The following is a transcript of the video above, from our webinar “Remaking the Economy: A Policy Vision from the Movement for Black Lives.” View the full webinar here. Rosemary Ndubuizu: The value of…de-commodified housing that’s rooted in gender, racial, and Indigenous justice would require that we start to unpack some very ugly truths about our economy. In this country, 20 percent of our Gross Domestic Product is housing-related. It’s all about the housing economy. From mortgages to developing [and] building these homes, we’re all very much—even our retirement, our 401(k)s—implicate ..read more

Image credit: Mike Ferguson/AAUP A year ago, in Biden v. Nebraska, the US Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s executive order to cancel up to $20,000 in debt per borrower. Since then, the Biden administration has taken incremental steps to reduce debt. As of January 2024, 3.7 million Americans had received a total of $136.6 billion in debt forgiveness. By April, those numbers had increased to $153 billion for 4.3 million Americans. But most Americans with student debt have still not received any forgiveness to date. A new Biden administration proposal could change that. In early Ap ..read more

Image credit: Nick Night on Unsplash For months, commentators have been interrogating why the public’s perception of the economy is so negative when, by standard measures, it is booming. This is an important question that may well decide the presidential election. But looking beyond the election to the progressive policy agenda going forward requires asking something else: What is the relationship between a booming economy and economic justice? In other words, what does a workers’ labor market mean for rebalancing power away from corporations, repairing past and ongoing harms, and fo ..read more

Image credit: John Fornander on Unsplash As co-coordinators of the US Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN), we routinely face the joys and challenges of working with a wide range of social change agents and organizations to advance an explicitly post-capitalist framework. We’ve been at this for a while. USSEN was formed in 2007 at the first US Social Forum in Atlanta when approximately 15,000 folks gathered under the banner “Another World is Possible and Another US is Necessary.” The goals, then as now, were to organize around a common vision—one that centers racial, economic, and ecol ..read more

Image credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash Throughout my 10-year career in the nonprofit sector, working as a program director in youth development and later as an operations director in philanthropy, professional development has often entailed a one- to two-hour webinar on cultivating relationships or a half-day session on best practices in program management and has always felt like punishment from those in charge. Such programs remind me of required summer reading—something to keep you busy that instructors never revisit during the school year. It is difficult to ..read more

Image credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash When I set out to raise $6 million to build a coworking and community space created by and for women of color, I didn’t need a workshop on fundraising. Rather, what has most helped me raise $5.4 million to date have been the individuals in my network who were willing to pick up the phone and make strategic introductions. As the US population of educated and ambitious women of color continues to rise, many people ask, “How can we support women of color leaders effectively?” The answers are often to enroll in leadership developmen ..read more

Image credit: Jeffery Erhunse on Unsplash In our workplaces, the pursuit of perfection often overshadows showing up authentically, especially for Black women. Long have we, as Black women, realized that the adage “work twice as hard to get half as far” is more than mere words: it becomes our lived reality and an unrelenting burden. In our research for the Black Women Thriving Report, we posed this question: “What were the earliest messages that you received about success?” Repeatedly, we encountered the sentiment that Black women must work doubly hard for half the pay, promotions, an ..read more

Image credit: Nick Fewings on Unsplash In America, COVID-19 is now the fourth leading cause of death. An estimated 6.8 percent of Americans—or 17.6 million people—currently have long COVID. Largely because of the virus, an increasing number of Americans now live with disabilities. Many people with disabilities…worry that the updated guidance endangers people who face an increased risk to their health and wellbeing when exposed to COVID-19. During the pandemic, it has become increasingly evident that many people with disabilities face a heightened risk of infection, long-term complica ..read more

Image credit: Liderina on istock.com As a career midwife with more than 43 years of experience caring for expectant mothers, Jennie Joseph has become an authority on maternal health by championing healthy pregnancies, healthy deliveries, and healthy babies. Her deeply human-centered approach, putting the humanity of women and babies before profits has earned her international recognition. She is the founder of the only nationally accredited, privately owned school for midwifery owned by a Black woman, the Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery. She also established The Birth Plac ..read more

  What are the stories that we need to tell to better understand our economy, and lay the groundwork for building a more inclusive, democratic world? Storytelling—the construction of spoken or written accounts of a series of events that we tell each other to understand our world—offers critical tools to build movements, upend myths that hold us back, and construct cultures that can sustain a democratic economy. This webinar conversation, a coproduction of NPQ and the BLIS Collective, takes a deep look at how to use storytelling to advance transformative change. Participating in the c ..read more