Cooperation Jackson: Building Economic Democracy

REPORT AUTHOR Kathryn Cai, PhD The Partnership for Working Families is a national network of 20 powerful city and regional affiliate groups based in major urban areas across the country. The Partnership advocates for and supports policies and movements that build more just and sustainable communities where we live and work. Taking lessons learned at the local level and applying them to the national conversation, the Partnership builds a framework for addressing climate change, inequality, racial and social injustice. For more information, visit us at www. ForWorkingFamilies.org. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Mariah Montgomery for her substantial contributions and edits to this report and to Lauren Jacobs for the influential thinking that has shaped this work. The Partnership would also like to thank the following people on our staff and in the Partnership network whose work and ideas helped shape this report: Amisha Patel, Esther Handy, Elena Perez, Anne Barnett, Dr. Kyra Greene, Marcos Ceniceros, Maria Noel Fernandez, Deanna Kitamura, Jahmese Myres, and Edgar Beltrán. Finally, thank you to the following individuals who facilitated our 2019 learning trip to Barcelona: Lucas Shapiro, Kate Shea Baird, Daniel Cruz, Elena Tarifa, and Anke Kleff. Design and layout by Design Action Collective TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Our Vision .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Our Fight..................................................................................................................................................7 The How: Participatory Democracy ........................................................................................... 12 Designing Participatory Processes .............................................................................................23 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................26 Appendix I: The 7 Guiding Principles Of Our Work ..............................................................29 Endnotes ...............................................................................................................................................30 INTRODUCTION This paper makes a case for fundamentally changing norms that keep organizers to democratize the way power in the hands of the very few. local budgets are set to meet the From walking through our cities and talking multiple crises of this moment, build with our neighbors in 2021, we know that a larger base, and sow seeds that our movement and communities must can give rise to a true multiracial, fight against deep budget cuts, an inequi- feminist democracy for the first table COVID response, and over policing. time in our country. These forces are harming and killing Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and other people of This vision is a contribution to growing color each day. movements to win People’s Budgets and The acceleration of violent, Right-wing, Moral Budgets in cities around the country anti-democratic politics in recent years also and is aligned with calls to defund police. tells us that we must fight for deeper democ- We are drawing on examples of and lessons racy. We need and deserve a democracy from participatory democracy and co-gov- that will help us secure freedom and safety ernance projects led by Barcelona en Comú for all people. This is a democracy that will and Cooperation Jackson and efforts in our be stronger in the face of racist, sexist and network's own cities. We are also inspired authoritarian threats now and in the future. by the ambitious framework set forth by civil rights and labor leaders in 1965 to end We believe democratizing local budgets is poverty in the U.S. in just ten years. In that a way our movement can do both and seek document, A. Philip Randolph wrote, “we call transformation for the long term. Our current this a ‘Freedom Budget’ in recognition that system seeks to divide us, and we cannot poverty and deprivation, as surely as denial change that without also building community of the right to vote, are erosive of human and our capacity for working together. Our freedom and of democracy.”1 We seek not just vision for deepened participatory processes good budget outcomes but self governance. can help build the much larger base we need Ultimately, we hope this work will play a role to win fundamental change at work, in gov- in building a more democratic culture and ernment, and in our communities. 4 / PEOPLE-POWERED BUDGETS Changes to our budget processes will not • A framework for understanding different solve everything—we need more resources participatory processes, based on move- available to address shared needs and to ment experiences, governing experi- build life-supporting, healthy cities. We must ments, and academic study aggressively pursue progressive revenue • Case studies and examples of democratic measures at all levels of government. Even practices used by local government and here, however, there is a practical benefit movement organizations to including a more democratic approach: research shows increasing democratic • Some things to consider in designing engagement in budgeting expands public participatory processes support for raising revenue, creating a virtu- ous cycle.2 • Recommendations for movement organizations, state & local elected officials, and This document is a contribution to an ongo- researchers ing conversation between many organizers, movement leaders, and elected officials about • Our guiding principles for this work creating deeper democracy. It is an invita- We have a lot to learn if we are to build a tion to explore local budgets as a site for us deeper democracy. We must try new things to practice building that democracy. Here’s and continually adapt based on our successes what you will find inside: and failures. We hope this paper is a contri- • An analysis of how austerity and bution to our movement’s collective, ongoing anti-democratic politics are intertwined work, and look forward to experimenting and grounded in white supremacy, and with and learning from you. the opportunities presented by anti-racist, anti-austerity movements today Photo by Brooke Anderson, courtesy of East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy PARTNERSHIP FOR WORKING FAMILIES / 5 OUR VISION We call for a democracy that centers of learning, negotiating, compromising, care and in which everyone can experimenting, and deeply engaging with one participate, so we can build a world another allows us to work together to build a community that can help all of us live health- in which everyone can live full and ier, richer lives. healthy lives. Prioritizing care means that we use our We can channel the desires of regular people resources to make our communities healthy. to enact policies that build a world we want to As Black feminists and feminists of color live in. have taught us, the health of our communi- Imagine if we could gather regularly with ties goes hand-in-hand with the health of our neighbors to decide how our collective the environments in which we live, and this resources can be used to support all of us and health encompasses safety from violence, to meet shared responsibilities. What might clean air and water, and the resources we we decide to fund? What collective, public need to imagine and pursue possibilities for 3 institutions would we build? What priorities our lives and the lives of our loved ones. would we realize that we all share? Through Centering care also means paying attention these discussions, we would know each other to how we treat one another as we govern as people: we would come to understand each ourselves. We envision a world where we other’s concerns and priorities, understand are working together to include everyone, how our circumstances are connected to account for and undo power imbalances, and one another, and see one another within the make space for both self-determination and context of our families and communities. We shared responsibility. These are not (only) would disagree at times; we would have to lofty philosophical questions but urgently compromise. Over time, however, we would practical and logistical matters, and our work also come to learn that this ongoing process is to learn by doing and trying together. We envision a world where we are working together to include everyone, account for and undo power imbalances, and make space for both self-determination and shared responsibility. 6 / PEOPLE-POWERED BUDGETS OUR FIGHT This is the time to fight for a radically differ- that, in 2021, far Right extremists who sup- ent democracy. port authoritarianism and white supremacy are emboldened and have significant influ- Crises that fundamentally and immediately ence in our political system.4 threaten the viability of everyday life are powerful opportunities to make change, and Former President Trump’s attempts to under- the COVID-19 pandemic is a prime exam- mine the outcome of the 2020 election were ple. The pandemic is bringing yet another a blatant attack on democracy, but some wave of austerity to our cities. This austerity thought leaders and politicians on the Right translates to cuts both in the social services take the position that our government is that we need most in our everyday lives

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