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Economic Justice

Davos Elites Talk About Rebuilding Trust; People Talk Of System Change

With war threatening to escalate in the Middle East, as well as crises in Ecuador and many other parts of the world, most people are not even aware that the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is rolling around again this week. In the context of sharpening inequalities, and perilous global politics, what relevance does this gathering have outside the elite bubble? The Forum’s annual Global Risks Report itself posits misinformation, societal polarization, extreme weather conditions, conflict, and rising cost of living among the key risks to the global economy this year. What the WEF has failed to define is that for many, the coming year does not bring the threat of multiple crises.

An Urgent Call For Debt, Climate And Economic Justice

Communities all over the world are struggling and resisting the impacts of multiple crises. At a time of intensifying climate impacts and speculative increases of food and energy prices, governments, particularly in the Global South, are responding to  unsustainable public debts and the lack of development and climate finance, with a rising wave of austerity, subjugation and extractivism. We vehemently denounce the role of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that, together with other private and public lenders, perpetuate  a flawed international financial architecture that exacerbates debt, climate, and economic crises, violating the basic needs and rights of millions of people and nature who have the least contribution, responsibility or control over these catastrophes.

Four Winning Models For Building Community Wealth

If we’re ever going to have a just economy, we’ll have to build it from the ground up. Flowing resources to front-line communities that face the worst of the climate crisis and the racial wealth gap is the ideal way to plant the roots of a new economy. Not only is it essential for justice, but it’s also a practical, scalable strategy for seeding system change. As executive director of the Just Economy Institute, I’ve collaborated with many JEI fellows who are leading promising community wealth-building initiatives. These financial activists share a set of principles: They support community self-determination and ownership.

Sociocracy And The Solidarity Economy

The Community Purchasing Alliance is advancing the solidarity economy with the power of cooperative purchasing, shifting $17.9M to minority business enterprise (MBE) since 2017. Our 11 person team is distributed across the US and is powered by sociocratic circles. In this showcase, we will share how CPA Co-op’s circle structure has grown and evolved since 2020, facilitating 47% year over year growth in revenue in 2021 while creating a more dynamic and equitable workplace for our entire team. Amy Abbott and Boris Sigal are the Co-Executive Directors of CPA Co-op. Lauren Greenspan leads CPA’s People and Culture Circle and is currently enrolled in SoFA’s Sociocracy Academy. She introduced CPA Co-op to Sociocracy in 2020 after reading Many Voices, One Song.

Sufficiency And Interdependence In The Wake Of A Degrowth Future

Even if one didn’t have an immediate experience of disaster at the doorstep — like flood, storm or wildfire, which are happening globally on a weekly basis affecting many millions of people — we all share an experience of global surge of mutual aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many places, it implied a different relation to material reality such as provision of food, medics and, in peculiar cases, toilet paper. In non middle-and-up-class contexts, the pandemic increased risk of losing the roof over head or being stuck below dignifying conditions in at home. This intense period became a sharp reminder of local sufficiency, the scale of our community, and the importance of understanding a home as space that goes beyond our rented or owned four walls.

Black-Led Resistance Movements Are Paving The Way For Reparations

Months after the police killing of George Floyd sparked racial justice protests around the world, Black Lives Matter activists are once again flooding the streets — this time in response to the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Among the demands that continue to ring out is the call for reparations, or payment to people of African descent. Several African countries — including Namibia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — have also joined the call, demanding reparations from European countries for the perpetration of genocide under colonialism.

What Can Safety Without Police Look Like?

This is a moment of contention and restructuring in America. Mass public outcry is exposing the long-buried, problematic foundations of a nation built on human trafficking, commodification and enslavement of people from Africa, and on the genocide and attempted erasure of Indigenous societies. Protesters across the country are tumbling the statues of profiteers and benefactors of those atrocities, and pushing the nation to dismantle its many false narratives and systems of power. This uprising asks for an acknowledgment that the police force, in particular, is a direct extension of a problematic history, which has vilified and punished Black and Brown Americans disproportionately from the beginning. And they are revisualizing the ways in which true safety and equity can emerge. What will stand in the place of the outmoded, harmful emblems and institutions? What can and should new systems look like? What new programs and justice models can replace the police?

