We discovered two weeks ago that Gmail had decided to no longer deliver our emails, sometimes sending them to the Spam folder, sometimes not even that. Thankfully, our email tech support at Autonomic Co-op was able to help us get things squared away, but it took some doing (and a lot of DNS records). If you missed the last several weeks of Newsletters, you can find them archived here.
We're back now though, and hopefully showing up in your inbox again. And as we missed last week, this week we've got a double helping of cooperative goodness to share.
Frida Ballard and Damon Etawlyah
Two Interviews from the 2024 US Worker Co-op Conference
by GEO Collective
Below are two interviews with attendees of the 2024 US Worker Co-op Conference, held in Chicago last month. We will be sharing more interviews with attendees over the coming weeks.
Nebula: A Community Centered Approach to Domestic Violence
A Q&A with Collective Member Christopher Preciado
by Malikia Johnson
Two of the core members came together in the context of tenant organizing. They realized a connection between tenant organizing and domestic violence support. They noticed that often organizers involved in tenants’ rights ended up being involved in domestic violence support because homes are often the center of the violence.
Mutual Aid Groups Mobilize in Wake of Hurricane Helene
by It's Going Down
As someone from Triangle Mutual Aid reported, “The geographic scale of this disaster is beyond anything most of us have dealt with before. It’s most similar to hurricane Katrina in my experience, though over much different terrain and with people completely unprepared for it.” A recent post from Firestorm anarchist community center in Asheville, NC commented, “Our community is experiencing an ongoing crisis created by infrastructural collapse and the profound failure of capitalism to value and sustain life. No state or federal aid has yet reached Asheville, but all around us we’re seeing regular people acting autonomously to address immediate needs and meet one another with care.”
Remembering Connie Canney, a Justice Warrior
by Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo
Solidarity is being radically present in the fight for social justice. Connie practiced radical love with her movement work...When people like Connie leave the planet, you struggle because a dry obituary just won’t do. Her life and work was so important that I have been struggling with how to justly tell her story and to honor her unique work, enthusiasm and radical love.
Nannie Helen Burroughs - 2024 Cooperative Hall of Fame
CDI (YouTube) — Nannie Helen Burroughs believed that cooperatives offered Black communities a viable alternative to the hardships of the Great Depression. Already well-known as founder and acclaimed leaders of the National Baptist Women’s Convention and the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC, Ms. Burroughs’ efforts in harnessing the cooperative business model and the multi-stakeholder structure enabled Cooperative Industries of Washington, DC to meet the needs of working mothers in her community...
The Banker Ladies: Vanguards of the Solidarity Economy
Caroline Hossein (YouTube) — Excluded people often draw on cooperative economics not only to survive, but also for a sense of belonging. I know firsthand, having lived through it as a child, the harms that business exclusion can cause. I saw how corporate systems alienate black and racialized individuals who only want to improve their standard of living...
Disaster Compassion is Real in North Carolina
Birds Before the Storm — Outside a church on Haywood Road (a major commercial strip in West Asheville) a child held a huge posterboard sign that read “FOOD BABY,” smiling and waving at the cars… because there was free baby food being given away at the church. Keep going, and you’ll go past lines outside restaurants where food is being cooked and given away for free. Then another church with another relief site. Then the fire station, more relief. Then the anarchist bookstore, bustling with people self-organizing to get supplies out everywhere across the region. Every day there’s a community meeting out back, with spanish and english translation available. The punk bar across the street set up a portapotty after they cooked and gave away all the food in the walk-out freezer...
Is Cheese Board’s Coop the Labor Model of the Future?
Berkeley Economic Review — Sometimes you wonder if economists ever step outside their lecture halls. Monopolies aren’t businesses, they’re a series of curves on a graph. Consumers aren’t people, they’re utility functions. Not only do these models oversimplify and dehumanize, but they generally fail to hold up in real life...I interviewed Vanessa Vichit-Vadakan, a worker-owner at Cheese Board—everyone’s favorite Berkeley pizza place—to learn more about the real-world applications of labor models...
Palante is hiring a new web worker!
Palante Technology Cooperative — Palante Technology Cooperative is seeking a new worker to join our cooperative! We are looking for someone who is passionate about supporting nonprofit social justice organizations in meeting their technology goals. The new worker will join our web team, providing remote support and maintenance to clients across the country...
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