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In this week’s roundup, we’re talking about how anti-racist organizers in Seattle led a successful prison divest campaign, the internationally growing movement towards Community Land Trusts, and the role of collaborative organizing amidst Greece's ongoing fiscal crisis. Plus: Check out the latest report from NEC member The Next System Project on how our economic system and unpaid care work contribute to gender inequality.
PS: Find @NewEconomyCoalition on Instagram! Let us know what new economy stories you see in your community and help us get to 500 followers by week’s end!
Stories from the Field
Prison Divest: The notion of taking money out of police departments and investing it into community services remains a prison abolitionist’s dream. No American city has experimented with shifting budgetary priorities in this way– until now. Read how anti-racist organizers defunded police here.
Strengthening Native Sovereignty: The #NativeCDFI network – which includes new NEC member First Nations Oweesta Corporation – testified to Congress earlier this month about the value of native Community Development Financial Institutions and their role in creating businesses, jobs, homeownership and wealth in Native Communities. Watch the video from their testimony in DC.
Just Transition in Appalachia: NEC members Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) and the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) show what it takes to create a just transition in energy and agriculture. Watch the short film here.
Solidarity Economies Abroad
Land Trusts Abroad: Community Land Trusts began in the United States as a model of land tenure that emerged from the civil rights movement in the South. In the last few years, the model has spread around the globe. Read about five groundbreaking CLT’s from Kenya to Switzerland here.
Collaborative Resistance: How are neighborhoods and communities taking their well-being into their own hands? What does Greek-style grassroots resistance looks like? Listen to this episode of Upstream Podcast here.
Women’s Work: Women’s participation in co-op businesses— with equal voice in democratic governance and opportunities to own the businesses they work —are the exact reasons why co-ops provide a better business platform for women. Read why co-ops matter for women around the world.
“But in these dark times, when the ideals of democracy are being tested globally like never before, let us remember that the true patriots throughout history have traditionally been the rebels, insurrectionaries and revolutionaries who forcefully overturned the status quo in favor of a higher vision.”
— Micah White, co-creator of Occupy Wall Street to The Guardian in ‘Real Americans' Have Always Been Rebels: A Guide for Progressive Patriotism
Movement News
Healthcare:
- How Universities and Hospitals Unite To Boost Local Economies
- Is Health Care Doomed?
- We Mapped the Uninsured. You'll Notice a Pattern.
Immigration:
- From Tehran to Atlanta: Lawyer Azadeh Shahshahani’s Fight for Human Rights
- Muslim Ban 2.0: Resources and Dates
- Five Ways to Fight Ice Raids With Power, Not Panic
- The Mental and Physical Trauma of “Dreamers” Living With Deportation Threats
Shift The Culture:
- The Laura Flanders Show: Women’s Solidarity Strikes Back
- Ericka Huggins: The Role Of Spiritual Practice in Social Justice Work
- Chicano Batman On What Freedom Means
- How to Participate in Reveal’s #WallRapChallenge
More Reads:
- The Climate Movement Goes To War With Trump
- The World Changing Ideas of 2017
- Trump Administration Seeks End to Youth Climate Lawsuit
- Why the People Who Grow Your Food are Worried About Scott Pruitt
- Donald Trump & Capitalism’s Next Crisis
- Social Enterprise: Proceed With Caution
- Five (More) Reasons to #DeleteUber — And Some Ethical Alternatives
- Freedom Cities Campaign: Resistance Through Progress At Local Level
Resource: Towards Gender Liberation
Feeling inspired after International Women’s Day? Check out the latest paper from the Next System Project examining the systems that perpetuate gender-based oppression and why we need systems change to achieve gender liberation through system change.
Job Board
Organizer (3 positions), Liberty Tree, Flexible Locations
Development Manager, Shareable, San Francisco
Director for North America, EDGE Funders Alliance, Northeast
Grassroots Organizer (Contract), Friends of the Earth, Flexible
Legal Director (and other positions), Demos, New York, NY
Campaign and Communications Associate (and other positions), GAIA, Berkeley, CA
Administrative Assistant and Events Coordinator, Institute for Policy Studies, Boston
Inequality Media Specialist, Institute for Policy Studies, Boston
Program Coordinator, Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC, New York
Director of Operations, NASCO, Chicago
Accounting and Operations Associate, Corporate Accountability International, Boston
Publications Manager, Corporate Accountability International, Boston
Communications Director, Social Movement Technologies, Washington D.C.
Upcoming Events
Multiply & Mobilize: A Webinar Series
Three online sessions from Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA) designed to support organizers, activists, facilitators, and movement-builders in deepening their analysis of the current political moment and gaining strategies for strengthening our movements from local to national levels. (Online, March 30 – May 25, 2017)
Fund and Fuel Your Dreams
Join an amazing group of women entrepreneurs to learn the tools and strategies for raising capital on your own terms. The event is for you if you want to raise the right money from the right investors. (Oakland, CA, March 30 – April 1, 2017)
CO-UP: A Community Teach-in for Cultivating Economic Justice
Be one of 300+ engaged, spirited people at this teach-in designed to cultivate economic justice in the Philadelphia-area. You'll meet community organizers, cooperators, activists, artists, farmers, bookkeepers, construction workers and more — all of them building economic control block by block as they start cooperative businesses. (Philadelphia, April 1, 2017)
#RevolutionOfValues Day of Creative Action
A call for artists, creative organizers, concerned citizens, and all community members to join together on April 4th, 2017, to draw inspiration from and breathe new life into the prophetic words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., strengthening our commitment to speak truth to power and sparking creative action in the year ahead. (Multiple Locations, April 4, 2017)
#Vision4BlackLives Webinar Series
Movement for Black Lives have started a six month educational webinar-series based on the different demands in the Vision for Black Lives platform. Each month, which started in February, we will be elevating a different category of the platform, and hosting a webinar about that topic. Tune in to the next session on April 12th, for a conversation on Invest/Divest. (Online, February – July, 2017)
Democracy Convention
If you want to strengthen democracy where it matters most…in our communities, our schools, our workplaces and local economies, our military, our government, our media, our constitution…you will find something inspiring. Join us at the third national Democracy Convention. (Minneapolis, August 2 – 6, 2017)
View all NEC member events on our website »
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