Ed Whitfield discusses the building of cooperatives and the question of reparations in the fight against racism.
Recorded at RLS–NYC panel on “Black Cooperatives” at the Left Forum 2015.
Ed Whitfield discusses the building of cooperatives and the question of reparations in the fight against racism.
Recorded at RLS–NYC panel on “Black Cooperatives” at the Left Forum 2015.
From The Next System Project:
We are in an era when systemic critique of the economic and political institutions of the United States is poised on the edge of mainstream consciousness: the realities of a changing climate, an irrationally destructive financialized economic system, a long and steady historical trajectory concentrating political power along with wealth, and a monstrous apparatus of prisons and policing are becoming impossible to ignore. How can we consciously come together around this opportunity to offer a coherent vision of what a “next system” might look like? How can such a vision work to orient and inspire concrete actions to begin building the world we want to see?
Panelists:
Moderated by Keane Bhatt, The Next System Project
Ed Whitfield gave the opening keynote address to the New Economy Coalition’s 2014 CommonBound conference.
Ed Whitfield speaks at the Jackson Rising Conference about low-income earners working together, job creation, shared funding, and the resources necessary to sustain the co-operative labor movement. His opening remarks touch on the idea that economic strategies must stay rooted within the community. Therefore, surplus can be shared amongst the people who need it most. Whitfield uses the cathedral metaphor for this idea, believing that building a democratic local economy is much like building a great cathedral – stone by stone.
Ed Whitfield spoke to the New Economy Coalition’s CommonBound conference on why the old parable about “teaching a man to fish” is a lie.