Resources by Topic: Economic Justice
Resources by Topic: Economic Justice
Stephanie Gutierrez, co-founder of Hope Nation LLC, explores how effective community wealth building in Native communities depends on an active process of cultural translation
Essays and infographics on the state of finance and popular movement solutions.
When natural disasters strike, weather systems and unjust economic systems compound to cause devastation for people of color, in particular, while generating economic opportunity for the wealthy few.
Designed with organizers and advocates in mind, this guide gives you the tools you need to get started campaigning to bring PB to your community.
The deep and persistent racial wealth divide will not close without bold, structural reform. It has been created and held in place by public policies that have evolved with time including slavery, Jim Crow, red lining, mass incarceration, among many others. The racial wealth divide is greater today than it was nearly four decades ago and trends point to its continued widening.
Covering five years of business progress, the 2017 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector is a report on worker-owned business in the United States. This report is a co-production of Democracy at Work Institute and U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, drawing upon the latest developments in the field, and deepens our understanding of the sector.
This toolkit outlines a range of strategies for how health systems are using their investment assets to help address the resource gaps that keep communities from achieving better health and well-being.
This study is the fourth in a series of WealthWorks papers focused on financing rural value chains. It helps value chain practitioners understand emerging opportunities to tap into new place-based forms of finance, across a wide spectrum ranging from crowdfunding to Slow Money, to community development finance and impact investing.
This Toolkit is intended to help investors examine climate change from different angles.
This publication presents the “Clean 15,” the first fossil-free model portfolio developed by the Clean Portfolio Project.
This paper provides a framework for impact investors as they consider how to invest in and support LGBT issues across common portfolio asset classes such as public equities and fixed income, and alternative asset classes such as private equity and venture capital.
Local Bites is a podcast that tracks ideas and initiatives that resist corporate power, renew place-based economies, and preserve human and ecological well-being. Our goal is to feature the voices of activists and visionaries from all around the world who are driving creative grassroots initiatives that demonstrate the power of 'going local'.
A documentary episode on Worker Cooperatives, focusing on the topics of economic democracy, racial and social justice, and collectivist vs capitalistic values.
Featuring: Richard Wolff, Gopal Dayaneni, Doria Robinson, Najari Smith, and more.
Key resources from NEON on sysytems and power, leadership, campaigns and more for campaigners, activists, and organizers.
In this episode of Upstream, we explore the Solidarity Economy through expert interviews, stories, and rich sound design.
Featuring:
— Michael Ventura
— Caroline Woolard
— Michael Lewis
— Pat Conaty
— Jessica Gordon Nembard
— Biba Schoenmaker (Breadfunds)
— Stuart Field (Breadfunds UK)
— Jos Veldhuizen (Broodfonds)
In this episode, we continue our exploration of the exciting and contentious idea of Universal Basic Income.
Featuring:
— Juliana Bidadanure (Stanford)
— Doug Henwood (Jacobin)
— Rutger Bregman
— Kathi Weeks
— Erik Olin Wright
— Richard Wolff
— Matt Bruenig
— Martin Kirk
— Manda Scott
— Sofa Gradin
This report explores the concept of the green economy as a potential solution to
multiple challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource
scarcity, and financial instability
The Movement for Black Lives released last year a comprehensive platform, including an economic plank that discusses various opportunities for the economic development of black communities. This Transform Finance Investor Network webinar is led by Cathy Albisa, Director of NESRI, and Rashad Jamal Buni of the Black Youth Project.
These eight films are just a small sample of films documenting the sharing movement. Some are short, some are feature length. They all demonstrate that the sharing movement is growing every day.
We're living in a time of economic babble, where politicians and economists throw out words like "reform," "privatize," and "austerity" to prop up corrupt capitalist opportunists. So says our guest this week, economist Michael Hudson, author of J is for Junk Economics.
A conversation about capitalism with two brilliant minds, Cornel West and Richard D. Wolff, together in a rare joint appearance.
Throw out what you think you know about economics. This week, self-described "renegade economist" Kate Raworth of Oxford University, explains how to think like a reality based economist, and two eco-feminists, one from South Africa, the other Mauritius, share a chat under a tree about Marx, feminism and life on the planet.
Socialism could have a future in America, our guests this week argue, if we just think about it differently. Joining us this week are Bhaskar Sunkara and Sarah Leonard, co-editors of of a new essay collection titled "The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century."
