CREATION SURPLUS ALLOCATION Ecological Creation Cultural Creation Production Financing Collective Ownership of Land The Commons D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) Self-Financing Credit Unions Conservation Land Trusts

Community Re-Investment Struggles Community Land Trusts Worker & Collectives

Cooperative Loan Funds Not-for-Profit Collectives Banks Community Self-Employment Community Development Credit Unions Education EnERGY Family or clan-based Production Rotating Savings & Community Financing SOLIDARITY ECONOMY Credit Associations SAVING/STORAGE SHELTER Health Democratic ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) COMPOSTING & Food & WATER RECYCLING Community Insurance Gifts Producer Cooperatives Free Stores Coop Food Storage Consumer Cooperatives Community Currencies Compost Projects Self-provisioning Barter Clubs Solidarity Markets Housing Cooperatives Ethical Purchasing Collective Houses Sliding-Scale Pricing Consumption / USE EXCHANGE / Transfer Elements of a Solidarity Economy to be shared and held in common trust. particular endeavor―workers, consumers, Family or clan-based Production are producers and members of the larger production activities rooted in the communal community―in a democratic structure of context of a family, clan or other social group. Because solidarity economics is more of a The Commons is a set of human cultural institutions that function to frame and sustain the ownership and control. While activities in these contexts can often be strategic organizing process than a structural resource bases of a community as shared, collective structured by hierarchy and exclusion, egalitarian economic model, developing "maps" of the sources of livelihood. Contemporary work for the Not-for-Profit Collectives are organizations that forms of such production are widespread. solidarity economy landscape is crucial to the commons is alive and well via anti-privatization are run and managed democratically by their Examples include family farms, childcare by movement. Such maps can serve to more clearly struggles, the “free culture” movement, and groups members and/or staff and operate on a not-for- extended family, shared meal preparation, and identify the relationships (actual or possible) such as Creative Commons, the Free Software profit basis, using any surplus generated to further informal collective care for elders. between cooperative and democratic practices of Foundation, and Friends of the Commons. the ongoing work and mission of the organization livelihood. This map organizes solidarity (rather than, for example, distributing it to Self-Employment, in many instances, might be initiatives around each of the interconnected Collective Ownership of Land refers to diverse members). considered a “worker cooperative of one,” phases of economic life: creation, production, structures through which a community of people providing the worker with significant control over Democratic ESOPs are "Employee Stock the conditions and terms of their work. exchange, consumption and waste. Charting these share ownership and control of land and its various resources. Intentional communities, land-based Ownership Plans," in which workers own shares of Ultimately, the solidary nature of self-employment phases, and the forms of collective organization collectives, local municipalities, tribal ownership. stock in the business they work for. As with other depends on the specific forms that it takes and the positioned within each one, the image allows us stock corporations, this often translates to “one larger economic context of which it is a part. to more clearly envision creative and Community Land Trusts are legal structures for share, one vote"―generating a very low level of complimentary forms of mutual-support and the ownership of land, designed to maintain workplace . Some "democratic ESOPs," Exchange/Transfer interconnection between initiatives working at affordable housing options over the long-term however, are structured to provide workers with How do goods and services move from each point of the economic cycle. through community ownership and control. high levels of participation and decision-making production to use? power in their companies. Creation Conservation Land Trusts are non-profit organizations that own land and easements on land Producer Cooperatives are cooperative Gifts are acts of exchange built on generosity and Where do the basic "raw materials" come from? for the purposes of long-term ecological associations of independent producers―farmers, community. Something is given with no preservation. fisherpeople, retail stores, and more―joining expectation of return, yet the relationships created Ecological Creation together to collectively purchase input materials and sustained by gifts often generate un-expected Earth processes―birth, growth, photosynthesis, Production and/or to market and sell goods and services. Like returns to the giver and an ongoing "cycle of reciprocity." resipration, geological and chemical How are goods and services produced? all cooperatives, they operate with a “one member, transformation, etc.―are the “original points of one vote” system. The degree of commitment to Community Currencies are alternative forms production” that sustain and generate all life and Worker Cooperatives are enterprises owned and principles of social and economic justice varies democratically controlled by their workers. dramatically from one coop to the next, depending of money, usually issued and circulated at a local culture. The moral responsibility to honor and or regional level, that function to encourage share these collective “gifts from the world” is a Structured in many different ways, they are united by on the ethical and political committments of their members. locally-rooted commerce and the development of key starting point for a solidarity economy the principle of worker control via collective ownership and a democratic “one member, one vote” stronger community relationships. These perspective. or consensus decision-making structure. Both risks D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) is also referred to as currencies can take many forms depending on the and the profits are shared among worker-owners. “autonomous production.” Individuals and groups scope of their circulation, their relationship to the Cultural Creation produce or provide goods and services for conventional dollar, and the structure of the groups Human cultural resources such as language, Some worker coops, such as Rainbow Grocery in themselves without formal structures of that organize and issue them. stories, music, ideas, and skills are generated and San Francisco, are “hybrid coops” and include organization, and often without the transformed over