This month, we’re talking about Co-op Month, a vision for solidarity economy in the United States, Gen-Z protest movements in Africa and Asia, and the national strike in Ecuador. Read to the end for podcasts, videos, toolkits, jobs, and events.
The New Economy Roundup is an archive and reminder of those solutions, and we ask you to keep supporting our work by becoming a monthly donor.
Last week, the Stop Cop City activists jailed on RICO charges won their defense against several charges against the state of Georgia. Though they can look forward to an end of their incarceration, the doxxing, jail time, and criminal record are punishment enough and now restrict access to education, work, and housing. The federal regime’s latest memo encourages prosecutors and people alike to participate in this same lawfare. Regardless of its illegality, this is how authoritarians consolidate power– by chilling speech, inciting moral panic, and encouraging surveillance.
Readers, please double down on solidarity by continuing to materially support social change ecosystems and staying grounded in the fact that this is retaliation for the real ways we are changing material conditions for people and planet.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Solidarity Economy Day: We’ve got a letter from 2065! September 30th is Solidarity Economy Day: a national holiday in the United States where we rejoice over the transition from capitalism to a solidarity economy. In this era, we recount how organizations (among them NEC member Kensington Corridor Trust) built translocal networks that won participatory budgeting and normalized worker cooperatives. Take Justice Funders’ invitation to remember the future by reading more about Solidarity Economy Day in their new column with Grantmakers in the Arts.
October is Co-op Month: At NEC, we celebrate worker-owned cooperatives as a key building block of the solidarity economy! Read more about the transformative power of worker ownership, the Govern Ourselves toolkit, and our full resource library.
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Organizing Revolution on Discord: From Nepal to Kenya to Morocco, Gen Z are building horizontal movements against organized abandonment. In Morocco, youth demand healthcare over football stadiums; Nepal’s social media ban ignited mass protests and an election; and in Kenya, anti-austerity protests sparked a growing left political alliance that’s gaining electoral power. Though rooted in their unique local contexts, these decentralized uprisings are being organized on Facebook, Instagram, and Discord. Protect your digital organizing now and forevermore with this simple guide or follow 18 Million Rising for their next Digital Security 101 training.
National Strike in Ecuador: Achuar, Andwa, Shuar, Kichwa, Sapara, Waorani, and Shiwiar peoples are joined by environmentalists, feminists, health workers, and communications workers in a national strike against authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and the austerity economy. The protests are reaching the two week mark, and the repression is worsening. There is a recorded death, mass incarceration, Constitutional Court takeover, and reports of collective punishment via internet interference. Join us in uplifting strike updates from Centro Corona and Kichwa Collective on Instagram, or by donating to this emergency fund supporting 12 indigenous men facing incarceration in a maximum security facility without due process by the Naboa regime.
FEATURES
Congratulations to the Mikeno ship in the Global Sumud Flotilla– the first to enter Palestinian waters since 2009. May the Marinette reach Gaza with its passengers alive and free, and the aid intact.
The siege on Gaza is not invincible.
We put our attention to the activists aboard all ships in the flotilla who have been detained by the Zionist entity, and demand their immediate release.
MOVEMENT NEWS
A Bay Area Land Trust’s Pioneering Model Protects Artists From Displacement
El Bosque, Mexico’s first climate refugees
Congo military court sentences former President Kabila to death for treason
How Artists Resisted Fascism a Century Ago
How to Decolonize Wealth amid a Racial Justice Backlash
How the FIFA World Cup Can Grow Philly’s Local Food Economy
How Mass-Based Community Unions Could Transform the Country
Illustrating Economics: This Scholar’s Graphic Novel Explains the Black Cooperative Movement
Image of Capitalism Slips to 54% in U.S.
A New Bird Just Appeared in Texas— and That’s Not a Good Thing
Philanthropy and Repression: Not the Exception
Portland Is Taking Steps To Revoke an ICE Facility’s Land Use Permit
Resisting Fascism: Lessons from South Asia And Its Diaspora
Texas Passes Bill Banning Abortion Pills from Being Mailed to the State
Who Gets to Talk About Climate Change?
