Accelerating Common Economies training

Hi all!

I am finally making my blog post about the industrial commons experience! I am putting this experience in the process of sharing cooperative knowledge because I believe its knowledge that affects all of us, as worker-owners and as community wealth building organizers.

I'm going to break it down day by day from introductions, to conclusions. The goal here is to give you perspective about the steps and planning taken by The industrial commons to create a new economic worker owned structure

Day 1: Talking about the history of The Industrial Commons ---> Opportunity threads and Carolina textile District:

Legal entity model of The industrial Commons:

Hopefully its easy to see but I can start to explain from the bottom up.

Under Industrial commons, there are currently 3 worker-owned cooperatives. The goal of industrial commons as a "parent" or holding corporation is to incubate and support cooperatives until they are independent but still part of the Cooperative ecosystem through membership and collaboration deals with other LLCs and Non-Profit programs

Materials return has a partnership with the now independent Opportunity threads. They support the sustainable circulatory goals of industrial commons by using "waste" fabric from Opportunity threads to create insulation material for houses, rockets, buildings, etc. Materials return also contracts with other LLCs to process, reuse, recycle, and resell materials in the West North Carolina Region.

Goodbooks is a book-keeping cooperative that services Industrial commons, Materials return, opportunity threads, and other emerging companies in the region. They use quickbooks

Circular Economy principles --> Materials return: I have explained it a bit already but Industrial common's goal is to support Sustainable and circulatory practices to reduce the exploitation of natural/Land, capital, human, and entrepreneurial resources.

Day 2: Going to Poder Emma

Educations Session 1: Cooperative systems in the wild. This education session was insightful to understand the different Cooperative development, business, and ecosystems models for cooperatives in the real world. We learned about capacity building, business management, and cooperative ecosystems.

We learned about all the positions or roles needed to fulfill all of these goals:

Cooperative Capacity builders: Trainer, coop structure expert, governance expert, participatory manager, process facilitator, conflict mediator.

Business Developers: Business Planner, business strategist, financial analyst, industry expert, marketing expert, systems operation expert, and capital getter.

Ecosystem Organizer: Networker, Power Broker, Collaborator, Policy advocate, and Negotiator.

The most important takeaway of this learning session is understanding where the cooperative falls in regards to the needs or service of the community. As long as the industry is needed by the people, there will be a way for capacity, business development, and ecosystems. In order to create reliable Cooperative systems there needs to be a successful model that works for northern virginia. A model that assists trainings, learning, and spaces to meet and network with cooperative developers, people, and those who want to see this movement succeed.

Education Session 2: Political Centrality: This conversation was something new for me. it took a while to process because it felt controversial and content heavy. For me biggest take away of this conversation was understanding the needs of your community, understanding your boundaries, and understanding your willingness to compromise with systems, people, or organizations that do not completely align with the goals or opinions of a community.

Day 3: Talking With the Founders of Industrial Commons and Poder Emma

Panel with Sara & Andrea: This conversation with the founders was such a liberating conversation. We started out with with how everything started out.

Question #1: How it all started

Sara and Andrea talked about how it all started with the Interpretation cooperative (Cenzontle Language Justice Cooperative) . This was the biggest need of the community in Ashville and the best first step for this 20 year journey. Andrea mentioned how as an interpreter she got the perspective of the immigrant community and started to understand their needs. She slowly began building relationship with community members and then the idea of a housing cooperative came up for the first time.

Question #2: Why can't Corporate capitalism give us the benefits that cooperatives do? What is the purpose of worker-owned cooperatives for a worker's perspective?

Andrea started by emphasizing the empowerment of local ownership and community wealth building ideas, she mentioned that once people understood ownership and practices it, they could not let go of it, because they felt meaningful. Being worker owners means giving the work place a different atmosphere where everyone is equal and where the work that you do is meaningful, it changes people's lives.

Sara Focused on the aspect of decision making, and giving the workers the choice for stewardship for the future. It is in the best interest of all worker owners centered around community to reverse extraction by being sustainable through community ownership. it also means taking steps as teams and as communities.

