THURSDAY, MARCH 19
Thursday 12:30-6:00: Solidarity Economy Tours
Southbound to Holyoke:
Photos: tour and more
Simple Gifts CSA, Pioneer Valley Co-housing, Food for Thought Books (worker collective), Collective Copies (worker co-operative), Nuestras Raices (urban agric. & economic development in Latino Community)
Northbound to Greenfield: Simple Gifts CSA, Pioneer Valley Co-housing, Greenfields Market Co-operative, Franklin County Community Development Corporation (commercial kitchen, business incubator), Co-op Power (alternative energy co-op), PVSquared (photo-voltaic co-op)
Thursday, 6:00-7:00: Dinner on your own
Thursday, 7:00-8:30: Plenary Crisis and Opportunity
Slideshow, by Benito Diaz
- Emily Kawano, dir. U.S. SEN & Center for Popular Economics
- Benito Diaz, Universidad do los Andes Venezuela;
- Ethel Cote, Canadian Economic Development Network
FRIDAY, MARCH 20
Friday, 8:00-9:00: Registration
Coffee & bagels Isenberg SOM breezeway
Friday, 9:00-10:30: Plenary
Defining the Solidarity Economy
Ethan Miller, Grassroots Economic Organizing, Elandria Williams, Highlander Research and Education Center
Friday, 10:30-12:00: Workshop 1
Creating Common Good Banks — Democratic Economics for a Sustainable World (Rm. 117)
Video, by William Spademan
Presenter: William Spademan, Common Good Finance
Description: Common Good Banks will enable each participating community to decide by direct democracy what to invest in, what to fund, and even how much money to create and what to spend it on. In the short term, this means millions of dollars in new funding for local schools and nonprofits. Once the first common good bank exists, any community anywhere can have one in a matter of days, with no need for a bank building. Creating a democratic money system that rewards labor rather than ownership (and thereby ending control of the world by corporations), common good banks will put an end to war, poverty, hunger, and global warming. Workshop participants will learn how common good banks work and how to get one started in their community.
Track number: 1, 6, 7
Building a Common Policy Agenda in the Context of the Economic Crisis and Obama (Rm. 118)
Paper, by Carl Davidson
Presenter: Carl Davidson, U.S. SEN
Description: First, we will elaborate a clear picture of the nature of the economic crisis. Second, we aim to elaborate the Obama team’s response, strengths and weaknesses. Third, we will advocate a role for solidarity economy initiatives in the deployment of stimulus funds at the base—participatory budgeting, buyout not bailout options, stakeholder alliances and worker cooperatives.
Track number: 2, 6, 8
Building Local Living Economies: The Solidarity Economy at Work (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Doug Hammond, BALLE
Description: This participatory workshop will examine the genesis of actual local solidarity economies in the US and Canada, and discuss their possible alignment with Solidarity Economy Network chapters, as well as their growing alignment with other North American social movements, including the green jobs, co-op, micro-enterprise, social entrepreneurship, and economic justice movements.
Track number: 5, 6
Internalizing and Externalizing Benefits of Cooperative Housing: The Case of Cooperative Manufactured Home Parks in New Hampshire (Rm. 122)
Presenter: Jolan Rivera, Community Econ. Development at S. New Hampshire U.
Description: What can place-based communities do when their housing condition is threatened by a largely unregulated capitalist market? The story of cooperative manufactured home parks (or cooperative MHPs) in New Hampshire is a case study on how cooperation, community engagement and shared ownership of an economic resource yield positive outcomes. The workshop summarizes the results of three related studies conducted by the workshop facilitator. It discusses the following: [1] the social and economic conditions that spurred the creation of cooperative MHPs in NH, [2] the process of cooperation, [3] the important role played by a catalyst community development financial institution (CDFI), [4] the social and economic benefits of cooperation (e.g., more affordable housing costs, resident control of decision-making processes, better housing condition, preservation of the availability of affordable housing, dispelling of myths regarding trailer parks), and [5] the acceptance of mainstream financial institutions (e.g., commercial banks) of cooperative MHPs as a viable market for conventional financial services. Track number: 1, 7, 9
Movers and Shakers – improvisation on the theme Performative Redemption (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Jill Turner
Description: This workshop will guide people through a series of exercises based on the art of improvisation and Human Resource Development guidelines for empathic relating to the self, the community, the workplace, and the larger global community. We will explore through mind, body, sound, and movement exercises the artful expression of feelings and reasons for feelings. We will reach some mutual understanding and insight into common themes – assumptions and beliefs we hold as individuals and as a group. We will then take turns expressing action steps that can bring us to a higher level of exploration related to our themes. Track number: 4, 5
Protecting Local Food & Our Farmers’ Access to Land (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Ellie Kastanopolous and Rebecca Fletcher, Equity Trust
Description: Within our communities, what tools do we have for protecting our sources of local food, and creating sustainable access to land for our farmers? How can our land use meet individual and community needs? How does affordability relate to sustainability? The Gaining Ground workshop will explore these questions and others as we learn about a farm protection model that has emerged from the community land trust movement.
Track number: 5, 9
Fair Trade and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 125)
Presenter: Brian O’Connell and Nicole Vitello, Equal Exchange, Dean Cycon, Dean’s Bean’s, Frederique Apfel-Marglin, Oro Verde agricultural coop. of Peru
Description: Fair Trade is an important part of the solidarity economy. This panel will bring together key participants in the fair trade movement who will discuss the joys and challenges of their work, and how the growth of solidarity economy practices and institutions, networks, and movements can support fair trade.
Track Number: 3, 4, 5
Strengthening ALBA & the Bank of the South(Rm. 126)
Presenter: Adina Bastidas, Exec. Dir., Inter-American Development Bank, Ex Vice-president of Venezuela 2000-2002
Description: The collapse of negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in the Summit of the Americas in Mar de Plata (2005), and the recent collapse of global capitalism has grim implications for the coming years. In light of these events, the Venezuelan initiative “Bolivarian Alternatives for the Americas” (ALBA) has gained strong support in the hemisphere compared to the slow advance of the U.S. led free trade agreement negotiations, and the frozen stage of their bilateral agreements with Panama and Colombia.
As Wall Street plummets, and the role of the IMF and World Bank have become almost obsolete, the evidence of the failure of their policies in the region for almost 70 years is clear. The Bank of the South and other emerging financial institutions are gaining strength and support to build South to South cooperation. Dr. Bastidas will share many of these alternatives and projects of integration and fair trade in a world witnessing a rapid geopolitical realignment.
Friday, 12:00-1:00: Lunch
Friday, 1:00-2:30: Workshop 2
Exploring Roots Causes and Solutions to the Financial Meltdown and Economic Crisis (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Ozgur Orhangazi and Ian Seda, Center for Popular Economics
Description: This participatory workshop will analyze the 2008 financial meltdown and the current economic crisis. The workshop will start with an analysis of the immediate causes of the current economic crisis. It will then put this current economic crisis in historical perspective including a discussion of the Great Depression, the regulated era, the neoliberal policies and inherent tensions within the capitalist system. We will cover the extent to which the current policy efforts, such as the bailout, the fiscal stimulus and other efforts to reform the financial system, will be able to address the immediate and root causes of the current crisis. Where current policy efforts will not address the root causes, the workshop will explore different paths to solutions including the importance of building the solidarity economy. Track number: 1
Complementary Currencies as a Method to Promote the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 118)
Slideshow, by Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota
Presenter: Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota - Online Lab on Complementary Currencies, Japan; Sarah Hearn, E.F. Schumacher Society
Description: More and more initiatives of local currencies and other sorts of complementary currencies are emerging all over the world as a tool to achieve different social and/or economic goals which usually remain uncovered with the conventional one. Different initiatives in the whole world will be presented in this workshop to explore the potential of this means of exchange that can be democratically managed by the civil society. Read more at: http://www.olccjp.net/ Track number: 1
The Quebec Government Action Plan for the Social Economy: A Comprehensive Approach to Public Policy (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Nancy Neamtan, Le Chantier (Canada)
Description: Two years after the Quebec Summit on the Social and Solidarity Economy, which brought together 700 delegates from across Quebec (and guests from 23 countries) to evaluate the advances made over the past 10 years and to define common priorities, the Quebec government adopted a comprehensive action plan for the social economy in November 2008. This plan represents a major step in the recognition of the contribution of the social economy to Quebec’s socio-economic development. The workshop will allow participants to learn about the content of this action plan as well as the process that led to this important political victory in Quebec.
Track number: 2
Workers at Risk: Learning from the Example of Argentine Cooperatives (Rm. 122)
Paper, by Peter Ranis
Presenter: Peter Ranis
Description: This workshop will present the different approaches of American and Argentine workers to the challenges of unemployment and poverty - against the backdrop of the Obama administration’s greater propensity for a new government-supported social contract. The focus will be on a comparison between US labor’s acceptance of business as usual when confronted with factory shutdowns and resulting rampant unemployment. The case of the Chicago workers at Republic Windows and Doors’ sit-in is a powerful and emblematic statement of that context, given that, despite their victory, they will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed. On the other hand, there is a sector of Argentine workers who use national, provincial and city laws to create cooperatives, while bringing in community, political and legal constituencies to defend and maintain jobs threatened by factory shutdowns. These legal and political alternatives are embedded as well in US and state constitutional law. Now, under Obama, an opening can be forged to take a more assertive public policy toward workplaces thriving without owners and managers. Track number: 3
Food Sovereignty Here and Now: Race, Class and Community (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Richard Berkfield, Angela Berkfield, Liz Sheehan, Post-Oil Solutions
Description: This workshop builds off of participants’ experience and knowledge of how class and race affect the global food system. From there the facilitators will work to explore and develop ideas, strategies, and resources for working on Food Sovereignty, economic justice, and Anti-Racism. The workshop will focus on community-scale projects, whether rural or urban, U.S. based or abroad, in order for participants to think not only broadly, but in an action-oriented manner.
The Economics of Solidarity in the Bolivarian Alternative. A Video-Conference (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Maribel Aponte-García
Description: Transdisciplinary and multimedia research that purports to examine the Bolivarian Alternative (its acronym in Spanish (ALBA) means Dawn) as an alternative model of regional integration and endogenous development with social inclusion. The objective of this paper is to analyze them within the Bolivarian Alternative. ALBA breaks away from traditional trade agreements’ parameters and redefines relations in terms of economics of solidarity in cooperation and complementarities. The video-presentation develops a conceptualization of the basic components of the model: two axes based on the political economy of petroleum. The first axis is that of alternative production and business alternatives; and the second axis is that of regional integration, cooperation and international trade. Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA) and the role it plays in the regional integration alternative is the base of the model. Track number: 2, 7
From Rwanda to Changing Business-as-Usual from the Inside-Out and Outside-In (Rm. 125)
Slideshow, by Mark Rego-Monteiro
Presenters: Mark Rego-Monteiro, Bill Baue, Sea Change Radio, and Liana Foxvog, SweatFree Communities
Description: In this workshop, we will review the connections between corporate practices and the Rwandan genocide, and the solidarity oriented responses that have emerged. From there, we will explore strategies for transforming corporate practices on labor, social, and environmental dimensions, while building a people- and planet-centered economy. One case study will focus on SweatFree Communities, which engages government as a consumer. By harnessing government’s role as a market participant, in a manner that poses a direct challenge to neoliberal free trade agreements, SweatFree Communities is compelling government to move its business approach away from one that deepens the race-to-the-bottom in labor standards. Come learn about this campaign along with other strategies, including shareholder activism, stakeholder engagement, and “social intrapreneurs” transforming companies internally. Our framework will bridge the division that sometimes arises between unions and co-ops; between advocating alternatives and working within the dominant paradigm to shift it toward sustainability; and between those working outside and those working inside corporations to partner for change.
Tracks: 2, 3, 4
Gender and Economic Development in Costa Rica(Rm. 126)
Presenter: Pedro Bidegaray, Irene Alvarado, EARTH Institute, Costa Rica
Description: The session will show the importance of women as a socially stabilizing force and anchor for the reconstitution of social networks of support in economically marginal areas of the Caribbean region of Costa Rica. The session will also stress the importance of fostering positive leadership roles and values to further the role of women as community stewards. The session seeks to share experiences and assess potential strategies to overcome a culture of mistrust and fatalism that undermines social capital in some rural communities in the region.
Presented information will be based on several years of interaction and experience in rural communities continuously facing the economic and social instability that has characterized the development of the Caribbean region. This interaction was articulated through an outreach program that involves EARTH University students in community development initiatives.
Track number: 6, 7
Education and management of projects by the Consejos Comunales in Trujillo, Venezuelan Andes (Rm. 127)
Presenter: Benito Díaz, Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela, co-editor of CAYAPA, CIRIEC-Venezuela (www.ciriec.ula.ve ).
Description: The Consejos Comunales (Community Councils) are one the most emblematic newly stablished institutions of the Venezuelan revolutionary social process. However several questions should be made after observing the performance of these grassroots institutions in Trujillo, the region of the Venezuelan Andes. A participatory approach for the workshop is strongly encouraged. Some examples are taken from local case studies conducted from the Universidad de Los Andes.
Friday, 2:30-3:00: Connections
Visioning
The connections sessions are participatory spaces, intended to give participants a chance to connect with each other, both building off of the program and people’s own experiences and insights.
Friday, 3:00-4:30: Workshop 3
What’s The Economy For Anyway? (film premier) (Rm. 117)
Presenter: John de Graaf, filmmaker, executive director of Take Back Your Time
Description: Showing of new film, What’s The Economy For Anyway? A humorous and visual monologue by ecological economist Dave Batker, with a focus on the US economy and its poor performance regarding health, social justice, security, work-life balance and sustainability. Producer will answer questions—film is a nearly completed work in progress. Track number: 7, 8
Feminist Economics & the Solidarity Economy: A Dialogue Toward Economic Alternatives (Rm. 118)
Paper, by Mariama Williams
Presenter: Mariama Williams, International Gender and Trade Network, Julie Matthaei, U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, Abiosseh Davis, Center of Concern/U.S. Gender and Trade Network
Description: Using an interactive methodology, this workshop will explore the relationship between feminist economics and the solidarity economy. Respondents and participants will discuss the insights of each discipline, how they can strengthen each other,and the opportunities and challenges for developing and implementing an alternative to the neo-liberal model.
Track number: 2, 7
Another Life is Possible: Cooperatives in Venezuela and PROUT Economics Videos and Discussion (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Tom Barefoot, Prakash Laufer, Dada Maheshvarananda
Description: This workshop will include show a 24 minute video on cooperatives in Venezuela based on an in-depth study of 50 Cooperatives in 2007. This will be followed by discussion and a 2nd Video on PROUT Economics, showing the principles of PROUT as a practical basis for re-organizing economies. Track number: 3, 4
Bioregionalism: Living as Ecosystem Members (Rm. 122)
Presenter: Patrick Gibbs
Description: Our communities consist of much more than human relationships. We recognize that we are part of the web of the life, and that all justice, freedom and peace must be grounded in this recognition. Bioregionalists are lifelong students of how to live in balance with our communities.
Come together in this workshop to learn about the histories and ethics of the bioregional movement and to begin organizing a bioregional council in your more-than-human community. We will make maps of our regions and some of the many elements of life that flow through them (such as water, money, knowledge) as a step in re-inhabiting the earth. We will begin forming bioregional councils to bring together in council the many members of the great communities of life. Track number: 5, 6, 8
Roundtable on Solidarity Economy Research (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Emily Kawano, Center for Popular Econ.
Description: This roundtable provides an opportunity to discuss research needs and interests pertaining to the solidarity economy. We welcome both researchers who are engaged or interested in doing solidarity economy research as well as practitioners who have a research need that they would like to put on the table. We hope that this roundtable will promote networking and collaboration between practitioners and researchers, as well as feed into SEN’s plans for the future. Track number: 7
La Economía Solidaria of Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia: An Economy of Empowerment (Rm. 124)
Slideshow, by Annie McShiras
Presenter: Annie McShiras, Kellie Germond
Description: This workshop will present first-hand research of McShiras in Mexico and Argentina, and of Germond in Bolivia, on la Economía Solidaria. Using case studies of Zapatista cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico and community organizations in Buenos Aires, Argentina, McShiras’ research presents the solidarity economies in each of these local spheres as both grassroots political and economic projects in the face of uncooperative governments. Germond’s research finds similar projects in Bolivia in the context of new State-funded technical and financial programs under the administration of Evo Morales. The two will present their research with similarities and differences in mind: How much can/should the government be involved in the building of a solidarity economy? Can opportunities exist without supportive institutions? Who makes up the solidarity economy movement in Latin America? Ultimately McShiras and Germond will argue that la Economia Solidaria is a movement that empowers people at the grassroots in Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia. Track number: 4, 6, 7
Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Build a Digital Republic of Their Own (Rm. 125)
Presenter: David Bollier, On the Commons
Description: This workshop focuses on the history told by Bollier in his new book, Viral Spiral, which describes the rise of free software, Creative Commons licenses and countless online commons such as Wikipedia, Flickr, the blogosphere, social networking communities, collaborative archives, open-access scholarly publishing, among many others. Bollier will explain how the commons is out-performing the market in many instances through the efficiencies and creativity that can come through online social cooperation. He will also examine the latest fronts in this multi-pronged movement, which includes open business models, the open educational resources movement, new science commons and digital citizenship.
Track number: 2
Cooperative Development Model of Integration (Rm. 126)
Presenter: Omaira Garcia de Berrios, Univ. de los Andes, Venezuela & Regional Center of Human, Economic and Social Research (CRIHES)
Description: Recent tendencies have shown the vulnerability of the businesses in a fast changing world. Structural flexibility is important for enabling organizations to increase and maintain communication, integration, equality, productivity and innovation capacity. However, there is also resistance to efforts to change organizational practices. The most relevant signs of resistance are in the hierarchy structures, rigid lines of command, power and centralization of authority. The cooperative phenomenon is presented as a viable alternative, to meet the demands of coherence, institutional equality, productivity and innovation. This presentation offers a reflection based on research. Special emphasis is placed on decision making, structures, organizational criteria, and establishing work relations in cooperatives, which naturally demand different concepts and applications over these organizational aspects.
Taking Responsibility to Build a Liberatory, Equitable, and Sustainable Economy (Rm. 127)
Paper, by Nina Gregg
Presenters: Nina Gregg, Charter of Human Responsibilities, and Wolfgang Hoeschele, Truman State University.
Description: The dominant economic system in the US and elsewhere promotes consumerist attitudes that ignore our responsibilities to others and the planet, and engender a sense of constant scarcity (for example, the scarcity
derived from always wanting more than we have). How can we take responsibility to transform or undermine the scarcity-generating institutions that keep us in a state of perpetually unsatisfied wants and needs, and create solutions that promote individual freedom, equitably meet human needs, and ensure environmental sustainability? This workshop will engage participants in considering the roles each of us plays in the economy: how our individual actions contribute to, sustain or challenge the dominant economy; how the organizations we belong to can become part of creating a more just and sustainable economic system; how the communities we live in are integrated into and could transform local and regional economies.
