This month we’re focused on food and land sovereignty! We’re talking about the rematriation of the West Berkeley Shellmound, Black-led food systems, Land Day protests and the global connections between land and energy systems. Plus get a look at worker co-op ecologies, a call to action from Argentinian cooperators, interviews with tenant activists, and new solidarity economy 101 resources.
Photo Credit: Palestinian Youth Movement. A sign at the March 30th Land Day protest in Ottowa reads: “Land Back: From Turtle Island to Palestine, Colonization is a Crime.”
Ohlone Sacred Land Returned: In March, Ohlone people celebrated the return of the West Berkeley Shellmound — a 5,700 year old ceremonial and burial site — to the Sogorea Te’ Community Land Trust. Sogorea Te’ has plans to restore the sacred lands to become a “home to native medicines and foods, an oasis for pollinators and wildlife, and a place for youth to learn about their heritage.” Learn more about the 425 shellmounds that exist across the Bay Area, and the years of organizing that led to the rematriation of the West Berkeley Shellmound.
Re-building Resilient Black Food Systems: From North Carolina to Illinois, Black-led community projects are repairing food systems damaged by the legacy of dispossession and red-lining. NEC member Fertile Ground, says food apartheid can be deconstructed with healthy food cooperatives led “by a commitment to economic justice and the building of a new economy.” They’re opening a community-owned grocery store next year to do just that. We can also see this commitment in Cairo, Illinois as they bring back community-owned grocery stores to their Main Street. But these broken loops aren’t complete until Black farmers and farmland are safeguarded. Learn how Black farmers in Alabama are reclaiming rice cultivation and repairing broken food systems too.
DC Solidarity Economy Ecosystem: Last week, NEC member Beloved Communities Incubator (BCI) hosted an exciting conversation about the building blocks of a regional solidarity economy ecosystem in the DC area. Learn more about BCI’s work and how they see scaling up and federating worker-owned cooperatives as part of a regional power-building strategy. Get a wider view of the worker co-op ecologies developing across the US and show your support for new federal legislation for worker cooperative development.
Solidarity with Argentinian Cooperators: The far-right government of Argentina recently announced plans to shut down over 11,000 cooperatives in the country. The move, which runs counter to the country’s powerful traditions of cooperative labor organizing, comes as part of the Milei governments’ broad assaults on the working class, peasants, and oppressed communities. Show your support for Argentinian co-ops by signing this open letter, collaboratively written and endorsed by the International Workers’ Economy Gathering.
Food & Energy Systems on Land Day: Each year, Yom al-Ard or Land Day is observed on March 30th in commemoration of the six Palestinians murdered by Israeli occupation forces in 1976 while protesting against the dispossession of their lands. This year, people all over the world took to the streets in protest of the ongoing genocide, widespread famine, and severing of Palestinians from their ancestral lands and foodways. Like starvation, energy is also weaponized by occupational forces. Hear Vivien Sansour speak to the connections between land and energy justice, as well as the intersections of freedom struggles in Palestine, Puerto Rico, Congo, Sudan, and beyond.
Social Housing on the Rise: Around the world, renters are rising up against corporate landlords and pushing for community-controlled and social housing. In São Paulo — where over 50,000 people live in seized buildings — new programs are slowly working to convert abandoned buildings into public and cooperatively-owned housing. Across Europe, tenant activists have rallied around different strategies to maintain social housing — from expropriating corporate-owned housing, to organizing tenants unions, and enshrining the right to permanent housing. Check out these lessons learned from the fight for social housing, and tune in with the Cooperative Development foundation on April 18th to learn how we can preserve affordable housing through co-op and community land trust models.
- ‘An international crime scene’: How the US is stoking crisis in Haiti
- Across Industries, Minnesota Workers Are Harnessing Their Collective Power
- California’s Case for Reparations
- How Can Philanthropy Support the Solidarity Economy?
- Indigenous Community Care: Traditions of Reciprocity
- Lessons from Latin America on the impact of platform cooperativism
- Native Youth Learn to Heal Their Communities Through Mycelium
- New legislation could accelerate the development of Worker Cooperatives across the US
- Northern California Tribe to Get Back 125 Acres of Ancestral Land Stolen During Gold Rush
- Repair Cafes Are the Beating Heart of the Right-to-Repair Movement
- The Communities Trying to Take Over Their Local Electric Utility
- The Surprising Link Between Budgeting and Good Health
- To Defeat the Far Right, We Must Build From the Bottom Up
- Winning Fossil Fuel Workers Over to a Just Transition
PODCASTS & VIDEO
- Post-capitalist popular education w/ Amrita Wassan & Francisco Perez – Half Past Capitalism
- Solidarity Economy 101 – NEC Arts, Culture and Care in the SE working group
- The Key Bridge disaster was caused by the oppression of workers – The Real News Podcast
TOOLS & CURRICULUM
- Cultural Organizing 101: Train the Trainer Toolkit – Highlander Center
- Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life – Nathan Schneider
Communications Director, Center for Community Wealth Building
Cooperative Economics Small Business Manager, Unite Oregon
Development & Investment Relations Director, Black Farmer Fund
Executive Director, Corporate Accountability
Program & Communications Associate, Wellspring Cooperative
Research Fellow, Participatory Budgeting Project
Special Projects Coordinator, Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC
Tech Support Worker (NYC), Palante Technology Cooperative
For more opportunities, check out this job board from NEC member the Post Growth Institute!
