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As another year comes to a close, CED has been taking some time to reflect on the work we’ve accomplished over the past couple months, the challenges we overcame, and the changes we embraced. In 2024, we welcomed new staff including our Co-Executive Director Shari Davis, celebrated campaign wins with our Better Budget Alliance and Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power, supported the rapid response efforts of our partners, and overall continued to build a coordinated movement rooted in solidarity.
As we look forward to 2025, we have been deep in our own strategic planning and goal setting process so we can continue to bring our vision for a truly democratic economy to life. Join us by taking action and learning more about the work we are moving into the new year.
Massachusetts worker ownership coalition sets bold 2025 policy agenda!
We’re a member and coordinator of the state-wide Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP) in Massachusetts. This month, at the coalition’s annual meeting, members democratically affirmed our 2025 policy platform! In the upcoming state legislative session, we’ll organize for some of the same winning asks as before, plus two new exciting policies (#3 and #4 below):
To get to this place, we did a lot of participatory idea collection and research, resulting in the highest engagement in our policy platform election yet!
COWOP has also launched a Supply Chains Collaborative, which is nurturing community-controlled value chains in the Northeast. Reply to this newsletter if you’d like to learn more. And finally, COWOP organizer Sarah Assefa appeared in a news story on how the worker-owned coop movement is supporting unionized workers at REI who are fighting for a good contract!
Boston’s first participatory budgeting cycle launched earlier this year. More than 1000 ideas were submitted to the process, representing resident’s ideas for the wellness of their communities. These were then refined through a rigorous feedback process in different neighborhoods to create a total of 15 project proposals. Though the city allocated $5 million for Bostonians to vote on how that money is allocated across these resident-led projects, only $2 million is being released, leaving millions in taxpayer dollars locked away.
Last week, Boston City Councilors Julia Mejia, Brian Worrell, and Liz Breadon filed a resolution to free the full $5M to be made available for the community to decide how their money should be spent. Bostonians are counting on City Councillors to pass this resolution with an overwhelming majority vote. If Mayor Wu and Boston City Council free up the roughly $5 million set aside participatory budgeting, the projects that win on the ballot will have a real impact on residents’ needs.
Boston Residents: Take action and let your city councilors know that you want transparency, accountability, and a commitment to pass the resolution to support the release of the full funding for participatory budgeting. Sign the petition here.
Read the self-published op-ed, “Where did our money go?” released by the Better Budget Alliance for more information at the link below.
Connecting funders to the frontlines: celebrating a growing solidarity economy movement!
Earlier this month, the Solidarity Economy Initiative (SEI) and its parallel program, the Solidarity Philanthropy Learning Circle (SPLC), gathered to reflect on the past year, celebrate wins, and strategize for the future.
Members of the Solidarity Economy Initiative ended their last session together by granting out $196,000 to the Chinatown Community Land Trust in Boston and $50,000 to Matahari Womens Workers Center. The cohort also brainstormed ways they want to stay involved next year as alumni and support the incoming five project groups of the new Solidarity Economy Incubator. Folks ultimately came together to connect and celebrate 10 years of the Solidarity Economy in Boston, which you can read more about here.
Concurrently, at their last meeting of the year, cohort members of SPLC gathered to discuss the shifting political conditions of 2025 and identified opportunities to take collective action together as funders. Funders also strategized with the Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity, a community led organization supporting the development of worker-owned cooperatives in the immigrant community of East Boston, about co-resourcing their building purchase.
This year, SPLC had its largest cohort yet with funders represented across three states in New England: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. A total of $470,000 was raised to redirect resources to frontline communities through the SEI Pooled Fund. This money was used to fund the projects of various grassroots organizations through a collective decision making process, including seeding community land trusts, growing a cooperative incubator, and more. If you or someone you know is interested in joining the cohort, fill out the interest form for 2025 at the button below.
Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to release the promised funding for environmental justice!
Eleven organizations, including the Climate Justice Alliance have yet to receive any amount of the funding that was promised to them through the EPA’s Thriving Communities grant making program this year. $600M was allocated by the EPA to be regranted to community groups centering climate and environmental justice work and yet only half of that has been released.
“Among the threatened initiatives is the EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program, which dedicated $600 million in block grants for projects aimed at tackling climate and environmental justice issues in disadvantaged communities. The money has been hailed by advocates as one of the most important federal investments ever made in closing the nation’s long-standing socioeconomic and racial gaps.
The Biden administration has so far awarded nearly $266 million, according to an EPA database, leaving more than half—or just over $334 million—vulnerable to reversal efforts…” For more information read the article “Aspiring Applicants Worry EPA Environmental Justice Grant Funding Will Be Rescinded Before It’s Awarded”.
Help ensure that the government upholds democracy and fully resources environmental justice communities as they promised. Take action with the form below.
"Building a world beyond capitalism” merch available at CED's swag shop for the holiday season!
It’s the holiday season and we hope many of you have been supporting small local businesses, artists, and/or following our shop coop campaign. If you’re still looking for the perfect gift, check out the Center for Economic Democracy’s swag shop hosted in partnership with the incredible unionized, worker-owned printing cooperative, Worx Printing.
Head on over to the site at the link below to pick up a “Building a World Beyond Capitalism” t-shirt or tote bag. We also have CED hats or mugs available for purchase.
Wear a statement for a brighter future with us as we enter the new year in 2025!