Under the Trump regime, we'll certainly have to be on the defense to protect the communities most likely to be attacked -- but we'll also have to build powerful, alternative models where POC, Muslim, undocumented, disabled, and queer folks have leadership.
In 1969 Shirley Sherrod co-founded a collective farm in Lee County, Georgia. At 6,000 acres, it was the largest tract of black-owned land in the United States. What happened to the New Communities land trust they planned? Let's just say they were way, way ahead of their time but their time just might be coming back
What role did economic cooperation play in the civil rights movement? As it turns out, a huge one. Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard co-founded the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops & helped that organization build lasting ties with prominent civil rights and cooperative organizations.
This document is the syllabus for the Center for Family Life's 6-session "Implementers" training on worker cooperative development for other community-based organizations. This syllabus generally follows the "Planners" training.
This document is the syllabus for the Center for Family Life's 6-session introductory "Planners" training on worker cooperative development for other community-based organizations.
Shortly after the economic meltdown of 2008, Korten fleshed out a vision of an alternative to the corporate Wall Street economy. He offers his analysis and guidance on mounting a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on shared prosperity, ecological stewardship, and citizen democracy.
This book describes how we humans live by stories and the stories that now govern our society set us on a path to certain self-destruction. It demonstrates the depth and significance of the contrast between the story by which we currently live and the nature and implications of the story now emerging.
In this new edition of his classic book, David Korten illuminates the convergence of ideological, political, and technological forces that have driven an ever-greater concentration of economic and political power in a handful of corporations and financial institutions and left the market system blind to all but its own short-term financial gains.
Policies for Shareable Cities is the first policy handbook of its kind. It includes over 30 recommended policies for how cities should regulate the true sharing economy in the areas of food, work, housing, and transportation.
An Operating Agreement created by the Sustainable Economies Law Center for a worker‐owned cooperative popsicle company (hence, the popsicle‐shaped people). Please note that it was written to conform with California law and with the particular preferences and needs of that cooperative. Originally written in Spanish, then translated into English.
National and NYC based resources on the solidarity economy containing reports, audio recordings and podcasts, books, articles, films, how to guides, and relevant national and local groups.
A veritable choose your own adventure through the New Economy, Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth is a book that allows multiple entries into a vision for a new system by exploring the possible building blocks for that system.
North Dakota is the only state that has established a publicly owned bank: the Bank of North Dakota. This article looks at the benefits that a public bank has brought to the state.
A new investment co-op model lets communities own and develop their commercial spaces. Though new, this model holds potential for the many neighborhoods whose business districts are decaying, controlled by distant landlords or faraway retail chains.
A growing body of research is proving something that many people already know: locally owned businesses create communities that are more prosperous, connected, and generally better off across a wide range of metrics. This is a roundup of the findings that are putting numbers to the harms of bigness and the benefits of local ownership.
This report suggests that the decline of small businesses is owed in part to anticompetitive behavior by large, dominant corporations. This report presents three compelling reasons to bring a commitment to fair and open markets for small businesses back into public policy, and outlines specific steps to revive competition and small business.
Amazon has quietly positioned itself at the center of a growing share of our daily activities and transactions, extending its tentacles across our economy, and with it, our lives. In this report, ILSR pulls back the curtain on the company, and find that it's at the center of increasing inequality and diminishing opportunity.
LocalCatch.org is a community-of-practice from across North America that are committed to providing local, healthful, low-impact seafood via community supported fisheries and direct marketing arrangements in order to support healthy fisheries and the communities that depend on them. This map helps connect consumers to these seafood providers.
LocalCatch.org is a community-of-practice from across North America that are committed to providing local, healthful, low-impact seafood via community supported fisheries and direct marketing arrangements in order to support healthy fisheries and the communities that depend on them. This map helps connect consumers to these seafood providers.
We hope that this Resource Bank, created by members of the Power Shift Network, will help create an equitable, just, inclusive (and therefore stronger) movement for climate justice and justice for all, and provide concrete anti-oppression tools for anyone looking for concrete ways to center principles of justice and equity in their work.
At the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, we believe that Who Fishes Matters. We've outlined 7 principles to keep in mind when buying seafood to benefit local fisherman, local marine ecosystems, and local economies.
