Grassroots Economic Organizing Monthly Discussion: The place and potential of solidarity economics in transforming our economy and society.
Category: Solidarity Economics
Could America Have A General Strike Like France? | More Perfect Union
The Class Room featuring Alice Cappelle
When millions of French protesters shut down their country over the president’s decision to raise the retirement age, U.S. commentators said it could never happen here. But why?
To find out why, we went back through decades of U.S. and French history. We took a look at the different narratives we tell ourselves about strikes and the different laws protecting the right to collective action in the United States and Europe.
The Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy
“The Education Myth” challenges the prevailing notion that education is the primary avenue to economic opportunity in America. Author Jon Shelton, associate professor and chair of Democracy & Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, explores the historical shift in the perception of education’s role in society, revealing that its connection to economic well-being was not always inevitable.
While early public education aimed to foster democratic participation, the mid-20th century saw the rise of the education myth, stifling social democratic alternatives and sidelining notions of economic security and social dignity for all.
Shelton tracks the transformation from the 1960s onward, as both Democrats and Republicans, including figures like Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, perpetuated this myth, leading to an unequal economy and a deeply divided political landscape over the past four decades.
Link to the book at Cornell University Press
For a spot on book review, point your browser to:
Public Education Is Vital for Democracy. But It’s Not the Solution to Poverty or Inequality
By Jennifer C. Berkshire | Jacobin
Cooperative Accounting Conundrum | GEO Podcast
On this episode of the Grassroots Economic Organizing podcast, Mike Leung talks with Josh Davis about a paradox in how start-up losses are handled in worker cooperatives.
3D Printed vs Aluminum Injection Molds | JohnSL
There has been a lot of interest recently in 3d printed vs aluminum injection molds. I know I thought about that. At first glance, it seems that using 3d printed mold inserts would be faster and easier than making aluminum molds. That turns out not to be the case, and there are other downsides to using 3d printed mold inserts.
Economists’ “Holy Grail” Metric Is Totally Bogus | The Majority Report
Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland speak with Jon D. Erickson, professor of sustainability science and policy at The University of Vermont, to discuss his recent book The Progress Illusion: Reclaiming Our Future from the Fairytale of Economics.
When Social Control Masquerades as Social Justice | WHAT IS POLITICS?
When ideas and movements that threaten to overturn established hierarchies of power are absorbed into elite institutions like Ivy League universities and for-profit corporations, they get transformed into ideas that support the status quo, while remaining cloaked in the language and symbols of radicalism and egalitarianism.
The replacement of the word “equality” by the word “equity” in the worlds of academia, NGOs, activism, and corporate HR departments, is an example of the attempts by elite people and institutions to transform historical movements for racial and gender equality, into ideas that promote the interest of elites – in particular, economic inequality and the division of the working classes.
In this episode we explore how forms of oppression based on cultural factors like skin colour or gender or religion, etc, can only be understood and effectively combatted by understanding them in the context of economic exploitation and economic competition which is what the human propensity to discriminate evolved for in the first place.
Philanthropy Is Ruining America | Leeja Miller, JD
Billionaires and multi-millionaires love to pat themselves on the back for their charitable giving. But what if we just taxed the rich and regulated their business practices instead of letting them get away with theft and atrocity while still getting to pad their reputation by giving away the millions of dollars they stole from their laborers?
I am Muirén, and my specific focus is on leveraging the untapped potential of the MIDI 2.0 specification, now that real-world development tools and products are finally making their way into the hands of grassroots hackers, makers, and artists.
It is an extension of 🧙🏾♀️TınyMaker.Space™ Project, the organizing, evangelizing force, and funding source for my goal of establishing a permanent home and makerspace that is self-supporting through its own efforts, primarily through sales of my uniquely crafted, tangible fusions of art and tech, as well as performing arts.