Taxing the World’s Richest Would Raise $2.52 Trillion a Year– NEC member org the Institute for Policy Studies
WEBINARS & VIDEO
Remaking the Economy: Advocacy and Community, the Delicate Balance – ft. NEC member orgs Boston Ujima Project and Solidarity Economy St. Louis. “What does mutual aid look like in the long term and how can it grow and support the kind of systems change we need?”
NEW LISTINGS!
Chief of Staff & Program Associate, Center for Economic Democracy
Co-op Development Specialist, Center for Community Wealth Building – Denver
Co-Ownership & Education Facilitator, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Communications Director, Black Feminist Future
Communications Director & Lead Developer, Foundation for Intentional Community
Communications Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Cooperative Developer, CLEAN Carwash Worker Center
Director of Finance and Organizational Development, YES! Magazine
Executive Director, Somerville Community Land Trust
Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Network Development & Design, Transition US
Operations Manager, Carolina Common Enterprise
Production Manager, Real Pickles Co-op
Senior Software Engineer & Senior Product Manager, Open Collective
Solidarity Economy Project Coordinator, Upside Down Consulting – Chicago, IL
Staff Fundraiser/ Development Consultant, Local Clean Energy Alliance
State Organizing Director & Policy and Campaign Manager, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Tennessee Field Coordinator, Appalachian Voices
Various Positions, Black Farmer Fund
Various Positions, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
Various Positions, Mission Driven Finance
Worker-Owned Enterprises Manager, Catalyst Miami
ALL JOBS
Economic Justice Editor, Nonprofit Quarterly
Executive Director, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG)
Organizing and Policy Director, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB)
Various Positions, Action Center on Race and the Economy
Various Positions, Black Futures Lab
Various Positions, Climate Justice Alliance
Various Positions, Demos
Various Positions, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP)
Various Positions, NDN Collective
Various Positions, PolicyLink
Various Positions, Project Equity
Various Positions, PUSH Buffalo
Free the Land: Land Tenure and Stewardship Reimagined
Join NYU Law for a conversation that explores land and liberation, the many connections between land and racial justice; land decommodification, opportunities to remove land from the private market and foster permanent affordability and shared use; and land rematriation, Indigenous land return and restoration initiatives that work to initiate the decolonization process. (Online – Jan 28)
Reviving the Black Cooperative Intentional Community Movement
Join the Foundation for Intentional Community for a panel discussion with African Indigenous Diaspora to learn about the reality of Black-led and women-led intentional communities, as well as an opportunity to respond with collective action. (Online – Feb 4)
Toward Co-operative Commonwealth: Transition in a Perilous Century
This 16 week online course focuses on how system change is understood and how it is being undertaken in six key economic sectors: Land and Housing, Food and Agriculture, Energy, Work, Social Care and Finance. (Online – Starts Feb 7)
Remaking the Economy: Organizing for Black Food Sovereignty
What if we owned it? In this Remaking the Economy webinar, leaders in the movement for Black food sovereignty will discuss how that movement is being built, rooted in the gifts and talents from within the Black community, and anchored in a community vision. (Online – Feb 10)
Discover the Benefits of Housing Co-ops
This intro course is designed give participants knowledge and tools to get you started on the path to create your own cooperative housing. (Online – Feb 16)
Privatization or Economic Democracy?
People’s movements are decrying private control over our health care, housing, water, and other public goods, and are building new models of public, community and worker control. Hear from three fantastic speakers about the half-century march toward privatized control and potential pathways to a just, democratic economy. (Online – Feb 22)