Vermonters Lobby for Public Bank—And Win Millions for Local Investment Instead
Advocates didn’t get the public bank they wanted. But the compromise they reached in the end was still a rare and significant win over Wall Street banks.
Local economies
Laid-Off Baltimore Workers Beat Disney in Court—And Ask All the Right Questions About Urban Development
By some estimates, the city of Baltimore has sunk more than $1.5 billion into its Inner Harbor. Workers and residents want their share too.
Owning Together Is the New Sharing
Companies and startups are aspiring toward an economy, and an Internet, that is more fully ours with the use of cooperatives, "commons-based peer production," and cryptocurrencies.
Walking: The Secret Ingredient for Health, Wealth, and More Exciting Neighborhoods
It's been called "America's untrendiest trend." The evidence that millions of people are finally walking again is as solid as the ground beneath our feet.
How to Feast Sustainably During the Holidays
Stories in classic literature remind us that for most of our history, end-of-season gatherings celebrated local harvests. Can we find our way back?
Neighbors Helped This Immigrant-Owned Dry Cleaner in Boston Go Nontoxic—and Stay in Business
Organizations that aim to reduce the use of toxic chemicals have long focused on shutting down offending businesses. But this story from Boston shows another way.
8 Main Street Job Creators Who Are Rebooting the Economy—Starting with Those Who Need It Most
From the Deep South to the West Coast, these entrepreneurs are making sure jobs and dollars grow—and stay—in places hardest hit by hurricanes, poverty, and gentrification.
Land, Co-ops, Compost: A Local Food Economy Emerges in Boston’s Poorest Neighborhoods
From kitchens that buy and sell locally grown food, to a waste co-op that will return compost to the land, new enterprises are building an integrated food network. It's about local people keeping the wealth of their land at home.
New Factories Have Jobs You’d Really Want—and These Chicago Kids Are Skilling Up to Get Them
Manufacturing jobs are returning to the U.S., but to fill them we’ll have to train a new generation of workers. That’s what this school is doing in a struggling neighborhood that once hosted the country’s biggest candy empires, as factories return.
LA School District Uses Its Spending Power to Support Local Farms, Workers’ Rights, and Kids’ Nutrition
Local economies can be strengthened through the large purchasing power of local institutions. Here’s how the nation's second largest school district is doing it.
Investing in Renewables Can Relieve Our Planet—While Reviving Our Economy
Carbon reduction alone cannot solve our climate crisis, because it is continuously fed by our economic crisis. But renewables can be a critical driver in building a healthier economic system, free of the fossil fuel industry.
Beating Climate Change by Retooling the Economy—The Story Begins in Navajo Country
A proposed community-owned solar project on an abandoned coal mine in Arizona illustrates how cooperative economomics make it possible to stop extracting fossil fuels—without leaving workers behind.
How Jamaica Plain Is Building Working-Class Leadership in the New Economy
How can potential leaders from underprivileged backgrounds tackle economic inequality and climate change when they spend most of their time trying to earn a decent living? Here’s what we learned in Massachusetts.
To Build a New Economy, a New Government Comes First
National People’s Action Campaign is training the next wave of progressive candidates for 2016. Here’s how they could win.
What Housing Organizers in Buffalo Learned from the ’70s
Why did some of the cooperative institutions built in the ’70s—especially food co-ops—get to scale and thrive in subsequent decades, while others faded away?
With an Economy that Worked for All, Mike Brown Would Still Be Alive
“Our full humanity is expressed only when we have the capacity and the opportunity to be productive, to do for ourselves, meeting our needs in our communities.”
Want to Build an Economy that Works for Everybody? Next Week, We’re All About It
Next Monday, YES! and the New Economy Coalition kick off New Economy Week—five days of national conversation about the ideas, strategies, and projects that make up the movement.
When Poverty Was the Enemy, Not the Poor
The poverty rate in the U.S. would be 15 percent higher if not for the War on Poverty and government anti-poverty programs since 1967.
West Virginia Cattle Farmers Build the Local Food Economy They Need to Thrive
The farmers working to build West Virginia’s local meat economy know that their fate relies on the success of the entire local meat ecosystem.
Workers in Maine Buy Out Their Jobs, Set an Example for the Nation
For the new worker-owners of the Island Employee Cooperative, the transformation into a co-op will create profound changes in their lives.
Kentucky Town Beats High Gas Prices—By Opening a Public Gas Station
Gas stations aren’t great for the climate, but the move is a step toward local control over economic decisions—a model that holds great potential for developing renewable energy in the long term.
How Seattle Led the Country’s Wage Revolution
Seattle's path to a $15 minimum wage is a winding tale of effective organizing, smart messaging, and blind dumb luck. It is also a roadmap for bypassing partisan gridlock—one city at a time.
How America’s Largest Worker Owned Co-Op Lifts People Out of Poverty
Cooperative Home Care Associates' 2,300 workers enjoy good wages, regular hours, and family health insurance. With an investment of $1.2 million into the cooperative sector, New York City is hoping to build on the group's success.
Breaking the Grip of the Fossil Fuel Economy: If It Can Happen in Appalachia, It Can Happen Anywhere
Coal production is gradually leaving Appalachia—having already extracted much of the region's natural wealth. Local people are figuring out how to build a new economy based on shared vision and community knowledge. If transition can happen here, it can change the debate everywhere.
These Young People Are Pioneering Appalachia’s Post-Coal Economy
The Appalachian Transition Fellows are young people who will spend this year building diverse job opportunities in the coal-country counties that need them most.
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