About
Cooperation DC builds a city-wide, long-term, dual strategy toward racial and economic justice through (i) popular & technical education, (ii) direct action, (iii) worker-owned alternatives, (iv) leadership development, and (v) advocacy. Cooperation DC organizes to create sustainable, regenerative, dignified Black work and training opportunities to support the broader solidarity economy movement in DC.
Why Cooperation DC?
The devastating effects of imperialism, colonization, racial, capitalism and political austerity (decreased government spending) have on our material conditions as individuals and as a community offer no other alternative but to build revolutionary strategies toward self determination and communal power. ONE DC has spent years studying political movements of the oppressed in the US and beyond to gain collective control of land, housing and labor. Current conditions of labor, especially in the age of Covid, make it difficult to envision a future of work that is not exploitative, sexist, racist, and soul crushing. We believe that the power belongs to the people and follow a history of Black movement thinkers and leaders who struggle in the fight for economic liberation. Too often, current cooperative movements and discussion are not centered in liberation politics and environmental justice, void of a racial and gendered analysis of our political economy. We envision a cooperative movement in DC whose leadership and knowledge is informed by Black working class people and traditions of Black cooperative thought and practice. Cooperation DC organizing and education is grounded in the history of Black -indigenous methods of cooperation as well as contemporary Black cooperative economic practice. We envision Cooperation DC and our politics to inform and transform the Black cooperative movement in DC to build transformative and powerful alternatives to capitalist labor models.
Why Focus on Black Labor?
Black people experience the worst economic and social outcomes in DC due to a history of housing discrimination, job discrimination, gentrification. We focus on the Black working class in our political analysis as a grassroots organizing strategy to center and uplift the leadership of the most impacted.
Our Work
Cooperation DC engages in:
- Political Education Study Groups
- Cooperative Events and Organizing Trainings
- Community Learning Journeys
- Technical Assistance to beginner cooperatives
- Relationship building with cooperative network partners
The Cooperation DC Steering Committee is currently preparing to form a member study group. Stay tuned.
Healthy Workers Collective
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PF5_OPrXLLsItu80GM6xoiq-TlVDYnMnE4c8-4G8Evg/edit?usp=sharing
Contact:
Contact us at [email protected]