News & Resources

Solidarity Against ICE, Queer Peasant Feminist Anti-Fascism, and Decolonizing Niger

Feb 20, 2025 | New Economy Roundup

This week we’re talking about Nigerien anti-colonial youth mobilizations, solidarity networks protecting immigrants from ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, REI union fighting fascists in their cooperative, and how Indigenous peoples in Amazonia are fighting COVID-19.

In 2024, with your support, The Black Solidarity Economy Fund moved $241,500 to 36 different solidarity economy projects in Black communities. Your contributions this year will double down on support for Black communities during a time when the federal government, corporations, and philanthropists refuse to do so. Will you become a donor today?

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Solidarity Against ICE and Border Patrol: “This isn’t just about protecting my family—it’s about changing the system for everyone.” Rapid community responses, like immigration watch encrypted chats and tenant groups, are interrupting deportation arrests. Pangea Law Center and other Bay Area immigrant justice groups fighting ICE and CBP say practicing collective governance within their organizations is deeply transforming their solidarity and efficacy too. Learn more about their co-governance journey and how you and your neighbors can stop deportation arrests in your community.

Exploring Solidarity Economy Through Hip Hop: From DC to LA, artists are placing people over profit with a ‘pay what you can’ market for tickets, music, and merch. Salonhouse DC opened up Black History Month with a ‘pay what you can’ show platforming local artists and instrumentalists experimenting with Hip Hop and Soul. Earlier that day, LA Rapper, LaRussell dropped another offer-based release, this time for his merch. Since its inception, Hip-Hop has been a catalyst for anti-oppressive change and the Black Solidarity Economy Fund is unpacking how we can keep building the solidarity economy alongside this tradition. Join us on February 27th for a livestream ‘10 Times A Rapper Spit Something Lowkey Revolutionary’ for political education, freestyles, and thoughts on pre-figurative economics.

REI Co-op Endorses Fascism: REI Union and environmental activists are calling out REI Co-op for greenwashing and union busting. Last week, REI Co-op endorsed Republican Department of Interior pick and former North Dakota Governor, Doug Burnum. Burnum is known for supporting oil and gas drilling along with deregulating environmental protections. Support leftist union expansion by signing this petition urging the REI Co-op board of directors to stop union busting and enabling the Trump administration.

 

Nigerien Students’ Anti-Colonial Struggle: People across Niger believe France and the United States are sponsoring terrorism in their country. To reaffirm alignment with the new decolonial government, students across Niger took to the streets in Niamey for a mass mobilization this January. Pan-Africanists in Niger and worldwide have celebrated Niger’s new government for nationalizing uranium mines, ending French military occupation, and becoming the first country in Africa to break ties with US Africa Command (AFRICOM). Learn more about the decolonial laborer, peasant, and student movement across Niger in this article from People’s Dispatch. 

Queer Peasant Farmers Against Fascism: The Union of Landless Rural Workers (UST) and the National Peasant-Indigenous Movement are planning to bring over 20 years of labor organizing to the Buenos Aires pride parade this October. Fascist attacks on queer Argentines intensified in 2022 when the government became the first to ban gender-neutral language. Now alleged crypto fraudster, President Milei, is attacking the people-led opposition by shutting down government institutions leading public health, and protections against gender and sexuality-based violence. Learn more about what building this anti-fascist coalition means for peasant workers from this Via Campesina interview with Dhanna Moyano, a transwoman returning to her family’s goat farming tradition.

“We have our cure inside the forest”: In the early days of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, former president and attempted coup leader, Jair Bolsonaro, disfigured pandemic response across the country– especially for Indigenous Amazonian communities. The state’s eugenical approach to the virus killed several historic Indigenous leaders and many more civilians. Despite a new vacuum in leadership and ongoing land grabs, the mourning led to intercommunity organizing that minimized the viral spread. From Raposa Serra do Sol territories to Alto Rio Negro communities, people shared traditional medicine preparations among road blockade tactics and masking protocol to stop the spread. Learn more about how Indigenous peoples throughout Brazil are fighting COVID-19 in this short story from The Real News Podcast.

 

 

PODCASTS & VIDEO

Live at the Oregon Country Fair 2024 | The Response Podcast
Let’s study CAPITALISM | The Center for Heterodox Economic
We Won’t Take Risks Alone. Our Relationships Make a Better World Possible. | Movement Memos
Trump’s Administrative Coup w/ David Cobb & Kali Akuno | Jacobin Radio
What Dollar General Doesn’t Want You To Know | Perfect Union

TOOLKITS & RESOURCES

Cooperative Housing: A Landscape Analysis of Projects across Ohio, with a Focus on those in the Greater Cleveland Area | Cleveland Owns
Immigrant Support Resource Hub | U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Theory of Change | New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives
We Protect Us Workbook | Defend and Recruit
Worker Co-op Spotlight: Repaired Nations & Root Volume | U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives

 

Beginning Farmer Fellowship, Unadilla Community Farm (West Edmeston, NY)
Bulk Purchasing Coordinator, Cooperate Western North Carolina
Elements for Regional Solidarity Economies Cohort, Peoples Hub
General Manager, Park Slope Food Co-op
Human Resources & Care Director, New Economy Coalition
Restorative Economics Organizer, Restore Oakland
Socialist Job Fair, Democratic Socialist of America (San Francisco)
Unpaid Ujima Fund Interns, Boston Ujima Project
Various Positions, Appalachian Voices

If you’re hiring, consider submitting to The Roundup.
For more opportunities, check out this job board from NEC member Post Growth Institute and this one from the U.S. Federation of Worker Coops!