We have unique CED resources - websites, publications, case studies, videos, and more - in our CED toolbox.
Vision Smoketown is meant to evoke conversations with residents, policy makers, investors, business leaders and others about how changes in Louisville will impact the Smoketown neighborhood in the next 10, 20 or 30 years. More importantly, Vision Smoketown provides an opportunity for existing residents to have a positive influence in shaping the future of their neighborhood. This report focuses on Smoketown, a historically Black community in Louisville, KY, but may be useful to other communities looking to have greater influence in shaping the future of their neighborhood.
The People's Guide to the Budget was created to help Louisville, KY residents understand how their tax dollars are spent, and how they can change it.
The Caring Economy Campaign's Fast Fact Sheets are an invaluable resource for making the case for the visibility and value of the work of care in our economic system.
This is an online resource that features documents, videos, and articles about energy democracy and the growing movement to democratize energy.
This report's goal is to arm progressive local elected leaders and advocates with a range of effective policies that, if adopted, would make a significant difference in getting on that high road. They will be able to use better democratic organization to add value, reduce waste, and capture and share locally the great benefits of doing both.
Improving care jobs requires reshaping the nation's understanding of what care work is, what it is worth, and how to pay for it. Care workers, as well as their advocates and unions, need to be connected to city and state minimum wage campaigns and to begin securing public and private resources to make higher wages for care workers a reality.
In this video, produced by Democracy Collaborative staff working with Softbox Films, Gar Alperovitz sketches the major institutions of a systemic alternative based in plural forms of democratic ownership, oriented around community at various scales—what he has called “The Pluralist Commonwealth.”
The Beautiful Solutions Gallery and Lab is an interactive space for sharing the stories, solutions and big ideas needed to build new institutional power and point the way toward a just, resilient, and democratic future.
Developed by Beautiful Solutions in partnership with This Changes Everything, this is an open-ended project that will continue to evolve based on the ideas you submit to the Lab, and the ongoing contributions of the thinkers and practitioners on the forefront of building alternatives.
Would you gamble away your rent money? How about your kids’ college fund, or the money you put aside for food and clothing? If that seems like a terrible idea, then why do cities, counties, and states gamble away our money by giving it to big Wall Street bankers, who throw it into risky derivatives and interest rate swaps? There’s a better way--and it’s one of our nation’s best-kept secrets. (This article originally appeared as part of New Economy Week 2015)
Marnie Thompson from The Fund For Democratic Communities addresses the Divestemnt Student Network on her personal journey toward reinvestment. (From New Economy Week 2015)
Today, the need to empower people left out of our investor-owned economy is greater than ever before, and co-ops are once again the engine of change. Electric co-ops, in whole or in part, serve over 90 percent of the poorest U.S. counties, making co-ops key to both energy democracy as well as creating an economy that works for all. (From New Economy Week 2015).
In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country have come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda.
The United States’ partial and uneven recovery from the 2008 financial crisis calls for a new economic platform that would unite the employed and the unemployed, strengthen worker power, and point the way to a more democratic economy for the country as a whole. Two such policy proposals have recently been gaining traction on the left: a universal basic income, on the one hand, and a job guarantee on the other. As part of New Economy Week 2015, Dissent, Jacobin Magazine, and the New Economy Coalition brought together activists, journalists, and scholars to discuss these two proposals.
Fostering resilient communities and building wealth in today’s local economies is necessary to achieve individual, regional, and national economic security. A community wealth building strategy employs a range of forms of community ownership and asset building strategies to build wealth in low-income communities. In so doing, community wealth building bolsters the ability of communities and individuals to increase asset ownership, anchor jobs locally, expand the provision of public services, and ensure local economic stability.
An overview of The Next System Project and the need for systemic solutions for systemic crisis.
The Next System Project is an ambitious multiyear initiative aimed at thinking boldly about what is required to deal with the systemic challenges the United States faces now and in coming decades. Responding to real hunger for a new way forward, and building on innovative thinking and practical experience with new economic institutions and approaches being developed in communities across the country and around the world, the goal is to put the central idea of system change, and that there can be a “next system,” on the map.
How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise? This report draws on case studies of 11 different community economic development initiatives from across the United States to highlight a diverse set of powerful answers to these critical questions.
In this Next System Project second official report, project co-chair, and NEC co-founder, James Gustave Speth details the steps that must be taken to change the status quo of the political-economic system.
