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New models of peer governance are emerging from online communities in the Global South. This is visible in an understudied case of ridesharing “platforms” created on social media communities and materializing in Latin American cities. In this article, I investigate these online communities in different cities of Colombia and how they develop peer governance models. A particular focus is paid to developing organization forms that do not follow the typical structure of firms.

Despite having limited material resources, Hamer was undeterred in her fight for economic justice. True to her belief that one must take tangible steps to change society, she came up with a practical solution for addressing hunger and malnutrition. In 1969, Hamer launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC), a community-based rural and economic development project.

Carleton Mutual Aid was founded in May 2021 by student organizers with Sunrise Carleton, an environmental justice activist group. They were inspired by a supply drive set up by Carleton College students to help those protesting the police killing of Daunte Wright in a nearby Minneapolis suburb in April. After seeing how students collected funds, food items, medical supplies, and hygiene products for protesters, organizers decided to set up a fund to meet daily needs on their campus.

“Chuck basically saved co-ops in New York – there’s no other way to say it,” says Stuart Saft, a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight who served on the NCB board of directors from 1998 to 2012. “After tax reform in 1986, the Savings & Loan crisis happened, and a lot of co-op sponsors started to default. Without Chuck going to other lenders and telling them not to push to foreclose, there would be no co-ops today. When I got the call that he had died, I was devastated. It’s incredibly sad. He did so much for cooperative housing in New York.”

The East New York Community Land Trust (ENY CLT) is a grassroots, people of color-led non-profit organization founded by community residents dedicated to preserving affordability for future generations and providing a vehicle to create generational wealth. We aim to protect, stabilize, and expand the stock of affordable homes, locally-owned small businesses, and green spaces in East New York and Brownsville to benefit low to moderate-income BIPOC residents.

Interest in cooperative business models tends to swell in the wake of social revolutions and financial crises. The Great Depression and New Deal era gave rise to democratically run bartering systems like the Unemployed Cooperative Relief Organization.

Though REI frequently describes the green vests (retail store workers) as "family" and claims to treat them well, many cannot afford to live near the store where they work and are forced to commute great distances or live in unhealthy roommate situations to pay the rent. REIs practice of paying large sums to the CEO and building its business on the backs of its underpaid employees must stop. We, green vests, call on REI to end its exploitative labor practices and find a way to pay a living wage at all stores.

The bootstraps narrative implies it’s possible — maybe even “the American way” — to pull yourself out of poverty. The story of ChiFresh Kitchens is instead about helping each other.

As we continue to forge our way into the “new normal” (another phrase we’d all like to throw into the garbage), some are putting forward the question – is doing things as we’ve always done the right way to rebuild?

The folks at Cooperation Buffalo in Buffalo, NY believe there is a better way. Their mission is to mobilize workers to achieve financial security through cooperative business ownership.

It was with great pain that we learned that Silke Helfrich died in an accident during a mountain hike. We are infinitely sad and cannot believe it.
What a loss. For the family. For us as friends, Commons Institute and Commons movement. For the world.

Silke was one of the most important voices in the German-speaking and international commons debates, an inspiring thought leader and practitioner of commoning, and a wonderful personality. She has been the author and editor of numerous books, blogger, researcher, speaker and activist.