 

10 Times A Rapper Spit Something Lowkey Revolutionary
Join the New Economy Coalition’s Black Solidarity Economy Fund and Black Radical Democracy working group this Black History Month for a livestream event on Zoom! In this session, we will explore how generations of Hip Hop are tending to the resounding cry for overdue systems change. Our panelists will connect a few bars from 10 (or so) songs circulating in Hip-Hop to crucial political education that’s guiding us to build solidarity economies across the United States. You don’t have to be an activist, organizer, academic, worker, or student to join this conversation. Together, we will uncover how Hip-Hop has met this mandate and the ways our rich culture could double down even more. (Feb 27 – Virtual)

Black Cooperators Peer Network Meeting | Reunión de la Red de Apoyo Mutuo Cooperativistas Negras
The Black Cooperators Peer Network is a space for Black people in the cooperative movement to strategize, uplift one another, and build power together. This is an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions, exchange resources, and build relationships that strengthen our collective work. This peer network is organized by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, but you don’t have to be a member of the USFWC to join this group.  Whatever your level of experience, if you are interested in collective ownership you’re welcome to join! (Feb 24 – Virtual)

Effective Leadership: SMT’s Recommendations and Guidance for Social Change Execs
Playing a leadership role for social change? Directors have a unique role in their organization or union. If we aren’t leading in particular ways, everyone’s work is held back. This 3-hour session focuses on the very practical nexus between tech, organizing and campaigning, and leadership. It’s for social change directors and leadership who want to lead their organization toward greater team effectiveness and impact. The session will be useful to any non-profit involved in social change work.  Leadership of larger organizations, as well as under-resourced organizations, will likely find this session useful. We’ll share tips and tools for organizations that are not in a position to throw more resources at a problem and don’t have large staff teams. (Feb 24 – Virtual)

Digital Security 101
From right-wing doxxing to high-tech police surveillance, our progressive communities are under threat. But we can keep ourselves and our movements safe through digital security. Together, we’ll cover tips and tools to protect your devices, accounts, personal data, and communications. This introductory training, hosted by 18 Million Rising, will teach you the basics of staying safe, online and in the streets, while fighting for liberation. This training will be recorded and sent to all who register. Live captioning provided. (Feb 25 – Virtual)

Community Defense with Grassroots Global Justice
Learn from international partners who preserved their institutions, communities, and themselves from right-wing authoritarian governments. We will also learn how others are preparing to fight back and defend our communities through the launch of GGJ’s first campaign. (Feb 27 – Virtual) 

Offers and Needs Market
Join the Post Growth Institute for their virtual offers and needs market.  (Feb 27 – Virtual) 

Shifting Budgets, Shifting Power
Join Participatory Budgeting Project for an educational, hands on workshop with Jasmine Rashid. Together, we will learn, discuss, and practice her eight financial activism strategies and five action steps. (Feb 27 – Virtual)

Next Economy MBA
The Next Economy MBA is a nine-month course created by LIFT Economy to equip social impact leaders with the tools they need to help create an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative economy. In addition to bi-weekly facilitated course sessions, office hours to dive into deeper learning, and practical resources from the LIFT team, participants in the Next Economy MBA program will join a 500+ strong alumni network. (Begins March 2025 – Virtual) 

Intro to Story-Based Strategy
Join us this spring for one of our two Introduction to Story-based Strategy Trainings. In this interactive, hands-on 5-hour session, participants will learn and practice the fundamentals of Story-based Strategy (SBS). This training helps organizers, activists, community leaders, and grassroots communications experts practice creative storytelling and critical narrative analysis. (Application due April 6th – Virtual)

Introductions to Building Forum Theater
This training will introduce participants to Theater of the Oppressed NYC’s process of creating forum theater performances. This training is for community organizers, artists, and community members who plan to use forum theater to engage groups in action toward social change. (April 7-21 – Virtual)

2025 National Radical Black Organizing Conference
Bigger! Blacker! Better! Black left forces are gathering to organize with our people. The theme for this year’s conference is “Base-Building for Collective Power.” (May 30-June 1– Indianapolis) 

Learning from Feminist Cooperators in the Americas
Black feminist co-operators engage in globalizing solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid to meet livelihood needs. (June 3 – London) 

Socialism Conference 2025
The Socialism conference is a center of political education rooted in ideas, perspectives, and strategic debate. Our purpose is to provide a forum for addressing not just the “how,” but especially the “what” and “why” of left politics and social movements. A four-day conference featuring dozens of panels, lectures, and workshops organized by groups from all over the country. Save the Date for Socialism 2025! (July 3-6 2025 – Chicago, IL)

 

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