By Rob Persons
On May 10, 2024 the newly formed Solidarity Economy Club at CUNY School of Labor & Urban studies hosted its first event. Focusing on the role organized labor can play in the emerging solidarity economy movement, the unambiguously titled, “The Role of the Labor Movement in Solidarity Economy”, brought together leading voices such as Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Shaywaal Amin (1199 SEIU), and Dr. Alexander Kolokotronis for an excellent discussion. Building from existing discourse on the urgent need for systems change away from capitalism, this event highlighted the key lessons from past movements and identified gaps that need to be filled in the present. As the moderator and lead organizer for the event as well as co-founder of the Solidarity Economy Club, I want to take a moment to expand on my motivations for organizing the event and the club as well as locate the potential for CUNY SLU to play a leading role in advancing transformational change.
As a CUNY SLU student in the Urban Studies MA and Workplace Democracy & Community Ownership certificate program, my graduate studies were largely oriented around cooperative ownership models. Since the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street, cooperative economics have become increasingly popular on the Left. Following the Build & Fight program put forward by Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson, leaders in the movement argue that it is not enough to only fight against the systems we oppose – we must also build the kinds of institutions that embody our values of social, ecological and economic justice and center democratic practice. As important as it is to protest, it will be impossible to create lasting change without offering alternative solutions. That’s why we must start to build cooperatives rooted in community ownership and democratic management if we hope to meaningfully address the systemic crises the world currently faces. Since the late 1990’s, the framework of solidarity economy (SE) has advanced the principles of Build & Fight as it seeks to unify the different ways communities directly meet their needs outside of the formal capitalist economy. My question while studying at a labor school was, where do unions fit into all this?
Some of the challenges to building cooperatives that advocate for systems change include: access to capital, lack of awareness, and lack of institutional support. Luckily, we can look to historical examples of how working class institutions have worked together to overcome these challenges. Unions, perhaps more than any other institutionalized force, have the potential to lead the way. That’s not speculation, we can turn back to history for examples of unions creating real cooperative alternatives. In the early 20th century, unions in New York City not only fought management for better conditions in the workplace, but also took an active role in meeting workers’ needs outside of work. Especially the need for housing. For example, in 1927 the United Workers’ Association (UWA) built housing cooperatives known as “The Coops” for primarily Yiddish speaking Jewish communists. The Coops not only satisfied the need for shelter, but also provided communal spaces, rec centers and a large dining all to foster an atmosphere of solidarity and cooperation. Today, the largest housing cooperative in the United States is Co-op City in the Bronx, which houses over 40,000 people. Co-op City was a project developed by a coalition of organized labor behind the visionary leadership of Abraham Kazan and has enabled multiple generations to access affordable housing.
While the labor movement has faced major threats both externally and internally since its pre-WWII heyday, these examples illuminate just how much unions can do when they develop a positive program beyond fighting the boss. Of course the bosses will still need to be fought, but the transformative strategy must go beyond that. Furthermore, these previous examples of progressive union leadership demonstrate the need for unions to advocate for the working class as a whole, not just their individual members. Given the current housing crisis where rent is eating up exorbitant amounts of people’s incomes, and the government is not doing enough to protect renters, we urgently need visionary leadership. The Democratic Party has shown time and time again that it is not willing (or perhaps even capable) of addressing the root causes of these issues. Organized labor has a real opportunity to regain its place as leaders of an insurgent working class movement fighting for institutional change.
As a higher education institution oriented around labor with programming on cooperatives and a mission to promote social justice, CUNY SLU is in an excellent position to provide the research and thought leadership to develop realistic solutions. Yet, within the school there remains too great a silo between the Labor Studies and Urban Studies departments. The former can be seen to be leading the ‘fight’ while the latter the ‘build’. How can we unify these efforts? This is the question that motivated me to host the event on labor’s role in SE. Not only to advance the discourse on a national scale with recognizable speakers, but also to draw attention within the school to the potential for collaboration (or should I say cooperation). Hopefully, the Solidarity Economy Club can be a place where labor studies and urban studies students come together to develop strategies on how to Build & Fight!
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