Cooperative Journal

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #3

A collaboration with New Economy Coalition

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism.

Sol Underground is an abolitionist ecosystem in Atlanta dreaming of a Black and Indigenous liberated world that is resisting colonial systems of oppression. They are actualizing this dream as an autonomous community-led group that is building, joining, and maintaining networks of care.

In this episode, Ebony speaks with the founder Sunny who begins with defining what abolitionism is and its correlation to the solidarity economy. How their shape transformed from an artist collective to supporting the unhoused community through mutual aid. They share some of the models they organize like Sol Below, a pop up tent that provides warmth and food to the homeless when the temperature drops below a certain degree. They paint a beautiful vision for a world when exploitative systems are abolished, offer practical tips for adopting an abolitionist mindset, and how to put theory into practice.

Show Notes

Sol Underground

Freedom Archives: dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of historical audio, video, and print materials documenting progressive movements and culture from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Abolition Notes: a free and evolving, volunteer-run education project to make the work of radical and revolutionary movements throughout history fighting for liberation more accessible

New Economy Coalition

Episode Music by MADlines

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #2

A collaboration with New Economy Coalition

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism.

Co-op Dayton is developing and weaving a network between cooperative businesses that are meeting the needs of their local community. They are using community and worker ownership as a catalyst to transform Dayton’s Black and working class neighborhoods. In this episode, I speak with program and co-executive directors - Cherelle Gardner and Amaha Sellassie.

They begin with defining what a cooperative is and different ownership structures, how cooperative businesses can meet the needs of a disinvested post-industrial city, some of the models they have incubated like T.R.I.B.E a shared-service co-op of holistic perinatal practitioners. They also invite us to think beyond the metrics of success within capitalism, what solidarity and cooperation looks like in our day to day lives, and how we can show up in solidarity.

Show Notes

Co-op Dayton

National Black Food Justice Alliance

PODER Emma: provides technical assistance, accompaniment, and lending for the development and sustainability of worker-owned businesses, resident-owned mobile home parks, and community-based real estate investment cooperatives.

Seed Commons: ​​national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control.

Economics for Emancipation: free course with interactive and participatory workshops that offers a deep dive into the current political economic system and explores alternative economic systems.

Episode Music by MADlines

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #1

A collaboration with New Economy Coalition

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism.

Nuns and Nones is a community of sisters and seekers connect to explore the themes of justice, spiritual practice, and how to respond to the needs of the times.The Land Justice Project evolved to support these religious communities to reimagine and shift who has ownership and access to the land they are on.In this episode Ebony speaks with Brittany Koteles, the director of the project.

Brittany begins with laying a foundation for what land justice is and how the Land Justice Project embodies it through its models and practices. She shares when and why land became commodified, how the aging community of nuns is navigating the mistrust and contradictions that emerge when giving Catholic owned land to Native American and Black people, and ways you can engage in land justice.

Show Notes:

New Economy Coalition

Nuns & Nones

Sustainable Economies Law Center

Agrarian Commons: model of land stewardship and access that allows for community ownership of farmland

Center for Ethical Land Transition: explores ways to decommodify, rematriate, and increase accessibility to land for BIPOC communities

Episose Music by MADlines

Guilded is a cooperative that offers resources to empower freelance workers. They provide contract management, invoicing, guaranteed payments, tax preparation, and health care – which alleviates some of the administrative work so that freelancers can focus on their projects. One of their main intentions is supporting artists as workers and ensuring their basic needs are met.

In this episode, I speak with Camila Tapia-Guilliams, a mixed media artist, educator, and community organizer, weaving together narratives of identity, community care, cooperation, and solidarity in their art.

We talk about the gaps Guilded is filling for freelancer artists like ensuring they get paid on time, unions as a tool for protecting artists as workers, navigating decisions in a multi-stakeholder co-op, the process of joining Guilded and the benefits included, and visions for a world where artists are honored for the value they create.

Show Notes:

Guilded Website

Camila's Instagram

U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops

What would it look like if we collectively designed decentralized, democratized, distributed, and diversified energy systems? People Power Solar is a California based cooperative that invests in community-led projects to create alternatives to PG&E and other private utilities. They are working to ensure that power can be accessed by all without compromising the health and safety of any community.

I speak with worker-owners Hannah and Crystal about the necessity to transition from privatized energy to localized and cooperative structures. They share some community led projects they support like mobile solar power, framing energy as a verb, how they are shifting from focusing on pooling financial resources to deepening in relationships and dialogue around what energy really is, and why our dominant energy sector is inefficient, overpriced, and unreliable.

