cooperative commonwealth

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

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. 

Today we’re visiting community-rooted enterprises where people are rethinking power and participation in their lives. Collective housing and cultural co-ops, land trusts and community banks are providing fundamental shifts in our workplaces, living spaces, and economic understanding of local communities.

While there are many people who contributed to the founding of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, I would like to provide reflections on the role played by the Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) Newsletter Collective.

A review of the benefits of indivisible reserves, their connection to community, and the early 19th century origin of these ideas are discussed in this article.

Enjoy this panel discussion on the role of the labor movement in solidarity economy hosted by the Solidarity Economy Club at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies from Friday, May 10 , 2024.

GEO interviewed Mance in early 2024 hoping to better understand his work and thoughts on solidarity economy, particularly with regards to the Solidarius.net platform. The interview was conducted in Spanish, and has been edited for clarity.

We need to look more directly at how we can stimulate a new structural transformation of civil society. It will be a broad process that explores how we can rebuild democratic power to facilitate mass involvement in civil society and, by extension, our political system. Though there seems to be an instinctual knowledge of this problem, many are unaware of this prehistory of civil society, and understandably find it difficult to see an alternative to the memberless NGO, whose unelected governance, unreliable funding streams, and informal support base is inadequate to the challenges of the present, let alone the disruptions of the future.

Resistance in the digital environment demands that we center our values, intentions, and dreams, focusing on other ways to live, be, and know. May First Movement Technology is a cooperative (primarily based in the United States and Mexico) that aims to put these values into practice: digital media that supports social struggles and grassroots movements working to create the world we know is possible.

Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard summarizes her work on solidarity economics and worker cooperatives.