The Solidarity Economy

The solidarity economy is a practice of social and economic cooperation that centers people, especially poor and working class workers and people of color, over profit. Solidarity economies focus on democratic ownership and community control of the systems that distribute all the goods and services human beings need in order to live with dignity. The concept and practice of the solidarity economy originated within social movements in Latin America, and in the past few decades has grown into a global movement of communities practicing alternatives to capitalism.

Foundational pieces of the solidarity economy include mutual aid projects, cooperative businesses owned by workers or the community, limited equity housing cooperatives, community land trusts, credit unions, public banks, solidarity loan funds and other institutions through which we can collectively own and control land, money and our labor. 

Worker cooperatives are an example of a solidarity economy institution in which the workers own and control the business collectively. In worker-owned cooperatives, workers control their own schedules and workplace conditions, determine their own wages and control the surplus, or profits, of the business. With ownership in the hands of workers, cooperatives stay connected and accountable to their communities, and worker-owners can choose to reinvest money locally. More than half of worker cooperatives in the United States today were created to improve low-wage jobs and build wealth in communities most directly affected by inequality, helping vulnerable workers build skills and earning potential, household income and assets. Jobs at cooperatively-owned businesses tend to be longer-term, offer extensive skills training, and provide better wages than similar jobs in conventional companies.

Non-extractive loan funds like the DC Solidarity Loan Fund help support a thriving solidarity economy by ensuring worker-owned cooperatives, which are not traditionally candidates for lending, receive the capital needed to sustain and grow their businesses without being subject to predatory lending practices.

BCI envisions the movement to build solidarity economies as part of wider movements for abolition and decolonization, participating in local organizing campaigns and mutual aid work that build worker power, and national coalitions that work towards a more liberatory and democratic world.