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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Networking & Collaboration

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October 2, 2023

The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy

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Summary

This week we are joined by David Cobb, Lydia Lopez, Jyoung Carolyn Park, Kali Akuno, and Petula Hanley to hear about how to use/influence public policy advance individual policies as part of a coherent strategy to democratize the entire economy.

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September 25, 2023

Mapping a Local Landscape of Care and Belonging

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Equal Care Coop and Clapton Commons are mapping a local landscape of care and support in Clapton Common, Upper Clapton. Using KUMU, a powerful system mapping platform, we are creating an interactive map that makes the often invisible grassroots networks of care and support more visible and accessible to people giving and receiving care.

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September 18, 2023

What is the Union Cooperative Initiative?

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At the June 2023 meeting of the USFWC's Union Co-ops Council, Jonny Sopotiuk presented on the Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI), an exciting project out of Vancouver, BC founded in 2021. Jonny shares about the history of the UCI, its co-ops and prospects, their strategies, and how the union co-op model is proving successful.

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September 1, 2023

Accelerating Worker Ownership

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An online panel facilitated by co-op researcher-practitioner Emi Do that brings together presenters from several such projects: CoTech, Exit to Community Collective, Platform Cooperativism Consortium, SPACE4, Start.coop, UnFound Accelerator, and Union Cooperative Initiative. These projects advance democratic business formation and co-op theory-building, and they offer valuable lessons on the promises and challenges of accelerating worker ownership today.

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August 21, 2023

Ecology Councils: Grassroots Climate Strategies from Mesopotamia

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In different parts of Mesopotamia environmental movements have been feverishly nurturing the emergence of the grassroots institution of the ecology council for the preservation of communal livelihoods.

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August 10, 2023

Activating the Unrealised Potential of Care Networks

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Equal Care's pilot in Commons-based care in Hackney builds on five years of work developing and delivering a ‘teams model’ of home care in Calderdale, Yorkshire.

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May 18, 2023

What Sweden Can Teach the U.S. About Overcoming the Housing Crisis

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Can studying cooperative housing in Sweden teach the U.S. how to overcome the moderate-income family housing crisis?

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May 15, 2023

Why is the Co-operative Movement so Strong in Emilia Romagna?

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Today I’m talking with Matt Hancock, who’s been heavily involved with the co-operative movement in Emilia Romagna – the region of Italy around Bologna. There’s a huge, very successful co-op sector in ER. I want to try to find out in this interview is why – what’s special about ER, and can it be emulated elsewhere?

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April 24, 2023

Worker Co-ops Fund Themselves, Solve Equipment Crisis

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How the VAWC Inter-cooperative Loan Fund helped save the fledgling worker co-op Flat Iron Coffeehouse.

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October 13, 2022

Sri Lanka’s Untold Story of Resilience

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Since its inception, Sarvodaya has grown to include more than 15,000 villages and has energized these communities to build more than 5,000 preschools, community health centers, libraries, and cottage industries. It has also established thousands of village banks and more than 100,000 small businesses — all without any government support.