Why RICO can’t be used to punish speech
RESOURCE LIBRARY
PODCASTS & VIDEO
Better futures: planning the economy, building cooperatives | KPFA
US experimented on humans with radioactive oatmeal, mystery fog | News Nation
TOOLKITS & RESOURCES
Abolition Reading List | Haymarket Books
The Ongoing Exploitation of Guatemala’s Indigenous Maya Peoples | Center for Plants and Culture
Solidarity Philanthropy | Grassroots International
JOBS
Account Manager – Big Duck
Assistant Professor – Design & Urban Transformation – UC Berkeley
Campaigns Director – ALIGN
Community Development Finance Associate – Barbara Sokolof Associates
Cooperative Developer – Center for Community Wealth
Curator of the Loeb Fellowship – Harvard Graduate School of Design
Director of Development – Dignity & Power Now
Director of Development and Communications – Ignite Peace
Executive Director – Metro Housing Boston
Fundraising and Development Director – Órale
Grants Manager – MAD Agriculture
HR Consultant – Beloved Community Incubator
Membership Insights & Collaboration Strategist – BLIS Collective
Project Manager – Multifamily Real Estate Developer
Training Director – New Left Accelerator
If you’re hiring, consider submitting to The Roundup.
For more opportunities, check out this job board from NEC member Post Growth Institute and this one from the U.S. Federation of Worker Co-ops!
EVENTS
MA Solidarity Economy Festival & Gathering 2025
A celebratory day for folks new & old to the solidarity economy & co-op movement, filled with collective art & cultural projects, performances, tabling, food, vendors & workshops. (Oct 4 – Holyoke, MA)
Decolonize U: (Anti-)Ableism 101
Land Back is a solution to climate catastrophe. This stands in contrast to the false solutions that perpetuate the same systems of extractivism and human exploitation with a new “green mask.” We recognize the root causes of climate change are settler colonialism, white supremacy, and racial capitalism. When we achieve Land Back, we challenge these systems of oppression that dominate the global political economy and create the climate crisis. Honor the Earth organizes at the roots, and we recognize Land Back as part of a collective liberation framework that welcomes all oppressed peoples on Turtle Island. (Oct 7 – Virtual)
Drug Legalization: A Panel Discussion with National Coalition for Drug Legalization and The Pride Center of Maryland
Every year, there are more than 1.5 million drug arrests in the United States. More than 80% of these arrests are for possession only. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have already decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, and some are exploring the merits of decriminalizing other drugs. The opioid crisis has jump-started the conversation on the best approach to drug use across the country, including in Maryland. This event will provide an opportunity for community engagement, education, and a chance to discuss how drug legalization can be a way to protect public safety. Some refreshments will be served. (Oct 7 – Baltimore, MD)
Unscripted: Candid Conversations about Who Gets to Imagine the Future
How can spending time imagining the future inspire hope and action today? We all have a role to play in creating a future where health is not a privilege but a right—and just as importantly, in imagining what that future looks like. When more people have the time and resources to imagine, we unlock the collective wisdom needed to create the world we all want. Listen in live every day to six visionary thinkers pair up to talk about the power of “futuring”—anticipating, imagining, and designing possible tomorrows. (Oct 6-10 – Virtual)
Translocal Afrofuturism Conference 2025
The Kheprw Institute proudly presents the second annual Translocal Afrofuturism Conference! Join us for a yearly gathering of artists, authors, activists, and visionary community builders as we come together to create, celebrate, and imagine a future on our own terms! (Oct 8-9 – Indianapolis, IN)
Alyssa Battistoni presents “Free Gifts” in conversation w/ Patrick Bigger
In FREE GIFTS, Alyssa Battistoni explores capitalism’s persistent failure to value nature, arguing that the key question is not the moral issue of why some kinds of nature shouldn’t be commodified, but the economic puzzle of why they haven’t been. (Oct 9 – Baltimore, MD)
Union Co-op Symposium — Co-op Cincy
In a time when so many systems are failing us, cooperatives are showing the world what’s possible. That’s why Co-op Cincy and 1worker1vote are thrilled to present a powerful, in-person edition of the Union Co-op Symposium—a not-to-be-missed event for anyone committed to building a more just, democratic economy. (Oct 17-18 – Cincinnati, OH)
Making Money Make Change 2025
Making Money Make Change (MMMC) is for young people with wealth and class privilege (ages 18-35) who dream of a future in which land, wealth and power are equitably distributed and are ready to take action to turn that vision into reality. Making Money Make Change 2025 will be hosted from Nov 13-16, 2025, in Santa Fe, NM. The venue is located on the homelands of many Indigenous nations, including the Tewa, Keres, Towa, and Tiwa Pueblos, the Ute, the Apache, the Diné, and the Comanche. We recognize that most of our participants are settlers and visitors by choosing to host our event on this land. We intend to arrive with humility, curiosity, and a devotion to our vision of a future in which Indigenous people have sovereignty over their land. We stand behind that vision with our resources and our organizing power. (Nov 13-16 – Santa Fe, NM)