Studying Up

A commitment to ongoing learning is an important part of building a new economy. These are just a few of the resources we recommend exploring below grouped by categories.

Building Blocks

• Intro to Co-ops from SEC4CD

• Equity Hub: History of US Cooperative Movements from CooperationWorks!

• “Cooperatives as Ancestral Technology” by B. Vanessa Coleman

• Own The Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time

• Kali Akuno’s Lecture "Shifting Focus: Organizing for an Ecosocialist Future"

• “Unions and Worker Co-ops: Why Economic Justice Requires Collaboration” by Rebecca Lurie

• Co-op History is Black History Resource Kit from New Economy Coalition (2023)

• Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard

• For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America by John Curl

• Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy by Nathan Schneider

• Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi

Post-Capitalism

• Economics for Emancipation

• “What Do We Mean by Solidarity Economy?”

• “System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy”

• Seeds of Land Return

• Tenants Without Landlords

• #LandBack On the Ground

• “What Free the Land Means to Movement Generation”

• Radical Imagination (podcast)

• Cooperative Journal (podcast)

• “Solidarity Economies: Building Community Power” series from NPQ

• Remaking the Economy: Building Regional Solidarity Economies webinar from NPQ

• “Will the Revolution Be Funded?”

Work it, Own it

• Building Worker Power Panel with Chris Smalls & Kali Akuno

• Unions and Co-ops: Gem City Network from CooperationWorks!

• Everything Co-op (podcast)

• Democracy@Work (podcast)

• The Laura Flanders Show (podcast)

Resources for Cooperatives

Toolkits & Guides

• Creating Better Jobs and a Fairer Economy With Worker Cooperatives

• Becoming Employee Owned

• Think Outside the Boss

• Worker Cooperative Toolbox

• Cooperating for a Better Tomorrow Policymakers’ Guide

Conflict & culture

• In It Together: A Framework for Conflict Transformation In Movement-Building Groups

• To Transform Conflict in Movements, We Must Learn How to Stay in It Together from Movement Memos

• Turning Towards Each Other: A Conflict Workbook

governance & decision-making

• How Worker Co-ops Decide to Share Profits

supporting organizations

• US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

• Community-Wealth.org

• Democracy at Work Institute

• Becoming Employee Owned

• The Democracy Collaborative

• Sustainable Economies Law Center

• 1Worker1Vote

• Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative (CUCI)