This CommonBound 2014 opening plenary panel explores what it means for our movements to “win.” Grounding us in a framework of decolonization, community self-determination and sovereignty, we dive deep into why we do this work. Each of the panelists share their perspective on what is unique about this moment in history — from the political and economic level, to the cultural and ecological.
If our movements are serious about changing the system, what are the strategies that get us from here to there? We know this work is about more than just building projects or winning elections. It’s about governing society for the benefit of all and implementing our visions for the economy at all levels. With that in mind, what do we need to shift in our thinking for our movements to succeed? What are we not doing enough of? What are we doing too much of? What are the opportunities in front of us in this particular historical moment? This CommonBound 2014 closing plenary reflects on these questions with a powerful line-up of community leaders who bring their diverse and broad experiences to the table.
What will an anti-imperialist, economy look like? What will it take to decolonize economic structures in pursuit of liberation? After introducing frameworks for building a movement for sustainable business, community and worker ownership, workplace democracy, and thriving family businesses, we go local. We hear lessons from Boston, where grassroots organizations, small businesses and investors are working together to model an alternative to the capitalist economy at a local level. Participants learn from leaders of the Boston Ujima Project about their efforts to fight poverty and displacement through the formation of a community capital fund, a Good Business Certification, and an alternative local currency. Participants learn about Boston's unique new economy project and engage in the opportunities and limits of this community development strategy.
View the recordings of these online discussions, organized by Local Futures, which address key issues in the debate around economic globalization and localization - from food and energy to education, trade, and the role of activists. Guests include Bill McKibben, Charles Eisenstein, Richard Heinberg, Manish Jain, Michael Shuman, and more.
This paper, released in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate talks, argues that globalization, the deregulation of trade and finance through free trade treaties, is the driving force behind climate change. As a result, the climate problem can only be tackled effectively if governments stop subsidizing globalization, and pursue localization instead.
This toolkit is a do-it-yourself tool for those who want to kick-start effective global-to-local action in their community or within an existing group. The toolkit uses the award-winning documentary film The Economics of Happiness as a springboard to discuss the broad impacts of the global economy and localization as a strategy for systemic change.
Want to understand the alternatives to business as usual? We know the current system does exactly what it was designed to do: line corporate pockets at the expense of real people’s health and livelihoods, destroying the environment while fueling the war machine. But we also know that another world is possible. Many models for radically different, sustainable, inclusive and democratic societies exist and this CommonBound workshop features a few of their proponents to present their ideas, debate the options and answer questions about what a better world looks like in detail.
This shortened version of the award-winning documentary spells out the social, spiritual, and ecological costs of today's global economy. Importantly, the film also highlights the many benefits of a shift towards the local and showcases some of the steps people are already taking worldwide.
Planet Local is Local Futures' project to highlight and catalog the diverse examples of localization springing up all over the planet. Our examples listed range from local business and finance to local food, health, community rights, place-based education, energy, eco-communities, and more.
From trade to finance, from food to climate, from education to energy, the negative impacts of globalization have affected every part of the world's economies. This report summarizes those impacts, and provides a detailed listing of policy shifts and grassroots initiatives that can move the world towards the local.
This plenary panel from CommonBound 2016 features leaders in Buffalo, NY's vibrant New Economy Movement discussing their work and vision for a just and sustainable city.
This panel features leaders from across NYC sharing stories of communities building powerful bottom-up solutions like worker co-ops, community land trusts, and community development credit unions that model economic democracy, sustainability, and social justice.
A New Economy Week 2015 conversation between Ed Whitfield of the Fund For Democratic Communities and Anand Jahi, NEC Program Director.
A white paper mapping out a just transition strategy for nuclear power plant communities and energy replacement scenarios. Concludes that the reactor's entire electricity output could be replaced by lower-cost, clean energy resources, and that worker and community transition support would be cost-effective.
Movement Generation is proud to offer you their new Strategic Framework for a Just Transition Zine! Offered in English and Spanish, it is a 32-page long training tool and offers a framework for a fair shift to an economy that is ecologically sustainable, equitable and just for all its members. It is full of visuals, stand-alone sections, and curriculum ideas.
Few Americans are aware of the steady build-up of innovative community wealth building strategies throughout the United States. Community-Wealth.org is a resouce library which brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity.