Cooperatives as a Tool for Social Justice

Netroots Nation Conference
July 11-13, 2019
Philadelphia, PA

Social movements have long used economic cooperation towards liberation. In 1970s Philadelphia, Movement for a New Society created affordable housing co-ops for activists. During the Civil Rights movement, black organizers used co-ops to support economic self-determination. Co-ops—food co-ops resisting the power and pollution of Big Agra or worker co-ops providing workplace safety and living wages for undocumented immigrants—have always been part of the solution. Today, politicians are grasping for cooperative solutions to build into progressive economic platforms. Come learn from those building and advocating for co-ops about how these solutions can be integrated into electoral campaigns, labor organizing and social movements.

Speakers

• Natalia Linares, New Economy Coalition (Moderator)
• Lauren Taylor Hudson, SolidarityNYC
• Dominique Pearson, Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive
• Jamila Medley, Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance
• Maria Alexandra Garcia, Caracol Language Coop