Track number: 7
Friday, 4:30-6:00:
SEN Organizational Meeting (Rm. 118)
Everyone is invited and welcome to attend.
Friday, 6:00-7:00: Dinner, Atrium
Friday, 7:00-8:30: Plenary
Real world visions and models of the solidarity economy (Mahar Auditorium)
- Jose Sojo, Central Univ. of Venezuela, former Ministry of Planning, attache of Economic affairs, US Embassy
- Nancy Neamtan - Le Chantier, Canada
- Graciela Monteagudo - Argentina Autonomista Project
SATURDAY, MARCH 21
Saturday, 8:00-9:00: Registration
Saturday, 9-10:30: Workshop 4
Immigration, Globalization and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Maliha Safri - Center for Popular Econ., Vanessa Bransburg - Center for Family Life, Jeannette Huezo - United for a Fair Economy, Gabriel Camacho- American Friends and Service Committee, Adrián Boutureira - United for a Fair Economy
Description: Can we really achieve Comprehensive Immigration Reform without a radical shift in economic models and US trade and foreign policies? Many mainstream immigrant advocate groups seem to think so... Many others in the left continue to assert that any immigration reform that does not address the trade and foreign policies behind the displacement of millions of workers and farmers is but a reformist smokescreen.
The roundtable will aim to explore the connections between neoliberal globalization and immigration, the crisis of the present dominant economic model and its impact on immigrant communities, and the role of various solidarity economy models in helping build sustainable and sound economic alternatives. From NAFTA to ALBA. From the dismantling of the Ejidos to how to rebuild a people’s economy.
Afghan Women Sewing Empowerment through Family-based Enterprise (Rm. 118)
Presenter: Rachel Lehr, Catherine Rielly, School of CED (SNHU), Karima Akbary, Rubia
Description: Our interactive presentation will demonstrate how incorporation of gender influences the effectiveness of family enterprise in rural Afghanistan; and elicit examples from participants of how gender contributes to the sustainability of solidarity economics in other cultural contexts.
Rubia has learned from seven years of working with women in Afghanistan that any intervention aimed at economic empowerment of women must include an understanding of family dynamics, particular in relation to gender. Our workshop will present how Rubia has applied this approach to social and economic change. Specifically, Rubia’s vision integrates the cultural role that men play in maintaining gendered boundaries of social status, education, and economic control into its project design and implementation. Through its long-term engagement with the community, Rubia distinguishes itself from other women’s empowerment projects in Afghanistan that have cut cultural corners and created barriers for women, rather than increased their social status and economic potential.
Track number: 3, Other: Women’s Economic Empowerment through Solidarity.
Communication Strategies for Activists and Organizations (Rm. 119)
Presenters: John Lawrence - Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) Newsletter & Peace Action, Bill Baue - Corporate Watchdog Radio, Bob Keener - United for a Fair Economy, Linda Pinkow, Dollars & Sense and WMBR
Description: What is a “communications strategy,” and why do Solidarity Economy organizations need one? What are some of the challenges of communicating with the media? What kinds of tactics make the media sit up and take notice? What are the pro’s and con’s of seeking coverage in the mainstream media vs. the alternative media? After brief presentations by each of the panelists, the rest of the workshop will be devoted to questions and discussion with the audience regarding their communications strategies and challenges.
Solidarity Economy Networks and Networking (Rm. 122)
Photos, by Nina Gregg
Presenter: Elandria Williams and Nina Gregg (others from East TN, Boston, MA and New York, NY)
Description: One of the key tenets of the Solidarity Economy is re-localization and making changes locally not just globally. Local change in communities requires that people and organizations work together across disciplines and identities. Come learn how networks in East Tennessee; Boston, MA and New York City have started doing this collaborative work and let’s also talk about the needs and challenges of doing local networking and starting local networks. Track number: 8
The Economic Crisis and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Mike Prokosch
Description: Over the past four decades, Wall Street has systematically stripped wealth from productive corporations and the public sector. This wealth-stripping has generated enormous pools of money that are now driving investment, displacing industrial corporations as the command center of the economy. The financial meltdown of 2008, which exposed these new realities, points toward a solidarity economy as a safer foundation for our lives. But people who want to build it need to understand the new economy they’re operating within.
Track number: 1, 2, 8
Solidarity Economy 101: An Introduction to Concepts, Visions & Practices (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Ethan Miller – Grassroots Economic Alternatives, Yvon Poirier – CCEDNET & RIPESS
Description: What is a “solidarity economy”? Where did this idea come from and what does it mean? How can the concepts and practices of solidarity economy strengthen our work for more just, sustainable and democratic worlds? Through a combination of presentation, slide show and discussion, this workshop will introduce participants to the basics of “solidarity economics” and the emerging international solidarity economy movement. For those of you who were unable to attend Friday morning’s plenary (covering similar material), this workshop may help frame and clarify the broader context and vision of this Forum and the solidarity economy concept and movement in general. Track number: 7, 8
Simplicity: Personal and Policy Alternatives to Consumerism (Rm. 125)
Presenter: John de Graaf, author of AFFLUENZA, Jim Merkel, Global Living Project
Description: A campaign for a national paid vacation law, focusing on why shorter work time matters, how vacations improve health, families and happiness and productivity, how low-income workers are deprived of vacation time, the connection between working hours and environmental sustainability and how we can build a campaign for paid vacation time and shorter work time in the United States, ultimately choosing to trade labor productivity for time instead of stuff.
Track number: 7
Toward a Commons Based Society – Emerging Strategies (Rm. 126)
Slideshow, by Alexa Bradley
Paper, by On the Commons
Presenter: Alexa Bradley
Description: The market economy and its false promises of infinite growth and consumption are collapsing around us. While some will work to reconstitute this system, there is an opening for real change. But the degree of change will depend on whether people see another path forward and develop strategies to move toward it. Track number: 2
Globalization of Solidarity: Worldwide Solidarity Economy Networking (Rm. 127)
Video, by Nedda Angulo
Presenter: Nedda Angulo (Peru) & Ethel Côté (Canada), RIPESS Board members
Description: In 1997 in Lima, Peru, a group of activists, proponents of socio-economic alternatives, researchers and trade unionists met to discuss the proliferation throughout the world of initiatives which were later to be called “social and solidarity economy” initiatives (SSE). They realized that the time had come to create a major forum and space for sharing, research, and policy development in order to raise the visibility and institutional legitimacy of these initiatives. Building on the success of this initial event, the participants decided to organize a second meeting in Québec in 2001 and formed the International Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS). This dynamic process, the “Globalization of Solidarity” has slowly taken root and it is now part of the worldwide heritage of social movements. Following the meetings in Lima in 1997, there have been Globalization of Solidarity events in Québec in 2001, and Dakar in 2005, and the next meeting will take place in Luxembourg in April 2009 (LUX’09). This will be the fourth meeting of its kind and its specific theme will be: “Another economy exists: the innovations of the Social Solidarity Economy”. This workshop will provide you some historical information, updates in this global networking, some Social Solidarity Economy policy perspectives and prospects for the future.
