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The case of waste pickers in Colombia, where cooperatives have linked waste pickers’ work to a legal framework that recognizes them as formal actors in the waste management chain, shows what decades of collective work for a common cause can achieve.

More than 15,000 waste pickers – from 45 cooperatives and other local organizations grouped into five regional structures within the country – belong to the National Association of Waste Pickers (Asociación Nacional de Recicladores, ANR).

In post-Maria Puerto Rico, the necessity of rebuilding homes and streets, providing essentials and medication to the elderly, and helping each other overcome the trauma led to the creation of the Mutual Aid network. The need for communal spaces, internet access, activities for children in abandoned rural areas, and support for local agriculture and small traders solidified this grassroots solidarity, transforming it into established organisations that continue to operate beyond immediate relief efforts.

The organization now well known as La Alameda originated as an asamblea of residents in the neighborhood of Parque Avellaneda, which was formed during the crisis and mobilizations of the public on December 19 and 20, 2001.

Intentional community is all about sharing. While all intentional communities utilize some degree of expense-sharing, a handful of them use a radical economic model through “income-sharing”. Income-sharing brings with it a number of practical and ideological benefits, as well as unique challenges, as it forges a new path towards reimagining our relationship with collective resources.

“When we started, we had just two coffees,” says Birch. “Since then, we have developed about 45 products, have five different teas and are currently sitting on a combined 18 tons of Malawi tea and coffee waiting to be packaged.”

Revolver is a multi-stakeholder co-op,  owned by around 500 consumers; UK retail societies including Heart of England, Central and Midcounties; a producer co-op with around 25,000 farmer members in Costa Rica, Honduras and Malawi; and a staff-owned worker co-op.

The New York Cooperative Summit is a one-day event brings together New York State cooperative members, leaders, organizers, and allies to share practical tools and strategies for starting, sustaining, and scaling the co-op ecosystem across the state.  In 2024 the Summit was held in Syracuse and attracted 100 attendees, and this year the event is moving to Albany and anticipating 150 people.

The practice of solidarity recognizes that our wellbeing is tied together with that of others. It presupposes engaging in solutions with those in need, not for them. The goal of solidarity is to both alleviate suffering and solve its systemic deep-rooted causes. Conceptually, solidarity links us together across geography, economics, culture, and power. Its framing allows those with more access to resources to truly and deeply support, work with or aid those who don’t.

At Beloved Community Incubator, we believe everyone deserves good wages, safe conditions, and meaningful work. That’s why we support workers in creating cooperatives—businesses they own and manage together. Cooperatives give workers control over pay, decision-making, and the future of their labor. A challenge to low-income workers accessing the benefits and possibility of cooperatives is the time investment it takes to build a business.