The System Was Built To Break Black People…

While we like to believe that the system is merely “broken,” now is the time we finally acknowledge that the system was purposely designed to break black people. But we refuse to break, and here we stand, unbroken and undeterred. Like many black people in this country, I live each day with anger and pain, but also joy and optimism. Our strength keeps us from breaking under the weight of racism and economic injustice. Instead, we build.

Cancel All The Student Debt: It’s About Economic And Racial Justice

Only full cancellation completely protects the vulnerabilities of Black students and students in general, while at the same time establishing higher education as a universal right and offering restitution to all those who have had to rely on debt finance. You might feel desensitized to the swelling student-debt figures, but guess who’s not? Graduates—who are paying an average of $400 a month for approximately forever. There are two major proposals from Democratic presidential candidates on this problem. One gets rid of it all, canceling the whole student-debt balance nationally.

Create Positive Traditions To Celebrate Our Values Of Justice And Peace

‘Tis the season…for leftist ambivalence toward commercialist and patriarchal holiday traditions. It’s no wonder that many leftists have mixed feelings about holiday festivities, given their link to oppressive institutions and crass cooptation by capitalism. Celebrating the virgin birth of a male deity who was to become king can be alienating for those who have anti-hierarchal, feminist values, and likewise many anti-Zionist internationalists struggle with ethno-nationalist expressions of the Passover holiday.

More of the Status Quo: US – South Korea Deal

We continue to emphasize that Trump’s actions on trade will not bring justice to workers, does not take care of our environment, does not bring us any closer to peaceful and collaborative economic practices with people from all over the world. The people in power are repeatedly showing themselves to be dishonest, putting their own interests before that of the people and maintaining the status quo of the corporate power of Wall Street and major US corporations throughout the world.

A Powerful Economic Justice Movement Is Brewing

The only way to create this new story of possibility is through our action, and it’s happening. In this dark time, a vigorous and unprecedented democracy movement is emerging. Led by citizens of all backgrounds—inspiring our new book, Daring Democracy—it is uniting groups long focused on specific issues, from the environment to racial justice to labor, who are now joining forces with veteran democracy-reform groups to tackle big money’s grip on our elections and to ensure voting rights. Step by bold step, citizens joining in this never-more-needed movement are gaining confidence in their capacities to shape an accountable, inclusive democracy in which all voices are heard. Because the democracy movement holds the inherent dignity of all as a core value, this rising movement can be a key in freeing us from our blaming and shaming culture and moving us toward one in which we’re all responsible and thus able to experience the thrill of democracy.

Saturday: March For Black Women

By Monica Busch for Bustle. At the center of the March for Racial Justice, a civil rights demonstration that will take place in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 30, is the March For Black Women. In an age of increased political activism, countless marches, protests, other various demonstrations have swept across the United States. This Saturday's marches are particularly unique in that two marches are happening at the same time. With all the action going on in one place, it's important to understand what the March For Black Women actually is. First of all, it's slated to take place on an important historical date.

This Saturday: #NoNAFTA2 Twitter Storm

Trade For People and Planet and Popular Resistance are launching Twitter Storms during every round of NAFTA negotiations! To see all the tweets, check this article out. Join us to say #NoNAFTA2, because we have no confidence in a racist Trump administration to care for all working people and the environment! Because no trade deal should pass that divides and disempowers our communities! Round 3 is starting in Ottawa this September 23rd, join us in letting negotiators know that we will NOT accept any trade deals that put profits and corporate sovereignty over people, the environment, and democracy.

#NoNAFTA2 Twitter Storm on Wed. Aug 16th at 8pm EDT !

By Trade for People and Planet - Join us for a Twitter Storm against the beginning of the corporate NAFTA re-negotiations on Wednesday, August 16th from 8-9pm EDT! As the corporate representatives in government begin to divide up the continent for their friends, the people will be here to make sure they know we won’t take another deal that harms people and the environment. We are ready to build a new trade model, a model of Trade for People and the Planet.
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