Solidarity Economy Organizing

Cooperative development is the most important social change work that a person can do.

Jessica Gordon-Nembhard talks about her research into the history of African-American co-ops.

The following is a verbal report presented to the members of the Ella Jo Baker Intentional Community Cooperative (EJBICC), during their 2025 Annual Meeting.

Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard is a Community Justice and Social Economic Development Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College. She is an internationally recognized and widely published political economist specializing in cooperative economics, community economic development, racial wealth inequality, solidarity economics, Black Political Economy, popular economic literacy, and community-based approaches to justice. In this broadcast, she discusses the history & importance of Black economic cooperatives.

What if the way we support artists is broken, but the answers have been with us all along? Today on Next Economy Now, we’re joined by Ethiopian-American vocalist, composer, and cultural activist Meklit Hadero to explore how migration shapes music, why the traditional music industry is collapsing, and how collective economic models could be the key to artists' survival. 

In 2014, the seminal book, Collective Courage: A History of African-American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice debuted, and with it a flame sparked in the cooperative movement. 

Inside a maximum security prison in Argentina, Liberté offers more than education and recreation for incarcerated people—it offers lessons in solidarity.

The Commons are a set of resources and places that are accessible to all members of society (parks, libraries, air). When we say 'the commons' we are referring to things and places that are held collectively, not owned privately.
 

Today, approximately 1500 people participate in the Río Cataniapo Comune. They come from various ethnic backgrounds, but the majority identify as Indigenous and some still practice common ownership of land.