Coop DC members Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo and Johanna Bockman will be on WPFW this morning around 11am. Councilmember and former mayor Marion Barry is scheduled to call in around 11:30am. We’re hoping to ask him about his Commission on Cooperative Economic Development starting in 1980, his work with Cornbread Givens, and his thoughts on cooperative development today.
As we gear up for an exciting conference next week, we’re pausing to note a recent commemoration that connects the cause for coops to the cause for global worker justice and the fight against poverty.
October 16th was World Food Day. The creators of World Food Day are a mega network of large and small international aid and anti-hunger foundations. See who sponsors them here. Their activities in the US mostly involve encouraging people to host events and get involved in the food movement in their region. This year, they have focused in on coops as a solution to food insecurity. Coincidentally, so is everyone else because the United Nations declared 2012 International Year of Co-operatives. Fabulous!
Watch the World Food Day video about cooperatives and hear the stories of how people have created cooperative solutions to help communities weather social, political, environmental, and economic turmoil.
It’s difficult to list with exact certainty the possible outcomes for this conference but it’s clear that it is time to have to start talking to these conversations. The pressures on the communities in the video aren’t exactly the same as ones we know of here but nor are they that different. For communities to survive and adapt to shifting conditions, radically creative ideas are necessary. If done right, cooperatives are one of them.
If cooperatives are really a useful tool for communities in and around DC to make decisions about how community needs are going to get met, then we’ve got to start talking to our neighbors and asking them the important questions. Are we working together? Are we making connections? Do we understand how much we need each other?
Please consider bringing a friend to the conference or telling someone you know why you’re interested in or curious about coops. Register today.
Racing toward the future of Cooperation, the Co-op 5K is a family-friendly run/walk that is open to all (including strollers and dogs!) and is designed as a cooperative awareness event and fundraiser for the Cooperative Development Foundation.
This year’s race takes place on Saturday, December 1st at 8am at Hains Point in Washington, DC. Want to get involved? There are a ton of different ways!
Your support gives CDF the opportunity to do great things globally, and by supporting the Co-op 5K you keep CDF’s tradition of cooperative development alive. So dust off those sneakers and get to it! Help us impact the world – effectively, collectively, cooperatively. For more information, contact Terence Buen at tbuen@cdf.coop or 202-442-2323
For those of you interested in food co-ops, the Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance (MAFCA) will be meeting at Takoma Park-Silver Spring Food Co-op on Saturday, October 20, 2012 in the afternoon. There will be a tour of TPSS Co-op in Takoma Junction, followed by the MAFCA meeting in the Historic Takoma building at 7328 Carroll Avenue Takoma Park, MD 20912. MAFCA is the Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance and this is one of its three membership meetings annually. There is usually a speaker on topics of cooperative interest and a speaker focusing on a member co-op, followed by breakout sessions. Lunch will be provided. No agenda has yet been released, but topics being discussed on the MAFCA list-serve include a possible follow-up to MAFCA’s co-op start-up conference last year, as well as the needs of existing co-ops needing to grow.
“DC Coop Day: Building Community and Economic Alternatives”
Saturday, October 27th, 2012, 9am-4pm.
@ University of the District of Columbia
Hosted by Coop DC and UDC’s Kirkman Center for the Study of Cooperatives
More info soon!
As you may be aware, we’re trying to put together a one-day conference at the end of October in celebration of the International Year of Cooperatives. Please join us this Sunday, August 12, at 4:00pm if you are interested in helping out with the planning. We’ll be meeting at:
Emergence Community Arts Collective (ECAC)
733 Euclid St. NW Washington, DC 20001
People who want to learn more about cooperation with a group of young
folks who really have their acts together should consider presenting
at the North American Students of Cooperation conference. The
conference handles everything thing from college housing co-op to
community led co-ops and deep economic, social and political issues
for people of all ages.
If you don’t mind sleeping on couches or floors housing will be free,
and they pay everything else for presenters.
NASCO Institute 2012: Cooperating to Survive and Thrive Beyond Capitalism: Building a Solidarity Economy. http://www.nasco.coop/
This year’s Institute will give participants an opportunity to
envision a different economic future, to learn about grassroots
peoples’ movements fighting for economic justice, and to explore
economic alternatives already under construction. In celebration of
the International Year of the Cooperative, we’ll look at models of
cooperation internationally that are meeting human needs while
centering the values of solidarity and interdependence, and critically examine how we can create and sustain relationships across borders that are rooted in justice. We’ll get the opportunity to think big as we imagine a future beyond capitalism, as well as to get down to the nitty-gritty of creating and building on local alternatives.
