A panel of international climate justice activists shares perspectives on COP26 and the next stage of our struggle, and afterward answers questions from the audience. This event was cosponsored by Green Eco-Socialist Network (GEN) and System Change Not Climate Change (SCNCC), two organizations committed to ecosocialist transformation. Speakers, in order: Maura Stephens, introduction, for SCNCC Mel Figueroa, moderator, with GEN Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN (Women's Environment & Climate Action Network, via prerecording) John Foran, System Change Not Climate Change Asad Rehman, War on Want Irene Shen, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Kali Akuno, Cooperation Jackson Yeb Saño, Greenpeace, SE Asia

Written by Frances Madeson

The Real News Network

November 10, 2021

On the 16th anniversary of Katrina, Hurricane Ida hit with destructive force, killing many and leaving underserved communities in ruin. We spoke with representatives from mutual aid organizations that have been helping people rebuild in the wake of catastrophe.

Written by Steve Dubb

Non-Profit Quarterly

October 27, 2021

October is co-op month in the US, a time for co-op leaders to gather, even if gathering these days is hybrid or virtual. This year’s Co-op Impact conference, organized by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), the US co-op trade association, centered on questions of co-op identity and meaning. Or, as Karen Zimbelman, a longtime food co-op trainer who was inducted this year into the national cooperative hall of fame, put it, “What are the times asking and demanding of us as co-ops today?”

By Carol Bardi, Jacob Smessaert, Joe Herbert, Nathan Barlow, originally published by Degrowth.de

Resilient

October 25,2021

Degrowthers have recently seemed to find a lot of inspiration in Erik Olin Wright’s framework of political strategies for transformations beyond capitalism. In this blog post, we wish to highlight some crucial insufficiencies of Wright’s framework in relation to degrowth transformations, and propose some adaptations which can enhance its utility for further strategy discussions. To do so, we begin by offering a brief overview of some ways in which degrowthers have discussed Wright’s strategic framework so far. We then propose three ways in which we believe Wright’s framework can be enhanced in order to speak more fruitfully to degrowth. These consist of (i) a reconsideration of ruptural strategies, (ii) a greater attentiveness to the dynamics of contemporary ecological crisis, and (iii) a deeper recognition of possibilities for the inter-mingling of different political traditions in order to develop novel strategic frameworks for twenty-first century degrowth transformations.

Published on October 20, 2021

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "What are your thoughts on the emerging cooperative ‘Cooperation Jackson’ and what’re some models or practices that socialist can advocate for on the municipal level. Thank you, again!" This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Written by John Foran

Resilience

October 14, 2021

This article addresses the intersections and overlaps of intersectional theory, ecosocialism, and radical climate justice activism. It argues for a new synthesis between these different viewpoints and paradigms and features the work of Cooperation Jackson as model of practice.

Written by Rich Whitney

Non-Profit Quarterly

September 22, 2021

This articles addresses the question of how universal basic income could be used to build and bolster the solidarity economy, particularly on the financial end.

Written by Steve Dubb

Non-profit Quarterly

September 15, 2021

This article comes from the Summer 2021 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly, “The World We Want: In Search of New Economic Paradigms.”

Early in 2020, the board of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN) called on like-minded organizations that were engaged in economic justice and systems change work to gather at a Resist and Build summit at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. The center, founded in 1932, has played an outsized role as a movement-organizing space, known for helping to train labor organizers in the 1930s and civil rights organizers in the 1950s and 1960s.

This is a recording of a live event that took place on September 14th.

Dissent partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, NYC-DSA’s Housing Working Group, In These Times, Housing Justice for All, Dollars & Sense, and the Sustainable Economies Law Center for the third installment in a series of virtual events inspired by the film The Big Scary “S” Word.

This discussion focused on worker cooperatives and the fight for economic justice.

Speech on climate justice and organizing for a regenerative economy given by Kali Akuno.

The speech was part of the annual Anti-Racist Festival, the ABBA CUP, organized by the anarchist collective Cantiere.

Written by Emily Kawano

Nonprofit Quarterly

September 8, 2021

This article comes from the Summer 2021 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly, “The World We Want: In Search of New Economic Paradigms.”

The discovery of imaginal cells, or discs, goes back to the 1600s, but the metaphor of imaginal cells was popularized by Norie Huddle in her 1990 book Butterfly. The story of a butterfly’s metamorphosis provides a lovely and useful metaphor for the metamorphosis from a system of capitalism to a postcapitalist system: the solidarity economy (SE).

Written by Sonali Kolhatkar

The Socialist Project - The Bullet

September 10, 2021

This article examines the deepening climate and ecological crisis and what frontline and Indigenous communities throughout North America are doing to address it.

Written by Frances Madeson

Truthout

September 2, 2021

In the wake of Hurricane Ida, which struck the Gulf Coast exactly 16 years to the day of Hurricane Katrina, activists in Louisiana and Mississippi, mobilized mutual aid and a political response to combat the ravages of Disaster Capitalism.

By Ella Fassler

June 29, 2021

VICE Magazine

As heatwaves rise across the US, mutual aid organizations are building a pipeline to help a new generation of climate migrants.

MIC takes on the question of if the solidarity economy can address and resolve the ills of capitalism.

By Katherine K. Chen and Victor Tan Chen

Fortune Magazine

May 19, 2021

With customers staying at home during the pandemic, large numbers of businesses have shuttered permanently, unable to cover their payroll and rent. Emergency governmental assistance has sustained some businesses during this period of economic uncertainty, but the crisis has also stoked interest in a private sector remedy: cooperatives.

Everyone knows it’s extremely difficult to organize a union in the US. Two often-overlooked reasons why: media consolidation and a dearth of public spaces where workers can come together, socialize, and organize.

By Jerome Warren

Article from Capital and Main focusing on the grassroots efforts in Jackson, MS to address Jackson’s water emergency and infrastructure crisis.

Written by Frances Madeson

“After the water stopped flowing, a grassroots effort in Jackson is organizing the Black community for future climate and political crises.”

Our opening Keynote panel at our Assembly features a conversation of food sovereignty and a Just Transition in our pandemic times with speakers from across the continent. We are honoured to open our 12th Annual Assembly with Dawn Morrison of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty from Coast Salish territory on the west coast of so-called Canada as well as Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Saki Hall of Cooperation Jackson from Jackson, Mississippi. Our speakers discuss what food sovereignty looks like in their communities, coalition building across nations and movements, and mobilizing to activate the changes we need to see for a Just Transition away from an extractive economy to sustainable, long-term, community-driven solutions.