millions of years by collective consumers as well as workers in their ownership and “professionalization” that comes with many other Solidarity Markets are an emerging concept in creativity, imagination, intuition, observation and management structure. forms of production. Examples: growing food, Brazilian solidarity economics, referring to experimentation. Like ecological resources, they sewing, homeschooling, raising children, writing relationships of exchange that are built on a mutual agreement to seek the best interests of all parties are gifts passed down from our ancestors, meant “Solidarity cooperatives” are multi-stakeholder songs and poetry. coops, bringing togther all parties involved in a involved, including the communities of which they are a part. Since markets are cultural institutions, the same price they originally paid. This de-links the Credit Unions are multi-service cooperative changing the cultural norms upon which they operate value of housing from the capitalist market, allowing financial instutitions. Though many try to look just Community Compost Projects are about (from profit-maximization to mutual-aid) may the coop to remain affordable. like capitalist banks, they are democratic, member- eveloping shared composting facilities which turn transform the essential nature of markets themselves. conrolled, not-for-profit organizations. community organic waste into soil that is available Collective Houses are houses, owned or rented by for community members for farming and Barter Clubs are organized direct exchanges of a collective, that are structured by principles of Community Development Credit Unions are gardening. goods and services between people and groups. These cooperative living, direct democray and mutual aid. credit unions specifically dedicated to investing in can range from simple lists linking local Collective members share expenses and the physical local, community-based economic and social Savings/Storage "goods/services offered" with goods/services needed" and relational work of living together. development. Setting aside surplus for future use to elaborate, large-scale insitutions such as the barter markets of post-collapse Argentina. Self-Provisioning is the “consumption” side of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations Community-Based Insurance is grassroots autonomous production―the use of a good or (ROSCAs) are groups of people, dedicated to self-insurance, done by pooling money in a Fair Trade often involves direct connections service by the person or group who produced it. long-term collective mutual aid, pool money to democratically-controlled community fund. The between cooperative producers and retailers Examples include subsistence farming, medical self- provide “loans” to each other. Every member of Ithaca Health Alliance is an example. (eliminating exploitative intermediaries), fair trade is care, and fix-it-yourself practices. the group pays in a specific amount each year, and about providing equitable payments to small-scale one member per year gets the whole sum as a loan. Cooperative Food Storage includes groups solidarity producers through sales to conscientious Ethical Purchasing is also called “solidarity The circle is complete once every member of the such as Winter Cache in Portland, Maine working ethical consumers. consumption." Ethically-conscious purchasing is group has been able to use the collective pool of to develop community-based winter storage and organized at individual and institutional levels and funds. distribution facilities for cooperatively-grown Sliding-Scale Pricing is a system in which prices support businesses & organizations enacting organic food. for goods and services vary based on a consumer's economic, ecological and social justice in their daily Cooperative Banks are banks owned and run by ability to pay. For it to succeed, this practice must operations. The anti-sweatshop movement, working cooperative member organizations, working to Waste often be accompanied by active education of for equitable, “sweat-free” commerce on many serve their membership and other coops with a Waste is surplus that cannot be recycled or re- consumers regarding their roles in actively advancing levels, is a prominent example. variety of financial services. the slidg-scale as a redistributive economic justice invested back into the productive system, or into the life system within a few generations or tool. Self-Financing is the re-investment of surplus Surplus Allocation less. How is this dealth with? How is surplus, generated in the economic ("profit") generated by a specific initiative back Consumption/Use into that initiative's work. cycle, used? How does surplus re-enter and re- How is the consumption and use of goods and Envionmental Justice struggles seek to avert invigorate the cycle? services organized? Community Re-Investment Struggles work to the placement of toxic wastes in poor communities implement policies at local, state and national and communities of color are linked to larger Financing levels forcing corporations who move out of a efforts to build an economy in which such waste is Consumer Cooperatives are structures through no longer produced. Alliances between which consumers are democratically organized to Using monetary or material surplus to generate community to compenstate that community with and/or develop solidarity economy initiatives funds for local development environmental justice groups and groups working purchase and distribute goods and services among each to build cooperative and ecologically-sound other. Housing coops, cooperative food stores, buying production techniques are crucial to solidarity Community Financing involves raising funds clubs, mutual insurance cooperatives and health care Recycling & Compost economy organizing. coops are all examples of cooperative consumer self- through formal or informal loans, sometimes paid Recycling of material surplus back into the back in material goods or services, from members of organization. productive system and the larger life system ------a community of which a particular project is a part. Housing Cooperatives are houses or apartment Free Stores, Free Boxes & Swap Shops are Image and text by Ethan Miller Cooperative Loan Funds are insitutions complexes that are owned and democratically- ommunity facilities that allow people to share and Please send ideas, comments, and inspirations! specifically dedicated to providing loans to controlled by their residents. Members of “limited redistribute surplus goods in a not-for-profit or free [email protected] cooperatively-run businesses and non-profit equity housing coops” purchase a share of the coop manner. (207) 946-4478 and, upon leaving, sell that share back to the coop at organizations.