Solidarity Economy

A Glimpse Into New York’s Cooperative Ecosystem

June 11, 2026 Ebony Gustave, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, New York (NY), Solidarity Economy

The Cooperative Leaders & Scholars Fellowship (CLS) was started by the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) in the 1990s. While the name and format has changed over the years, the intention has remained the same - to provide professional development and networking to emerging cooperative leaders and scholars. This year I was accepted to join a group of 22 people across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada to learn and build together over the course of 8 months. The cross-sectoral representation of student housing, rural electric, art, and more was just a glimpse into how expansive the cooperative ecosystem is.

Solidarity Economies And The Unmaking Of Racial Capitalism

February 6, 2026 Manifold.UMN.edu. Create! Capitalism, Gentrification, Racism, Solidarity Economy, Urban Design

Two large, painted signs sit at the entrance to the César Andreu Iglesias Community Garden, a large community garden roughly the size of a city block located in North Philadelphia. “WELCOME. BIENVENIDOS. GROW SHARE GATHER,” reads the first in lavender and green. Beside it, in yellow and red, a second sign declares, “ESTE TERRENO NO ESTA EN VENTA” (this land is not for sale). A raised fist—the universal symbol of solidarity—is painted beneath the text. Together, the two signs convey complementary messages about the garden.

From Breakdown To Breakthough: 2025 Union Co-op Symposium

January 25, 2026 Megan McGee, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Organize! Cooperatives, New Economy, Solidarity Economy, Symposium

The 7th Union Co-op Symposium, a gathering of worker-owners and union members from across the US, opened with guests being invited to talk to someone they don't know. Facilitators repeat this exercise two or three times in a row to begin the biennial event. “It is actually really hard to shut it down once you get it started, because so many people are so excited,” says Kristen Barker, a co-director of Co-op Cincy, which has hosted the Symposium since 2013. The 2025 Symposium took place from October 17-18, offering workshops, panels and conversations on how the cooperative and labor movements can work together to build a democratic economy.

How Africa’s Social Economy Is Shaping Its Development

January 22, 2026 IPP Media. Create! African Union, Capitalism, New Economy, Solidarity Economy

In February 2025, the African Union (AU) Heads of State adopted the continent’s first 10-Year Strategy on the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), a landmark commitment to institutionalize inclusive, community-embedded economic models across Africa. It signals a shift from piloting to policy and from recognition to implementation. In May the same year, a high-level roundtable took place in Nairobi on "Unlocking the Social and Solidarity Economy in Africa," bringing together leaders from African governments, the South Africa G20 Presidency, the private sector and civil society. It focused on the implementation of the AU 10-year strategy.

Social And Solidarity Economy: African Youth Prepare Initiatives On Continental Scale

December 27, 2025 Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social and Solidarity Economy. Create! Africa, Economic Democracy, Solidarity Economy, Youth Activism

This initiative is part of the international project ‘Regionalisation of the UN resolution on the promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy’, which aims to adapt and operationalise international commitments to the SSE in African contexts. In a continent where young people represent a major demographic force, but also a socio-economic challenge, the social and solidarity economy (SSE) appears to be a structuring response. Based on solidarity, democratic governance, territorial anchoring and inclusion, it is a recognised lever for decent job creation, social innovation and economic resilience.

Ten Principles Of Next Economy Enterprises

November 2, 2025 Lift Economy. Create! Democracy, New Economy, Solidarity Economy, Transformation

The 10 Principles of Next Economy Enterprises serve as critical guideposts for designing organizations from a socially just and environmentally regenerative perspective. They are emergent and malleable, derived from work with hundreds of social enterprises. Here is an outline of the 10 principles: Meet Basic Needs This principle prioritizes providing human-centered essentials like nourishing food, clean water, shelter, and medicine. It directly challenges the Business as Usual (BAU) economy, which is geared toward fulfilling greed rather than human need, by providing essentials without destroying habitat and ecosystems. Enterprises adhering to this principle also look for ways to consider ecosystem repair as an impact outcome of their business functions.

Chile’s Solidarity Economy Is Growing

October 21, 2025 Nicolás Chesta, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Chile, Neoliberalism, Solidarity Economy, wealth inequality

Chile has emerged from decades of often brutal dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet with a dynamic and growing economy—and deepened social and economic inequalities. Pinochet’s neoliberal economic policies have concentrated wealth among the few and left significant portions of the population behind. In 2017, 56 percent of the lowest-income population earned, on average, only $258 per month. In contrast, the richest 5 percent of the population had a per capita income of over $2,900 per month—11 times higher, according to Observatorio Social, a division of the Chilean Social Development and Family Agency, in 2018.