Saturday 10:30-12:00: Workshop 5
Financing the Solidarity Economy: The Role of Universities (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Jay Cassano and Alissa Ayden, Responsible Endowments Coalition
Description: This workshop is aimed at students, alumni, and faculty of colleges and universities who are interested in pushing their institutions to invest in the solidarity economy. Participants will learn the models used to access college endowments and will also review the investment opportunities available in the solidarity economy. Participants will be challenged to think about their own, and their institutional investments and to seek creative ways to financially support the solidarity economy.
Track number: 1
Lessons and Opportunities from Canada’s Social Economy Research Program (Rm. 118)
Presenter: Rupert Downing, Canadian Social Economy Hub & CCEDNET
Description: This workshop will present the lessons learned from the social economy research program in Canada that is entering its fourth year as a participatory community university research alliance. In particular, the workshop will share key substantive issues that have emerged from the research in terms of public policy and the relevance of the social economy to addressing key issues affecting the future of people, communities and the planet. In addition, participants in the workshop will be engaged in discussing how similar research efforts are unfolding in their own settings, and how they can be better coordinated to contribute to US, continental and global efforts to advance an evidence-based agenda to strengthen the solidarity economy.
Track number: 2, 7, 8
Solidarity Economy and Cooperativism (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Juan Gerardo Dominguez, Union of Cooperative Societies, Mexico
Description: 1. The need to focus solidarity economy as a development model 2.Types of Development models in the world 3. Definition of Solidarity Economy as a development model 4. Principles, Objectives and General Strategies of Market Development Models 5. Principles, Objectives and General Strategies of Solidarity Economy 6. Principles of Cooperatives and their compatibility with Solidarity Economy 7. Solidarity Economy in Mexico
Track number: 7
Community Owned Green Jobs and Green Energy (Rm. 122)
Presenter: Lynn Benander, Danah Tench, and Danilo Morales, Co-op Power
Description: Lynn, Danah, and Danilo are some of the people working together in Massachusetts to build community owned green jobs and green energy resources that will bring good work, energy we can live with, and thriving local economies. They’re working through Co-op Power in partnership with local organizations in Boston, Holyoke, Greenfield and Turners Falls to build solar installation co-ops, thermal window covering co-ops, sustainable landscaping co-ops, an energy services company, a biodiesel plant, and clean energy generation. Come hear about what they’ve accomplished and how you can do the same thing.
Track number: 3, 5, 8
Participatory Budgets: From Venezuela to the U.S. (Rm. 123)
Presenters: Julio Chavez (former mayor of Torres, Venezuela), Josh Lerner (The New School for Social Research, The Participatory Budgeting Project)
Description: Participatory budgeting has spread quickly around the world, well beyond its roots in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In this session we discuss recent participatory budgets in Venezuela and Canada, and how such experiences might be introduced in the U.S. Julio Chavez was mayor of Torres, Venezuela, from 2004 to 2008. As mayor, he put in place the structure for citizen participation in all the decisions of his city, including where and how money should be spent. He will describe the 4-years experience democratizing and transforming the entire governance system of the municipality, from the bottom up, to turn it over to the citizens and look to the future, under the principles of participatory and protagonist democracy outlined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Josh Lerner will then discuss existing participatory budgets in Canada and new developments in the U.S. Together with other participants, the speakers will explore opportunities, conditions, and strategies for developing participatory budgeting in the U.S. Read more at: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/710/36850 and http://www.ParticipatoryBudgeting.org
Track number: 2, 6
Putting Housing Back in Community Hands (Rm. 124)
Presenters: Steve Meacham – City Life Vida Urbana (CL/VU), Orion Kriegman & Hannah Thomas, PUEBLO
Description: CL/VU – Direct action resistance to eviction after foreclosure as a way of addressing this crisis. Specifically how/why: Wins victories. Succeeds where workout counseling does not. Unites homeowners and tenants in a common struggle. Focuses on questions of land value and what produces that value. How the organizing of this resistance links to larger issues.
PUEBLO – a start-up project, still in formative stages. An old yet new vision of neighborhood community, creating mixed-income scattered site co-housing using the community land trust framework, helping families stay in the neighborhood, and create community controlled institutions that create community wealth and well-being. Will also discuss the policy angle of this issue.
Track number: 2, 7, 8
Who Says You Can’t Change the World: Mapping Global Grassroots Alternatives to the Neoliberal Model (Rm. 125)
Slideshow, By Beverly Bell
Presenter: Rachel Wallis, CASA Collectives, Tory Field, Arise for Social Justice
Description: Our workshop is an overview of fourteen ways in which grassroots movements and communities around the world are building working alternatives to the neoliberal economic system. Aided by photos and short videos, we will introduce alternatives ranging from the Zero Waste Movement, Food Sovereignty, Community Control of Knowledge and Media, Water Rights, Access to Health Care and more. We will also lead a discussion on the connections to the projects that workshop participants are engaged in within their own communities, and the need for alternatives in social movements today.
Track number: 5, 8
Emotional Intelligence Training as a Base for the Solidarity & Cooperative Movement in Venezuela (Rm. 126)
Presenters: María de la Luz Figueroa, University of the Andes – ULA, Maru Isabela Leon, ULA and
CAPAYA, Venezuelan social economy magazine
www.saber.ula.ve/cayapa
Description: To achieve a new economy oriented towards the progress of humankind and the planet, it is necessary to have tools not only in concepts and procedures, but also in behaviors oriented to the formation and actualization of human potential. Dr. Maria de la Luz will share relevant information from modern psychology, about the key aspects of Emotional Intelligence to stimulate solidarity behaviors of unity and cooperation between people and groups, applying the trials to interpersonal coordination.
Cooperative education is a central element to the development of successful cooperative enterprises, according to the values and principles of social and solidarity economy. In this presentation Dr. Maru Leon explores the results of research on the social representations of cooperative education and the current cooperative movement in Venezuela. Findings show the existence of different social perspectives around cooperative education. The results help us understand different attitudes and behaviors towards the cooperative movement with implications for policies to increase the effectiveness and participation in the cooperative movement, consequently achieving more success, solidarity and sustainability.
