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I was lucky enough to participate in the “Battle in Seattle” – a giant protest again globalization at the meeting of the World Trade Organization.  The protesters were worried that trade agreements would massively shift wealth to giant multinational corporations and away from workers and communities and we were right.

It’s hard to think about much beyond the prospect of Donald Trump taking office. The idea hangs over us all like a dark cloud, except this storm isn’t going to blow over any time soon.

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Amid the gloom, apprehension, and anger surrounding the election of Donald Trump, it’s easy to overlook those places in our society where democracy is still alive and well. Yet if you look closely enough, you’ll find sites where the democratic spirit is still vibrant, and it’s not a stretch to say that one of those sites is the workplace itself. The workplace, in fact, may hold a key to a revitalized democracy in the future.

These  two  ideas  at  the  heart  of  the  Occupy  Movement — the  struggle against  structural  inequality  and  the  desire  for  a more directly  democratic process to take back control over our lives — share much in common with the ideas underlying Community Economic Development (CED).  Contemporary CED first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, when activists in low-income   communities   fought   for local   residents   to  

We’re excited to share with you this new report featuring 25 enterprises from across the US that actually help make communities more resilient (rather than extracting wealth and resources), based on Transition Network’s REconomy framework for resilience-building enterprises!

Adrionna Fike 

Mandela Foods Co-op

Oakland, CA

Mondragon, the family of co-operatives which have developed from their Basque homelands into a worldwide set of businesses, have a new promotional video out.  But do you know what? I’m a little disappointed. The video could have been made by almost any multinational, looking to promote itself. There’s only tangential mention of co-operation or worker engagement (and is it my imagination or does the video seem to suggest that it’s a man’s world in Mondragon?). A slight sense of a lost opportunity.

Conflict doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s complicated and messy at times. It can influence the team’s and each person’s productivity, well-being, and dynamics. It can derail your meetings leading to poor collective decision-making.