Digital Tools Fuel The Rise Of New ‘Time Exchange’ Solidarity Economies

September 18, 2025 Ella Fassler, Truthout. Create! Alternative Currency, Local Economy, Solidarity Economy, Time Banks

In Kent, Ohio, older white women and immigrant families are forging unexpected connections through a time exchange network. Through time exchanges — sometimes called time banking — members earn time credits by helping others, then redeem them when they need assistance themselves. It’s not barter, or charity; time banking emphasizes reciprocal exchange, recognizing that everyone has something to offer, and that we all need help sometimes. “The time bank usually has a need for healthy young men,” laughed Dawn Albright, president of the Kent Community Time Bank’s board of directors. “I would say, 70 percent of the members are older women.” Younger immigrant members of the time bank often offer assistance with household tasks, like carrying heavy things up the stairs.

Systems Are Breaking And That’s Our Opportunity

July 12, 2025 Jem Bendell, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Strategize! Failed State, Mutual Aid, Solidarity Economy, Sustainability, The Commons

A few months ago, I reconnected with a friend whom I had worked with on an initiative on ‘the sharing economy’. At the time, we were both ‘Young Global Leaders’ (YGLs) with the World Economic Forum. It was 2013, and we had volunteered our time to bring attention to how new technologies could be used to help everyone have a good life with less ecological impact. Personally, we were imagining a future of peer-to-peer resource sharing, community-based production, and cooperative ownership. Meeting up after years, we laughed that our work had oddly contributed to the World Economic Forum publishing the line that became infamous as a globalist’s dystopian injunction: “You will own nothing and be happy.”

Amid Economic Uncertainty, A ‘Solidarity Economy’ Grows In DC

July 5, 2025 Emily Sohl, The Wash. Create! Community Garden, Mutual Aid, Solidarity Economy, Washington DC

As tariffs threaten to drive up prices on everything from bananas to backpacks, and fears of a recession loom, many Americans wonder how they’ll continue to afford necessities. According to the Huffington Post, major retailers are already warning that shoppers will see emptier shelves and higher prices, especially for essentials like clothing and school supplies. ABC News also reported that items such as laptops, toys and coffee could see price hikes. But amid this economic uncertainty, a different system is quietly taking root—one built not on profit but on cooperation.

ILO And Partners Advance Statistical Standards For Cooperatives

May 28, 2025 International Labour Organization. Organize! Cooperatives, Data, Economic Impact, International Labour Organization, Solidarity Economy

Following the joint kick-off meeting on 12 March 2025, the two Technical Working Groups held their first technical sessions on 28 and 29 April 2025. These meetings marked the beginning of their in-depth work to develop globally relevant statistical frameworks for cooperatives and the broader social and solidarity economy. The Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) Technical Working Group on Measuring the Economic Contribution of Cooperatives (TWG MECC)convened on 28 April for its first technical meeting. Olivier Frey, lead author on measuring the economic contribution of cooperatives, presented the rationale for a global measurement framework, emphasizing the need for conceptual clarity, relevant indicators, and a modular methodology adaptable across countries.

How Solidarity Economies Take Hold

February 20, 2025 Maliha Safri, Marianna Pavlovskaya, Stephen Healy and Craig Borowiak, Next City. Create! Capitalism, Cooperatives, Solidarity Economy, Urban Planning

In cities powerfully shaped by racial capitalism and economic exclusion, communities have long fought to reclaim their futures through economic solidarity and cooperation. This has been the case through the darkest stages of racial capitalist urban history and remains especially important in the face of a resurgent patriarchal white supremacy today. Our research, detailed in our new book “Solidarity Cities: Confronting Racial Capitalism, Mapping Transformation,” reveals a striking pattern: The very neighborhoods redlined into disinvestment and organized abandonment decades ago have become hubs of worker cooperatives, credit unions, community gardens and mutual aid networks that, together, constitute the decentralized but vibrant solidarity economy movement.

Chicago Clinic Offers Free Legal Aid To Solidarity Economy Groups

February 6, 2025 Damon Orion, Resilience. Create! Chicago, Legal Aid, New Economy, Solidarity Economy

Chicago, Illinois, has a rich history of grassroots organizing. Notable examples are the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council’s efforts to improve local economic and social conditions and the Black Panther Party’s establishment of housing cooperatives and free food, clothing, and medical services. The solidarity economy movement has continued to gain momentum in Chicago. In 2024, a map from the worker-owned ChiCommons Cooperative showed more than 800 solidarity enterprises, co-ops, and mutual aid groups in the city.

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