We are so excited to be presenting in two sessions at North America’s first-ever Fearless Cities Municipalist Conference.
The conference, will take place July 27-July 29, seeks to progress the growing international movement to democratize and feminize political institutions at the municipal level, and will include participants coming from Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Greater Caribbean!
This Saturday at 2PM, come hear from CEANYC Board Members Evan Casper-Futterman (SolidarityNYC, CEANYC Co-founder, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative) and Emilie Miyauchi (former CSA Coordinator at Just Food) about “Building Power for a Stronger Solidarity Economy.”
In this session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the ways the solidarity economy—comprised of consumer, housing, and worker cooperatives, community land trusts, CSA programs, community development credit unions, and support organizations—operates in NYC. We will also explore its potential for transforming power within and across urban regions in the United States and around the world drawing on examples such as the Chantier in Montreal and Seikatsu in Japan. The session is designed to be participatory and interactive among participants who are active in these networks across diverse geographies.
Sunday Morning at 9AM, be sure to stop by the opening panel on “Cooperative Cities of Tomorrow: How International Lessons can Inform North American Strategies” where CEANYC Program Manager Evie Zavidow will be discussing our work.
A vision for a just, inclusive city of the future features cooperatives as hubs of economic activity. Worker co-ops are a better way of doing business, and simultaneously a forceful alternative form of organized labor where workers seize capital as their own instrument. Housing cooperatives can stem the tide of neighborhood hood displacement and gentrification. Food cooperatives and CSAs linked to local supply chains are ways of creating food sovereignty and long-term sustainability. Cities like Montreal, Barcelona, New York, and Philadelphia are at the forefront of building economic alternatives around cooperatives. What lesson can we learn from these experiments? How could we better strategize regionally? How do we create scale? Facilitators from the Racial and Economic Justice member council of the US Federation of Worker Co-ops will guide our process for advanced strategizing to explore the possibilities of cooperatives for the urban future of work, consumption, and living.
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