Ten Years of Economic Achievements in Venezuela (Rm. 127)
Presenter: Gregory Wilpert, Venezuelanalysis, and author, Changing Venezuela by Taking Power
Description: This workshop will look at the economic program of the Bolivarian Revolutions.aims to present the Mexican experience in the solidarity economy, how it works with social organizations, and the experience of the two world social forum meetings in Mexico as some case experiences. Among the cases, we will present alternative markets, money, a radio program, and community experiences.
Saturday, 12:00-1:00: LUNCH
Saturday, 1-2:30: Workshop 6
The Solidarity Economy in Mexico (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Laura Collin, Altagracia Villarreal, and Ana Medina, CEDESAI (Mexico)
Description: This workshop aims to present the Mexican experience in the solidarity economy, how it works with social organizations, and the experience of the two world social forum meetings in Mexico as some case experiences. Among the cases, we will present alternative markets, money, a radio program, and community experiences.
Track number: 1, 4, 5
Building a Progressive Hemispheric Agenda: A workshop in collaborative democracy (Rm. 118)
Presenter: Jamie McClelland, Alfredo Lopez, Mallory Knodell, May First/People Link
Description: During the workshop, we will collaboratively write and prioritize the 10 most important economic priorities for the hemisphere. We will break into small groups of four to five people. Each group will interact face-to-face with their group members, while using a laptop computer to post results in a way that allows them to interact with the other participants.
The workshop is an attempt to start working on a model for collaboration among the people, movements and organizations of the world. We will grapple with the differences among perceived economic needs and rights as well as culture and language and the basics of democratic collaboration.
Track Numbers: 7, 8
Care, Community and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Nancy Neamtan, Le Chantier (Canada), Nancy Folbre, UMass Amherst
Description: Quebec is the only place in North America that can boast of a universal access to low cost quality daycare ($7 a day). 80% of these daycare services are offered by parent-controlled non-profits that are an integral part of the social economy movement. This is the result of a 30 year struggle and the adoption in 1997 of public policy that has led to massive government investment in early childhood centers. The social economy movement also negotiated public policy that led to the development of a province wide network of homecare social economy enterprises (cooperatives and non-profits) offering accessible homecare services to seniors across Quebec.
We will explore how academic researchers and activists have teamed up in efforts to increase public child care provision, fight for paid family and sick leave, and raise wages of direct care workers in the U.S. Track number: 2
BioPsychology of Cooperation (Rm. 122)
Presenter: Dada Maheshvarananda, Prout Institute, Tom Barefoot and Prakash Laufer
Description: This workshop will provide an overview and deconstruction of the PsychoSocial mythologies that are used to encourage competition (survival of the fittest), encourage greed and discourage cooperation. We look at examples of cooperation in nature to counter the myths that the law of the jungle is the natural law. We look at some of the game theory on exploitation and cooperation. We look at recent studies of neurophysiology to see how stress and fear produce hormonal changes that make us less likely to cooperate. We then look at lifestyle, exercises and techniques that produce more empathy, trust and cooperation at biological and psychological levels. We will show how to adapt some old and some new BioPsychology techniques that can help individuals and groups learn how to cooperate safely. This workshop will equip coop managers with a new perspective on building cooperation.
Track number: 3, 6, 7
Immigrant-run Worker-Cooperatives and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Worker-Owners from Si Se Puede! Women’s Cooperative, We Can Fix It! and Beyond Care Childcare Co-operative, Center for Family Life (NYC)
Description: The members will introduce how their cooperative businesses began, what motivated them to join and how their endeavor is part of a bigger movement to create dignified, living wage jobs and democracy in the workplace. They will also focus on how being immigrant worker-owners is unique, how this model can impact others in similar situations, and how this has the potential to contribute to an ever-growing solidarity economy.
Track number: 3, 6
Community Economies research in Western Ma. (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Janelle Cornwell, Stephen Healy, Michael Johnson, Ted While, Community Economies Collective
Description: The Community Economies Collective is an international group of researchers and activists engaged in envisioning and enacting non-capitalist, cooperative economies in different places around the world. We also seek to document the multiple ways in which people worldwide are making economies of difference and in the process building new forms of community.
Stephen Healy: Green Jobs / Green Recovery and the Community Economy, Janelle Cornwell: Space and Time in a Worker Cooperative, Michael Johnson: Introducing a Collective Book Project on Cooperatives in the Pioneer Valley, Ted White: North Amherst Community Farm.
Track number: 3, 7
How Worker Cooperatives inform the framework of the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 125)
Presenter: Adam Trott, Charles Uchu Strader, Steve Strimer, Javiera Benevente, Erika Arthur, Erbin Crowell and Kim Pinkham, Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives
Description: We would like to make a brief presentation on worker cooperative basics and then engage the audience with a discussion of how worker cooperatives can contribute to SEN. Track number: 5, 7, 8
Labor and the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 126)
Slideshow, by Yvon Poirer
Presenter: Yvon Poirier, Canadian CED Network (Canada), Jon Weissman, WMass Jobs w Justice
Description: How does the labor movement fit in the solidarity economy? This workshop will look at the role of labor in promoting social investment funds, affordable housing and other solidarity economy initiatives. It will also provide an opportunity to explore relationships that are still contested, such as between unions and worker cooperatives.
Saturday, 2:30-3:00:
Connections – Linkages
The connections sessions are participatory spaces, intended to give participants a chance to connect with each other, both building off of the program and people’s own experiences and insights.
Saturday, 3-4:30: Workshop 7
CEDESA’s Role in Promoting Food Sovereignty and the Solidarity Economy in Guanajuato, Mexico (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Ann Ferguson and Altagracia Villareal, Rural Coaltion
Description: We will discuss the history and political and popular educational practices of CEDESA, a center for local economic development and sustainable agriculture in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mex. They have been active since the 1970s, engaging in political struggles for water and land rights for campesinos against the government, organizing local community assemblies to promote solidarity economic and political networks, teaching farmers how to build sustainable gardens and develop honey and other production, and working to provide farmers’ trade fairs for barter as well as to provide basic food to heir associates. They are currently reaching out to make connections with other solidarity networks to broaden the marketing of their products and to organize to deal with the water scarcity and toxic pollutant problems due to industrial agriculture in Guanajuato. They are a staff of women and work to empower women, as well as men, in their political, economic and popular educational activities.
