Solidarity Economy Association have been thinking about how we can grow the solidarity economy in the UK, and how we can support projects, movements and initiatives which already exist, to develop their capacity and the work that they do.
We recognise the incredible amount of often unpaid labour that is done in the solidarity economy, which is often carried out by women and other oppressed genders, by people of colour, and by people from poor working class backgrounds – in particular by people and communities struggling against oppression and marginalisation.
We want to help weave a web between organisations that can support and learn from each other, in order to build up a thriving solidarity economy that can meet people’s needs, build their power to fight exploitation and bring collective ownership of their communities’ resources.
We hope that this project will take some steps towards this goal, and that we will be able to expand the project to include more groups in the medium future. We want to support the work that people are already doing, and to begin building relationships between these organisers, ourselves, and each other, to develop a network of solidarity economy organisers across these islands.