Jackson Rising Redux: Book Launch and Discussion
Cooperation Jackson co-founders Kali Akuno and Saki Hall, along with RnB’s own Matt Meyer, co-editor with Kali of the recently released Jackson Rising Redux. will be featured at the main New York book launch, hosted at union hall SEIU 1199. The conversation will detail both the work in Jackson, warts and all, as well as the work needed in our city and region to build a people’s fight-back movement. Bring your questions, ideas, and information about your organizing efforts, as we turn the evening into a major Spring 2024 networking event! (April 5 – NYC)
Blueprints for Belonging: Conversations on Creating Intentional Communities April
Discover the essentials of starting your own intentional community with April’s Blueprints for Belonging: Conversations on Creating Intentional Communities featuring Nicole Reese. This event series is crafted for emerging community founders, offering direct access to practical advice and insights from experts in the field. Led by Cynthia Tina, who brings her experience from visiting over 200 communities worldwide, each session features one-to-one interviews with community consultants, founders, and educators. (April 9 – Virtual)
Campaign Strategy 101
This workshop covers the building blocks of campaign strategy through examples and accessible frameworks. It’s an opportunity for new organizers and more experienced campaigners to sharpen their “theory of change” for campaign organizing and strategy development. (April 10 – Virtual)
Artists Run Chicago: Here and Now
Organized by Hyde Park Art Center in partnership with the Terra Foundation for American Art, this mini exhibition features projects by four of Chicago’s artist-run platforms that engage critical dialogue around Chicago neighborhoods through art interventions in public space. (April 11-14 – Chicago)
Worker Cooperative Webinar Series: #1 Advising, Coaching, and Planning
Join the Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem (CCWBE) project for the webinar series “Educating the Ecosystem”. This series focuses on technical, professional, and financial assistance providers in the Chicago area and their relation to the topic of worker cooperatives. (April 11 – Webinar)
Cooperative Self-Governance for Communities and Beyond
Join long-term communitarian and movement builder Sky Blue for a deep dive into cooperative self-governance for communities and beyond. You’ll gain a greater sense of clarity and possibility for how your group can align your governance system with your vision & culture. (April 11 – Virtual)
Palestine/Israel, the Church, and U.S. Empire: Understanding this Moment on the Frontlines
Join us for a conversation about Israel’s occupation and bombardment of Palestine and what we need to understand about the current situation with Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg and Palestinian-American Mennonite organizer, Jonathan Brenneman. (April 15 – Virtual)
Trademark for Artist Legal Cafe
The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe provides sliding-scale donation-based legal advice, via Zoom, by appointment. If you need advice about starting a worker-owned cooperative, converting an existing business into a cooperative, organizing a housing cooperative, founding a nonprofit or other social enterprise, please RSVP! (April 16 – Virtual)
Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC Presents: Solidarity Economy Spotlight SERIES
A key part of CEANYC’s work is getting groups together across sectors and movements. One way we’ll be making that happen in the coming months is by hosting a series featuring co-ops and community-controlled groups working in banking, housing, mutual, food, and beyond. Do you want to hear these remarkable groups tell you about their work so you can join them? Then this series is for you! (April 16 & May 21 – NYC Hybrid)
Intro to Power Research
What is power research? This training will explore how to identify key networks of corporate power that uphold and profit from systemic injustices, how research into these networks can be used to challenge their power, and how LittleSis can help researchers bring together information from free public sources to inform campaign strategy and tactics. (April 18 – Virtual)
Decolonizing Economics 2024: Earth Day to May Day!
Decolonizing economics is an explicit challenge to ourselves and participants to center Indigenous wisdom, perspective, and knowledge. Our summit aims to demonstrate real solutions to heal the land and people, through educating attendees about our economic system, the failings of putting profit over people, and the ways in which groups around the world are working towards economic and social justice. (April 21 – McKinleyville, California)
5 year Celebration with Cleveland Owns
This is our fifth year incubating economic democracy in Greater Cleveland – time flies when you are building people power! To celebrate five years we are throwing a party. This is also the kick-off of our fundraising campaign! We’re raising $1,000 in monthly recurring donations to accelerate our fight for economic democracy. If you believe in the power of collective ownership to build community wealth and power, we ask that you become a Sustaining Supporter of Cleveland Owns. Your monthly recurring donation will help keep economic democracy blossoming! (May 4 – Cleveland)
9th National Conference On Community and Restorative Justice
Join us in this defining moment as we envision, explore, and take action to ensure community and restorative justice principles not only survive but thrive within our own lives, families, and communities, and as we reimagine the systems and structures that underpin our society. By joining together, we will create impactful connections, enable the exchange of ideas and knowledge, and provide experiences that inspire tangible change. Together, we have the capacity to establish a legacy that is inherently restorative, leaving a profound and enduring mark on our world. (July 29 – Aug 1 – Washington, D.C.)