Track number: 3, 5, 6
Academic Activism and Respect Towards the Others (Rm. 118)
Presenter: Vinicius Lima Valentim, Luiz Inacio Germany Gaiger, ECOSOL-CES (Brazil)
Description: With the participation of members of ECOSOL-CES and ECOSOL-UNISINOS research groups, both dedicated to issues related to Solidarity Economy, this panel aims:
a) to contribute both methodologically and epistemologically in collective processes of knowledge construction which bear respect and consideration to the different kinds of knowledge produced by members of Solidarity Economy organizations;
b) to raise questions related to knowledge production in the field of SE. To what extent are SE organizations’ members consumers of academy-produced knowledge? To what extent are they co-producers of this knowledge?
c) to question the effective contributions of knowledge produced in the field of SE to the daily struggles of its organizations, as well as to social, economic, political and cultural claims made by them. Track number: 7
Participatory Economics and Solidarity Economy (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Michael Albert, Zmag
Description: This session will provide a broad description and derivative discussion of how participatory economics aims to fulfill the aspirations of solidarity economy. It will describe changes to the way workplace decisions are made, to the division of labor, to the means we use for allocation/distribution, and to ownership relations, that parecon claims are necessary if people are, by virtue of their economic roles, to be mutually supportive and even empathetic – rather than being mutually competitive and even predatory.
Parecon is an economic vision for a new system that claims to put producers and consumers alike into a classless situation with equitable distribution of rewards and responsibilities, collective self management, ecological stewardship and real solidarity. Parecon aims to give institutional weight and substance to most progressive peoples’ broadly agreed values: including not only attaining a rich and deep solidarity, but also diversity, equity, self management, ecological balance, and economic efficiency in meeting needs and developing potentials for all. Is parecon an nstitutional vision for economic production, allocation, and consumption that can institutionally manifest the deepest and fullest aspirations of solidarity economy advocates? Parecon’s proposers believe it is. A discussion to explore that possibility seems timely, and perhaps this workshop can help initiate it. Track number: 3, 4, 7
Introduction to Sabbath Economics: a Faith-based approach to the Solidarity Economy (Rm. 122)
Paper, by Lee Van Ham
Paper, by Barry Shelley
Paper, by Barry Shelley
Presenter: Barry Shelley, Sabbath Economics Collaborative, Lee Van Ham, Jubilee Economic Ministries
Description: This workshop will provide an introduction to Sabbath Economics, a view that economics should be restored to a focus on how communities steward, share and distribute the gifts of Creation equitably and sustainably. Sabbath Economics, then, concerns the theoretical, spiritual and practical tasks of imagining how we might limit and shape our economic activity in order to keep the gifts of creation circulating justly among all living communities. Through the presentation, we introduce the Sabbath Economics Collaborative, a national network that encourages cooperation and communication among theologians, economists and activists who are working with contemporary issues of faith and economic justice. In addition, we illustrate the value of utilizing household covenants as one strategy to create positive change. Finally, we focus on community investing as one focus of Sabbath Economics in action.
Track number: 1, 7
A Guide to Building a Better Banking System (Rm. 123)
Slideshow, by Clifford Rosenthal & Dan Apfel
Presenter: Clifford Rosenthal and Dan Apfel, Federation of Community Development Credit Unions
Description: Nonprofit, cooperatively owned, democratically controlled, massive in scale, time-tested – the credit union system offers another way of finance. Can credit unions provide a model for a broader transformation of the banking system in the United States, and internationally? This workshop will proceed from an overview of the history and structure of the credit union movement, through an assessment of how it has fared in the current economic crisis, and its potential for moving beyond banking as most Americans know it. Particular attention will be devoted to the community development credit union (CDCU) movement, the segment of the broader credit union industry with the specific mission and practice of serving low-income, minority, immigrant, and other disenfranchised people.
Track number: 1
Coffee Cooperatives in Venezuela, an example of sustainable economic development (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Rafael Enrique Colmenárez -FONCASA (Sanare Coffee Fund), Venezuela
Description: Mr. Colmenárez is the president of FONCASA (Sanare Coffee Fund), a community organization that defends the economic and social rights of small coffee farmers. He will talk about his experience as a coffee farmer and coop organizer from Andres Eloy Blanco Municipality, a rural area in Midwestern Venezuela also known by the name of its capital, Sanare. This area is considered the birthplace of the Venezuelan agrarian cooperative movement. Mr. Colmenarez will also discuss agroecology, fair trade and cooperative economics.
Dismantling Monoculture- Tales of Ants & Empire in the Americas (Rm. 125)
Presenter: Noah Dillard, Beehive Collective
Description: A Picture Lecture depicting stories from across the Americas of local communities resisting monoculture and the behemoth of global capitalism. The lecture pays specific attention to new regional free trade projects from South America to North America, and regional resistance to them.
Track Number: 2, 5, 8
Community Land Trusts – Developing Permanently Affordable Housing (Rm. 126)
Presenter: Van Temple, Diamond State Community Land Trust & National CLT Network Board
Description:Which group of homeowners are 6 times less likely to foreclose than the national average? Learn how communities across the country are making homeownership truly affordable, avoiding too-good-to-be-true mortgages, and keeping homes affordable generation after generation. An overview of the community land trust model and its contributions to community and sustainable economy.
Saturday, 4:30-6:00:
SEN Meeting – all welcome & encouraged to come. This will be a strategizing session.
