News
From Foreclosure to Occupation: Tenants Organize To Beat Evictions - Mira Luna
Submitted by emilykawano on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 11:07am
A group of low-income San Franciscans has come up with a positive, long term solution to the housing crisis that is causing millions of Americans to be evicted and some to embrace the "Occupy Homes" movement: buy the buildings.
In October 2011, residents of the Columbus United Cooperative (CUC) in San Francisco celebrated final approval of the ownership of their building as a permanently affordable, resident-owned limited-equity housing cooperative. The residents can now purchase shares in the co-op for only $10,000 in the heart of San Francisco (where most housing starts at $500,000) to become cooperative homeowners, though most earn less than 50 percent of area median income. Previous to the conversion they had been living in their building under the threat of eviction.
Towards an Economy Worth Occupying
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 1:39pm
by: Cheyenna WeberThu Oct 13, 2011 at 10:36 AM EDT |
|
|
Mondragon on BBC Radio, Oct 9, 2011
Submitted by emilykawano on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 12:57pm
The Asian Solidarity Economy Forum, Kuala Lumpur, Oct. 30-Nov 2
Submitted by emilykawano on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 12:23pm
The Asian Solidarity Economy Forum (ASEF) is an initiative of advocates and practitioners who trumpet the call for an ‘alternative and more compassionate economy. It seeks to draw and galvanize the support of national networks of social enterprises towards strengthening the macro and mega systems of solidarity economy. The forthcoming ASEF Forum KL 2011 is the third in the series. ASEF I was held in Manila last October 2007 and ASEF II was in Tokyo in 2009.
ASEF Forum KL 2011 will on providing a platform for advocates, practitioners, academics, policy makers, community leaders and the business community to interact, share experiences and draw upon our collective community innovations for the common good.
More info: Asian Solidarity Economy Forum
International Forum on the Social Solidarity Economy, Montreal, Oct. 17-20
Submitted by emilykawano on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 12:14pmThemes
Above all this forum is intended as a meeting place for people and ideas. All the activities in which participants will take part will be facilitated using a participatory and interactive approach. Just like the methods that it seeks to promote, this forum will work in the spirit of co-construction and dialogue.
Battered by Economic Crisis, Greeks Turn to Barter Networks
Submitted by emilykawano on Mon, 10/03/2011 - 10:02amBy RACHEL DONADIO, NYT October 2, 2011
Angeliki Ioanniti, a seamstress, runs a small shop in Volos and participates in a network that uses barter and vouchers. Such networks build on a sense of solidarity in tough times as people seek creative ways to cope with a radically changing landscape.
VOLOS, Greece — The first time he bought eggs, milk and jam at an outdoor market using not euros but an informal barter currency, Theodoros Mavridis, an unemployed electrician, was thrilled.
“I felt liberated, I felt free for the first time,” Mr. Mavridis said in a recent interview at a cafe in this port city in central Greece. “I instinctively reached into my pocket, but there was no need to.”
Mr. Mavridis is a co-founder of a growing network here in Volos that uses a so-called Local Alternative Unit, or TEM in Greek, to exchange goods and services — language classes, baby-sitting, computer support, home-cooked meals — and to receive discounts at some local businesses.
Brazilian slum opens community bank
Submitted by emilykawano on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 8:22am
An impoverished neighborhood located in the western area of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro has opened a new community bank which will issue its own currency in order to trigger local economic development, Press TV reports.
The poor neighborhood, known as the “City of God”, opened the City of God Communitarian Bank on September 15.
A view of the impoverished City of God neighborhood located in the
western area of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro
The bank is to issue its own community currency, only available for locally enrolled businesses that aim to engage city residents in buying products and services within the community.
“If we empower the economically marginalized grassroots network and build social capital, poor people will leave poverty,” said Brazil's National Secretary of the Solidarity Economy Paul Singer.
Under the solidarity economic principles, the bank will employ multi-disciplinary sustainability, “a practice that continues to rise in the whole world,” Singer concluded.
The City of God branch, established by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2003, was created by the Brazilian Network of Communitarian Banks.
Approximately 40,000 people live in the community which became famous after being portrayed in the 2002 film City of God.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/199637.html
Five Most Popular Worker Cooperative Videos, 2011
Submitted by emilykawano on Fri, 09/09/2011 - 9:04amHere's an interesting collection of videos on cooperatives from American Worker Cooperative: http://www.american.coop/content/5-most-popular-worker-cooperative-videos-2011-so-far
A BBC Docmentary from the 1980s about the origins and growth of the Basque cooperative corporation, including a short history of the Rochdale cooperatives that inspired the Don José María Arizmendiarrieta
A look at what SEN has been up to
Submitted by emilykawano on Sun, 08/21/2011 - 7:18am
August 21, 2011
written by Emily Kawano, SEN Coordinator
Between January 2010 and August 2011, SEN has made exciting progress in meeting our overarching goals of 1) building the solidarity economy (SE) movement through education and organizing, 2) connecting with the global SE movement and 3) supporting SE with research and dissemination of best practices, tool-kits, data, and theory.
MOVEMENT BUILDING
Pope Benedict XVI and the solidarity economy
Submitted by emilykawano on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 3:33pm
© 2011 Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
In his latest encyclical, Charity in Truth, Pope Benedict XVI expresses concern about the global economy and its overemphasis on profit at the expense of human and community needs. “Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for businesses is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limiting their social value.” (40) The pope’s solution to this situation is not only government regulation of businesses, but the creation of new business models where human and community effects are considered a fundamental part of the bottom line. In many ways, he describes alternative businesses that are part of the rapidly expanding solidarity economy.