Question #3: How has the general view of Cooperatives change based on economic and sociocultural shifts?

They both emphasized that the movement has gained a lot of traction and it is especially more successful in progressive rural communities. People in these kind of communities get excited and confused, they always ask whether cooperatives are communist lol.

"The more you do it, the more normal it becomes to hear about it and practice it" - I couldn't see who said it ;(

Question #4: How do you build the muscle for cooperation and decision making? How can you make progress when you are stuck?

Andrea gives us insight into how she did it all for 20 years. She said "every Place is different" it all start with organizing informally through collaboratives or community participation. It is all about planting the seeds of participation in the community. And then its about giving people the space to make collective decisions and getting used to that. When you are stuck, revisit your goals, revisit your communities, and consider them when making a decision.

Sara gave us insight into the challenges of starting from High to low. After 10 years industrial commons is still in the process of figuring out governance and decision making. They have had to learn how to stop thinking from positions of power and started to treat each other equally. Even calling themselves stewards not managers. That's where the topic of Management vs. Governance comes to question, they are such different concepts, but both are needed for the survival of a cooperative.

Question #5: What made you choose a cooperative? how did you know it was the right choice?

Andrea gave us a bit of background about herself. She started her cooperative journey at Highlander Institute Of Tennessee, an institute that trained people in popular education and introduced the model of cooperatives through the economics branch. Andrea says that Cooperatives put democracy at work and ensure action through direct advocacy and participation for issues like gender equality and putting women in positions of power. It also gives economic and people power to leverage decision making in the local governments.

Question #6: Que hay de la parte subjetiva o el lado humano de los trabajadores y líderes de estos movimientos?

Andrea dice que se requiere un grupo de personas que dediquen su vida a este tipo de movimiento. Personas que tengan la capacidad de comprometerse toda la vida a este proceso. Tambien dice que hay que tener cuidado por que tus hijos pagarán los precios de tus decisiones, no pasarás tiempo con ellos, y sus estilos de vida sera la refleccion de tu trabajo y tus decisiones tomes.

Andrea dijo que hay etapas en la que tenemos que vernos en la cara y preguntarnos, cuantos años para seguir cargando la carga que cargas. Te ves haciendo esto toda la vida? Por eso se necesita la unidad, para hacerlo junto, para progresar juntos, y sufrir juntos. El buen convivir es el buen vivir.

Question #7: Han Tenido experiencias con cooperativas que se presentan como cooperativas pero son corporales?

• Las dos dijeron que Hay Debate de cuál es el significado de una cooperativa

• Hay que tener cuidado y actuar con el interés de la comunidad y trabajadores en mente

• Hay gente que está mal informada sobre las cooperativas y gente que piensan que las cooperativas son un esquema piramidal

Question #8: What is the importance of an Ecosystem and how can we make sure people don't feel left out of these big systems?

• Do grounding work or grassroots ecosystems that are rooted in values and culture. Something separate from cooperatives

• Ecosystems should be a grounding place, a place where you can meet anyone and feel comfortable to talk about the things you want to see in the community.

Question #9: How do we navigate through distrust in our community

Andrea said that the hardest thing to do was and is to measure the hope in the community. How much hope does the community have, how much trust? She mentioned that there needed to be silos to figure out ourselves and the community, to understand our values and needs. Places where people are taken away from the system of surveillance and coercion, where their needs can't be discarded by people in power.

A member of ACE mentioned how a lot of these conversations about alternative systems and alternative ways to avoid the system happens within the systems themselves. For example he mentioned that a lot of community wealth building conversations happen within prison yards, right in front of the system. His point being that those that are least benefitted by the system will always find resources to survive, we know we can't survive alone, so what can we do?

Sara Mentioned that it is also about being vulnerable and learning along with the community. Inviting others to spaces where we can learn about each other and our worries.

"How can we make it so that it feels possible for our community to have hope in us?" "We cry with them, we celebrate with them, we decide with them, and we suffer with them"

and that's the end of such a great panel! I aspire to be like these leaders, I hope to learn from them and all the steps they took to be where they are.

Book recommendation: Collective Courage