This year’s course tracks:
1. Shifting the Paradigm: Understanding the Global Economy to Transform It
2. Solidarity Economy: Alternatives Under Construction
3. Youth Rise Up! The Role of Youth and Students in Popular Movements
4. The Science of Survival: Basic Coop Skills
5. The Art of Thriving: Advanced Coop Skills
6. “When the People Come, Will We Be Ready?” Building Inclusive Cooperative Spaces
7. Developing New Coops
Here’s a list of potential workshop topics and themes we’d love to see at Institute this year:
Defending the Commons
The housing crisis and resistance to foreclosures and eviction
The role of coops in the movement for housing justice
Students’ movements–in Quebec, Chile
The shape of inequality in the US & Canada
Mapping the solidarity economy
Economic systems beyond capitalism
Applied Solidarity Economy models, such as:
Alternative currencies
Alternative banking and credit unions
Worker coops as a basis for a democratic economy
Community land trusts
Open source movement
Models for sustainable food production/distrib.; food justice
Solidarity economy efforts across borders
Social economy in Quebec
Mondragon cooperatives
Argentinean factory recuperation
Evergreen cooperatives in Cleveland
Coop skills track
We’re looking for proposals for discrete workshops, but also “experts” to be part of panels focused on answering participants’ questions. Has your coop hit on a great model for organizing labor? Have you served as maintenance coordinator for a few years, or helped plan major renovations on your coop? Please get in touch with emma@nasco.coop, and tell us a little bit about your experience.
Labor systems
Kitchen management
Maintenance
Finances
Member leases and landlord/tenant law
Building Inclusive Cooperative Spaces/Anti-oppression track
We’d be interested in proposals organized around systems of
oppression (racism, classism, transphobia, etc.) and how they operate
in coops. But we’d be especially interested in proposals that explore how an analysis of systems of oppression and commitment to challenging oppression informs how we do things as coops, such as:
Meeting facilitation
Conflict resolution
Member recruitment and retention
Member education
Labor systems
WASHINGTON, D.C.—July 10, 2012—In Washington, D.C. on July 18, 2012, A local network of grassroots organizations, community bankers, individuals and a national trade association for cooperatives will join cities and towns across the country to host a screening of the documentary Fixing the Future, spurring action toward strengthening local economies.
In Fixing the Future, host David Brancaccio (of public radio’s Marketplace and NOW on PBS) visits locations across America that are using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, inspiring hope and renewal amidst economic collapse.
Coop DC, the DC Time Bank, Emergence Community Arts Collective, the Independent Community Bankers of America, Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) and the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) are co-hosting a local showing of the documentary at 7:30 p.m. on July 18 at:
AMC Loews Georgetown 14
3111 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-342-6033
The screening will be followed by an exclusive onscreen discussion panel featuring:
Representatives of worker and housing cooperatives, Time Bank, DC Coops, GEO, community banks, community organizations and NCBA and will be on hand to lead discussion of the film and discuss their activities. Tickets are available online (Fandango) and at the box office.
The event kicks off the metropolitan Washington D.C. area participation in Fixing the Future Across America, a national campaign led by JumpStart Productions, Area23a and the media strategy organization Active Voice. Coop DC, the DC Time Bank, Emergence Community Arts Collective, the Independent Community Bankers of America, Grassroots Economic Organizing and NCBA are among the more than 50 groups around the country participating in the campaign. Through this screening, these organizations are using Fixing the Future to encourage American communities to create resilient, local economies through innovative approaches to job creation. Fixing the Future Across America also links together a national network of business groups and community-based organizations working to improve their local economies.
Cooperatives, time banks (a form of bartering), credit unions and community banks are ways that people are coming together to “fix” the current economy. A cooperative is a member-owned and controlled business that operates for the mutual benefit of its members. More than 29,000 cooperatives operate in every sector of the economy and in congressional district; Americans hold over 350 million co-op memberships. US cooperatives generate 2 million jobs and make a substantial contribution to the US economy with annual sales of $652 billion and possessing assets of $3 trillion. Learn more about co-ops at www.ncba.coop, and see a list of cooperatives in the DC area at http://coopdc.org.
The DC Time Bank is an exchange system that allows people to help each other while receiving credits for their service. Time banking is a way to value the favors we do for others and the helps to weave community. Learn more at www.dctimebank.org.
The Independent Community Bankers of America® is the nation’s voice for more than 7,000 community banks of all sizes and charter types. With nearly 5,000 members, representing more than 23,000 locations nationwide and employing more than 280,000 Americans, ICBA members hold more than $1.2 trillion in assets, $1 trillion in deposits and $700 billion in loans to consumers, small businesses and the agricultural community. For more information, visit www.icba.org.
To learn more about the organizations hosting this screening, visit their websites:
In Fixing the Future, host David Brancaccio (of public radio’s Marketplace and NOW on PBS) visits locations across America that are attempting a revolution: the reinvention of the American economy. By featuring communities using sustainable and innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, Fixing the Future inspires hope and renewal in a people overwhelmed by an economic collapse. Fixing the Future was produced by JumpStart Productions. www.fixingthefuture.org
We have lots to catch up on, so if you can make it to a meeting next Sunday night at 7pm in Bloomingdale, please RSVP here! (We’ll finalize location and try to coordinate dinner/snacks between those who RSVP).
Discussion items:
Anything else? Please comment below…
Coop DC 