Saturday, 6:00-7:00: DINNER in the Atrium, catered by La Veracruzana
Saturday, 7:00-8:30: Plenary
Building the Solidarity Economy Movement
- Cliff Rosenthal, Fed. of Community Dev. Credit Unions
- Melissa Hoover, U.S. Fed. of Worker Coops
- Julio Chavez, former mayor of Trujillo, Venezuela
- Van Temple, National Community Land Trust
- Nick Regalado, Coal River Mountain Watch
SUNDAY, MARCH 22
Sunday, 8:00-9:00 Registration
Sunday, 9:00-10:30: Workshop 8
Worker Cooperatives: Who we are, how we work and how we contribute to the solidarity economy (Rm. 117)
Presenter: Adam Trott, Charles Uchu Strader, Steve Strimer, Javiera Benevente, Erika Arthur, Erbin Crowell and Kim Pinkham, Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives
Description: Brief description of content
a) A short introduction of ourselves and the worker co-ops in the area
b) Structure and operation- Democratic participation, consensus, equal shares, meetings, committees, hiring and firing, pay and benefits, donations
c)How worker co-ops can contribute to the framework of the solidarity economy. Participatory democracy in a non-exploitative workplace, A democratic sphere for society, The multiple bottom lines of cooperative business- environmental awareness and minimizing impact, decent pay and benefits for workers, community partnership and mission driven businesses
Track number: 3, 5, 6
How Do We Build an Inclusive and Equitable Green Economy? (Rm. 118)
Presenter: Kalia Lydgate, Laurie Leyshon, The Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition (MAGJC)
Description: Many people are talking about green-collar jobs and building the green economy, but how do we actually do it? The Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition (MAGJC) is a statewide alliance that advocates for and actively creates a just and inclusive Green Economy by convening, connecting, catalyzing and mobilizing for the creation of green industries, careers and entrepreneurial opportunities that heal the earth and our communities. MAGJC played a fundamental role in passing the MA Green Jobs Act, which was the first legislation in the nation to fund green career training programs specifically for under-served populations. By building broad-based, cross-sector alliances and by operating on principles of equity, inclusion and community self-determination in a top-down/bottom up approach, MAGJC provides an effective and creative model for how to manifest large-scale, systemic change. In this workshop, we will explore this model, share best practice, and discuss the most current Green-collar Job opportunities and challenges. What role will the Stimulus package play? What will a just, green economy actually look like? How can we implement eco-industrial parks, cradle to cradle manufacturing, and re-localize economies? Eco-industrial parks. What streams of money should we be paying attention to? Who needs to be at the table? What role do hip hop and other forms of self-expression play in messaging?
Track number: 5
Building Bridges to Young Activists and Organizers: A Discussion (Rm. 119)
Presenter: Cheyenna Weber, Elandria Williams, Dan Apfel, Jenna Allard
Description: This moderated discussion will allow both older and younger solidarity economy activists to connect and confront the generational challenges facing our organizations. How can older organizations best engage young people? What can young people to do support existing organizations and learn from seasoned activists? These concerns as well as questions on technology, leadership, and collaboration will be the focus of the conversation. Workshop leaders, who are young leaders in SE organizations, will share their ideas and experiences and invite participants to bring their questions and experiences to share with the group.
Track number: 6
Valuing Women’s Work: Do the Economic Stimulus Plans Meet Our Needs? What would? (Rm. 122)
Presenter: Amee Chew
Description: How does the financial crisis disproportionately impact not just communities of color, and the low-income – but also women and girls? How does it reinforce gender inequality? Why are these effects sometimes invisible? Does it matter?
This interactive workshop will explore how institutional gender inequality is reinforced by economic policies. We will also look at the proposed economic stimulus plans and their gendered implications, in the context of race and class.
What can cooperative strategies organizing immigrant women look like? What can we learn from community organizing that grows out of women of color’s gendered experiences?
Track number: 7
The State of the Intentional Communities Movement & The Power of Sharing – Life on an Egalitarian Commune (Rm. 123)
Presenter: Bucket von Harmony, Twin Oaks Community, Robert Rocheleau, UMass Regional Planning
Description: Instead of owning individual cars and houses, we share a fleet of vehicles, have communal kitchens. This enables us to use dramatically less fossil fuels and hold most of our land as wilderness preserve. How do we share without resentment or hoarding? How do different systems operate to distribute scarce items fairly? How do we distribute labor and responsibility in a just manner? Come see for yourself if living on a egalitarian commune is a viable alternative to the unsustainable mainstream culture.
What is the intentional community movement? How significant is it? What roles do these communities play in shifting to a solidarity economy? What are some successful examples of intentional communities? What is the plan for the establishment of the Pioneer Valley Ecovillage in western Massachusetts? Come and learn the answers to these questions about alternative community models.
Track number: 9
The Economic Impact of Cooperatives in the U.S.: Research and Results (Rm. 124)
Presenter: Lynn Pitman, University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, Chris Clamp, School of CED, SNHU
Description: The cooperative ownership model is used in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from the production and distribution of energy to delivery of home health care services for the elderly. In a broad sense, cooperative ownership can be viewed as bottom-up private-party response to market imperfections.
While filling a unique niche in the U.S. economy, little has been known about where and how cooperatives operate. Unlike data-reporting agencies of many other countries, the U.S. Census Bureau does not identify cooperatives in any of its census or business reporting surveys. As a consequence, there are no federally reported data on cooperatives in the United States. The goal of the Economic Impact of Cooperatives project was to fill this gap by conducting a census of cooperatives, and by measuring their impact on aggregate income and employment; this workshop will report these findings. Track number: 7
Take Back the Land (Rm. 125)
Presenter: Max Rameau, Take Back the Land
Description: Take Back the Land, a grassroots group in Miama, has been ‘liberating’ foreclosed homes and moving in homeless families.
Women, Feminism, and the Solidarity Economy: Lessons from Abroad (Rm. 126)
Video, by Ethel Coté
Presenter: Ethel Coté, Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET) Altagracia Villareal, Rural Coalition Mexico-US, Julie Matthaei, U.S. SEN, Nedda Angullo, Dir. Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy
Description: In most of the world, women represent the main constituency for solidarity economy organizing. In this workshop, we will discuss the reasons for womens’ participation in the solidarity economy in their countries. After the panelists take questions, we will open the floor to a discussion of the potential that solidarity economy organizing holds for women and feminist transformation in the U.S. Track number: 8
Solidarity in Sustainable Local Food Systems (Rm. 127)
Presenters: Rob Jones, Crop Mob; Christopher Rumbley, Good Work & Bountiful Backyards
Descriptions: We’re facing imminent and inevitable collapse of our inherently unsustainable economic system. Intricately tied to it is the increasingly globalized industrial food system upon which virtually all U.S. residents and billions of global citizens rely for their sustenance. Given this context, join the conversation about how communities can create localized, and sustainable food systems. Hear about the work the facilitators have been doing in growing a local food system for North Carolina and share your experiences, joys and concerns around food and food systems.
Sunday 10:30-12:00:
Plenary - Building the Solidarity Economy Movement (Mahar Auditorium)
Paper, by Mariama Williams
- Rupert Downing - Canadian Community Econ. Dev. Network
- Nedda Angulo - RIPESS (Intercontinental Social Solidarity Economy Network)
- Mariama Williams - International Gender & Trade Network
- Max Rameau - Take Back the Land
Sunday 12:00-2:30:
SEN meeting
Everyone welcome and encouraged to attend. Prioritization of next steps and follow up.
