The Popular Economy and Cooperativism: Building Alternatives from the Ground Up

FORGE and Fundación Avina are excited to announce the next virtual session in our Democracy at Work Fund Conversation Series to introduce funders to the grantee partners from the inaugural round of the Democracy at Work Fund and highlight key lessons from their projects.

Please join us on September 8 at 8:00am ET for the next session in this series, focused on the theme of The Popular Economy and Cooperativism: Building Alternatives from the Ground Up. Join us to hear from the following organizations:

Ladran Sancho, Argentina
The project aims to promote trade union membership for local freelance journalists who work with the popular economy and are not linked to major media outlets, in order to make their work visible and improve their working conditions.

The New Factory, Indonesia
The project aims to promote the cooperative movement in the clothing recycling sector by building a recycling ecosystem that is democratically led and owned by workers.

Fundacion Urdir, Argentina
The project aims to address the legal and physical insecurity of Wichí communities in Salta and El Chaco, especially women, through training and capacity-building in citizenship, and violence prevention.

IZWI Domestic Workers Alliance, South Africa
The project seeks to strengthen precarious workers’ organizations, with an emphasis on best practices for mobilizing migrant workers and domestic workers in South Africa.

The discussion will focus on nascent cooperative models, the tensions that arrive when expanding these models, and how organizations can maintain financial stability and deliver social impact. We will also discuss how policy changes can strengthen popular economies, and what types of partnerships can advance this work.