Dear Cooperators,
As NYC NOWC moves into its 12th year– we are incredibly humbled by the sweat, generosity, and bravery that our members have employed to make worker cooperatives a critical cornerstone of the solidarity economy. Across the past two years, we have been met with crisis after crisis, and while we know our movement did not get unscathed- we can stand confident – knowing now more than ever- that we keep us safe & that the future must be cooperative. For this generation and the next.
In this report, we will share with you the role that NYC NoWC has played in the past two years in nurturing worker co-op power across NYC. Whether it was offering emergent COVID-19 safety trainings or the official launch of our NYC’s Future is Cooperative: A Policy Platform for and by Worker Cooperatives — we have been intentionally scaling, as a member-led organization, to meet the needs and solutions from our base.
As the world turns to worker coops & solidarity economy models, we envision NYC NoWC as leading the transition not just in words but in deeds and embodied practices like value-driven budgeting, language justice, and collective governance that centers frontline bipoc decision making. Preparing this report is not only to inform you of all of our latest milestones but to share how we navigated unprecedented times with principles. To our members, this is also an opportunity for us to practice transparency and accountability — empowering you all to evaluate our success and shortcomings so that we may steer our collective efforts forward.
We hope you’re able to view this document as the culmination of our collective work together over the last two years. Thank you for your part in supporting the NYC worker coop movement. We are because of you.
In cooperation,
Dre, Emmanuel, Melat, Tammy, Sadé, & Saduf