Solidarity Economy Organizing

Professor Jessica Gordon-Nembhard explores the potential of cooperatives and solidarity economics as pathways towards economic democracy and justice.

Many countries in the Global North use the term “social economy”—also known as the third sector—to describe economies run by citizens rather than by state or business actors. Over the years, many Black feminist scholars that we have worked with also share the view that the concept of the “social economy” is limited to a European understanding. It fails to acknowledge those actors in the third sector who are excluded from interacting with the government or private sector. There is an assumption that the social economy is “socially inclined” and that it is a sector able to “interact” with the state and capitalist firms. What happens when certain groups of people cannot interact with the state or private sectors due to systemic exclusion? We argue that to transform literature on the social economy, we must use the term solidarity economy. Rejecting the sanitized language of the social economy, we use critical discourse and case study analyses to show the worldwide use of the term solidarity. Our work draws on theories of community economy intentional community to argue that the solidarity economy is a site of contestation and a way to push for social change.

This is the 10 December 2022 phone bank and exchange between Americans and Rojava cooperator Kraker.

Solidaristic principles prove great in theory, but how do they hold up in practice? Specifically, in communities facing historical divestment and disenfranchisement, can mutualism and cooperativism serve as building blocks for crafting more equitable, sustainable economies and societies? 

A Venezuelan cooperative network that recently received the “Alternative Nobel Prize” tells its story.

Canadian members of the African diaspora make use of traditional forms of group savings, known as susu, to overcome financial and cultural exclusion in the mainstream system. 

The Community Purchasing Alliance is advancing the solidarity economy with the power of cooperative purchasing, shifting $17.9M to minority business enterprise (MBE) since 2017.

Michael Lebowitz shares his perspective on the social economic models in Venezuela and Yugoslavia. Lebowitz highlights the importance of self-actualization through protagonism and how the most successful of these models focused on solidarity over self-interest.

Professor Maliha Safri discusser her research into post-capitalist economic organizing in NYC, and how people of color are forming and participating in a majority of the postcapitalist practices we studied in NYC.

Marina Sitrin discusses the concept and practice of "horizontalism" in Argentina.