4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS LOCAL ECONOMY JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 CYNTHIA PRICE Editor On March 28, a conference was held at the University of Michigan Ginsberg Center titled “Building Our Solidarity Economy.” The conference was co-organized by the Ginsberg Center and the Michigan Chapter of Resource Generation. Resource Generation is a national membership organization that organizes economically privileged young people in support of wealth redistribution and economic justice. The conference was populated by people looking for answers. It is obvious to many that capitalism is failing. What is not obvious is what to replace it with. Anecdotally, a majority of people believe the only alternative to capitalism is socialism. This is not true; there are many ways to go about distributing resources. The Solidarity Economy conference was an exploration of what that might look like. A “solidarity economy” is one that prioritizes human development and environmental responsibility over the acquisition of profit and wealth. Instead of valuing competition, a solidarity economy values cooperation, mutualism, equity, participatory democracy, sustainability, and pluralism. Examples of solidarity economy practices include: • Worker-owned cooperatives: workers own the business, share in management and decision making responsibilities and share the profits • Community land trusts: organizations acquire property to keep it available for the community (as opposed to private ownership and real estate agents) • Timebanks: people use hours of labor and services as currency • Community lending practice: simply put, banks without interest • Participatory budgeting: citizens of a region decide how to spend it’s resources as opposed to a centralized service/private sector provider • Fair trade practices. The room was filled with everyone from wanted ecoterrorists to radicalized college students to members of the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti communities. Jiji, an activist from Ypsilanti, had this to say: “The conference is about solidarity economies and how they show up for different communities. Different organizations came, mostly centered around the farming economy and practices. The conference also addressed how to uplift the solidarity economy by creating communal spaces for sharing resources such as DBCFSN is a citizens group that works on self-reliance and food justice issues by educating the public on healthy food production and processing, and creating policy. The first workshop was titled “Solidarity Economy and You," led by Prerna (pron. Prayer-na) Agarwall. It was an introduction to the solidarity economy model and its potential for an alternative to capitalism. Prerna is a facilitator, activist and educator. They have been organizing for nearly seven years, building power through fighting gentrification and expanding community food sovereignty with Cleveland Owns. They are fiercely committed to following in the Zapatista tradition of building a world where many worlds fit. is making sure our cooperatives are in alignment with global class struggles. Remember it's not just about sharing dry goods or sharing food, it is more about fighting against domination. This includes people who are most vulnerable and oftentimes don’t have the capacity to come and enter spaces like this.” Other workshops that were held included: Transformative Fundraising: How to build community and shift power while raising money; Navigating Conflict in Organizing and Coalition Building; and Solidarity Economy Here and Now: Practices from the Great Lakes Region. “Reclaiming and Resourcing our Collective Future” was the final session of food, skill shares, community events, even shelter.” Jiji also shared about the Community Food Forest located at Leslie Park in Ann Arbor. A community food forest is a miniature forest ecosystem that contains a variety of edible plants. Volunteers take care of the plants and the forest is open to the public for food sustenance and socializing. You can learn more about it on their website: www.trueearth.org/food-forest Jiji said there were different farmer cooperatives such as The D-town Farm run by the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. The Conference activity. Prerna explained that for us to build outside of capitalism we must go beyond building cooperation and community and include pushing back against the structures of domination that we see imposed and escalated onto us. Expanding on this, Prerna explained, “The work I do involves the incubation and development of cooperatives. It's really important for me to remind people that although practices of collectivity and cooperation do feel radical, unless it is tied into material class struggle, there’s nothing that enables the end of capitalism. What that means MAY 2, 2025 Building Our Solidarity Economy: Conference review the day. The panel presentation accompanied an announcement that Resource Generation Michigan has adopted the organization MI Rent Is Too Damn High as their campaign partner. This will help Rent Is Too Damn High to reach tenants across the state. MI Rent Is Too Damn High describes itself as “a statewide coalition of tenant unions, housing justice groups, and allied organizations." Their inaugural event was the September 5, 2023, Rent Is Too Damn High demonstration, which brought out 350 tenants from across the state to the Capitol in Lansing. Their focus now has moved from legislative advocacy to fostering strength in existing tenant unions and localized tenant assemblies, and developing new unions and assemblies. The Coalition Coordinator, Will Lawrence, served on the panel and his presentation was incisive, with a clear and overarching view of the failings of a system that makes obtaining housing dependent on being able to pay for it. Lawrence said in an interview, “I thought the conference went very well. There were a lot of terrific presenters and panelists with a great diversity of projects, for example, land banks, ecovillages, farming and agriculture projects and a lot of mutual aid and community support organizations.” Lawrence commented about Resource Generation’s commitment to The Rent Is Too Damn High, “We’re very honored to have our work recognized, and we’re looking forward to organizing tenants around the state.” The remaining panelists were Jamila Martin of Movement Voter Project, which makes connections between funders and innovative projects through many initiatives, and Dr. Ashley Glassburn of the Miami Nation of Indiana Honor Fund. All three panelists talked about the “redistribution of wealth” inherent in wealthy funders willing to support initiatives that address issues in less mainstream ways. Dr. Glassburn added a lot of interesting items to the discussion during the question and answer period. For example, on the topic of homeless people she said, to applause, that it was counterintuitive to seek money to build a homeless shelter when instead it could be used for programs to prevent the need for shelter space. Dr. Glassburn also pointed out something unusual about the Black Panther Party chapters in Milwaukee and Chicago. In Milwaukee, they concentrated on distributing food and making sure people were getting fed. The Panthers in Chicago were armed see SOLIDARITY next page
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