Show Notes:

People Power Solar Website

People Power Solar Youtube

Podcast episode that inspired framing energy as a verb

Post Growth Institute experiments with tangible practices, tools, and spaces to create a regenerative, full-circle economy beyond capitalism. Through their research, structure, and offerings they embody the ‘Post-growth’ worldview, which sees society operating better without the demand of constant economic growth. It resists an economy that is predicated on growth and depends on the over extraction of finite natural resources and human labor…instead we can create systems that put people and the planet over profit.

I speak with Director of Education Crystal Arnold about mutual aid through the Offers and Needs Market, a space for community members to exchange their passions, knowledge, skills, resources, opportunities, and needs. She shares practices and ideology we need to evolve into a post-growth society, sliding scale vs. open ended pricing, dissolving class differences in the Offers and Needs Market, advice for being in reciprocity daily, the importance of facilitation skills to create spaces of belonging, asset based mapping as a tool for community resilience, and more!

Resources

Offers & Needs Markets

Post Growth Institute Website

Host Your Own Free Money Day

Tools for Asset Based Community Mapping

Crystal’s Podcast: Money Morphosis

Mumbet’s Freedom Farm is a Black and Brown-led cooperative farm located at the base of a mountain in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It is a community sanctuary for connection, creativity, education, and wellness. The name is in reverence to Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman, who was an enslaved African nurse, midwife, and herbalist who sued for her freedom in Sheffield and won. The land is abundant with a flowing brook, natural spring, waterfalls, forest trails, and a diversity of natural life.

In this episode I speak with worker-owner DeeArah Wright about their journey from the city towards collective rural land stewardship. We talk about the power of the land to heal trauma associated with Black land history, barriers they experienced when trying to purchase land, how they got into a mutual benefit, non-extractive land agreement, food and land as a source of liberation, benefits and challenges of cooperative farming, establishing local relationships to build financial security and community, holding space on the land for art, education, and play, their plans to create an ecosystem of homesteads and sanctuaries cooperatively owned, managed by Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color.

Connect with Mumbet's Freedom Farm

Website

Instagram

Okionu Birth Foundation offers free personalized meals and group mental health support for low-income BIPOC families during the first six weeks after their baby is born. They collaborate with chefs and the Therapist of Color Collective to provide care in Colorado, Maryland, and Texas. While their free services are currently limited, they are developing an app for a nationwide support network.

In this episode I speak with founder Jacquelyn Clemmons about how they are prioritizing the mental health and overall wellbeing of BIPOC newborns and their parents. She shares their offerings for holistic and culturally relevant care, food as the foundation for wellbeing, Black maternal health disparities and how they are combating that through their partnership with Irth app (honors the voices of Black and brown woman giving them a platform to review prenatal, birthing, postpartum and pediatric care received from doctors and hospitals), negative effects lack of care has on child development, and stay tuned until the end to go on a multisensory journey into the future of Okionu birth centers.

Okionu Birth Foundation Website

Okionu Instagram

Irth App

Support Okionu on Open Collective Foundation

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Established in 1972, A.I.R is the first artist cooperative gallery for women in the United States. They maintain an exhibition space in Brooklyn, NY and showcase the work of hundreds of women artists each year. They also offer ways for members to build a support network and engage with the community through public open calls, fellowships, workshops, lectures on feminism, and discussion groups. Their multi-media exhibitions have explored themes of identity politics, historical archives, fractals, the symbiotic relationship between our body and environment, and so much more.

In this episode I speak with member Susan Stainman about how A.I.R has cultivated a space for women artists to be fully autonomous and given a platform in a male dominated industry. We speak about the history of female oppression in the United States, the lack of representation of women in the art world, benefits of membership like retaining majority of sales and camaraderie, how artist cooperatives can shift the centralization of wealth in the art industry that’s worth more than transportation and agriculture, and more wisdom.

A.I.R Website

A.I.R Instagram

A.I.R Facebook

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Manyverse is an open-source, decentralized social network. Rather than a company controlling data and communication, the user has complete ownership and responsibility. Their goal is to make social networking independent of internet connectivity, allowing for “off the grid” communication when disconnected from the internet.

In this episode I speak with founder Andre Staltz about transforming social networks into a method of communication and community, not a business. He shares why the interweb is dying, what it means to decolonize and demonetize social networking, dissolving hierarchy in social media platforms, how they receive financial support, and a new vision for the world wide web.

Manyverse Website

Open Collective Foundation page

Learn About Local-first Software

Next Generation Internet - European Union Grant

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