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10.19.2023

Ashley K Thomas

SOLIDARITY ECONOMICS:

MUTUALITY, MOVEMENTS, & MOMENTUM

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USC Equity Research Institute| July 2022 | 2

We use data and analysis to contribute to a more powerful, well-resourced, intersectional, and intersectoral movement.

We believe communities thrive when they center equity. ERI will work with our partners to develop theory, frameworks, and data analysis; advance new narratives; and convene communities of learning and practice.

USC EQUITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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HOW WE GOT HERE

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HOW WE GOT HERE

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CRAFTING A NEW ECONOMIC STORY

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Solidarity Economics is an economic frame and policy approach to reimagine our economy and build the power necessary to realize our vision of equitable communities.

Uses mutuality as a path to co-create our economy that lives up to our values.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

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WHAT IS SOLIDARITY ECONOMICS?

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Solidarity Economics is also a narrative framework, or a story of our economic structures.

Frameworks help us to make sense of the complex world around us. They allow us to make visible and invisible.

Barbara Alper/Getty Images

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WHAT IS SOLIDARITY ECONOMICS?

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Solidarity Economics allows us to see:

That we are not just individuals, but members of social groups and communities;
That we are motivated not just by self-interest, but also by caring for others and a desire for belonging; and,

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SOLIDARITY ECONOMICS ALLOWS US TO SEE

That we can and should build our economy -- not out of an embrace of individuality and competition -- but from a sense of shared ownership and destiny.

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We should always talk about our economy and not the economy. Because it is ours to shape and if we don’t, someone else will.

Cultivating collective power allows us to shape our economy.

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KEY COMPONENTS: WHO HAS POWER?

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While we do act out of self interest sometimes, we also act out of care for each other and the planet in ways that shape our economic decisions.

What is an economic decision you have made driven by mutuality?

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KEY COMPONENTS: MADE FOR MUTUALITY

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We should recognize the mutuality that actually drives our economy – and stress how mutuality, fairness, and inclusion can generate prosperity for many.

How have you seen mutuality result in a more prosperous economy for all?

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KEY COMPONENTS: MADE FOR MUTUALITY

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We should recognize that because some people benefit from the current state of affairs, social movements will be necessary to generate change.

Those hoarding power may need to be stripped, and governments need to be a reflection of people’s deepest needs for care, connection, and mutuality.

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KEY COMPONENTS: MOVEMENTS SHAPE CHANGE

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Additionally, while markets make us selfish, movements make us mutual, inculcating & reinforcing the habits of solidarity and intersectionality.

https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/diverse-growing-audiences/what-can-journalists-learn-from-community-organizers/

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KEY COMPONENTS: MOVEMENTS SHAPE US

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Committing to movements to put in place new practices and politics, not just new policies

Strengthening our norms of mutuality
Crafting shared identities
Sharing transformative narratives: Facts, Feelings, Force

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KEY COMPONENTS: MOVEMENTS SHAPE US

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY IN PRACTICE

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY – WORLD VIEW

Neoliberal

Self-interested, competitive Individuals
Market Coordination
Limited government incentivize “job creators”

Liberal

Self-interested, competitive individuals and social groups
Government Coordination
Central Government that regulates and repairs markets

Solidarity Economics

Individuals in community who act out of mutually
Social norms and mutuality that shape all institutions
Govt’s Strong and supportive: Connect and collaborate; Required for scale

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY - FRAMEWORK

Neoliberal

People are selfish and markets organize that selfishness for the efficient use of resources.

The free market is the best approach.

Liberal

People are selfish and competitive, and markets help organize our human nature, but we need governments to put guardrails on markets and mitigate the fall out.

Government and markets are the best approach.

Solidarity Economics

People crave connection and care, through communities, competition, and in economic exchange. By cultivating people power, our institutions help us meet our deepest needs. Social movements show us how to build connection and craft the best approach collectively.

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY - POLICY

Neoliberal Family Care

Leave care to (women) families, market will provide service to those who can pay.

Liberal Family Care

Government subsidize the building of private childcare and elder care centers – support only the poorest families only if they stay very poor. Low wage (women) workers provide care.

Solidarity Economics Family Care

Universal family care, paid parental and family leave, well paid care givers. Movements like Caring Across Generations to connect workers and families in need of care to ensure government action supports mutuality and care for all kinds of families

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY - POLICY

Neoliberal Emissions

Leave the reduction of emissions to corporations, they will police themselves and respond to the market.

Liberal Emissions

Government will create markets to exchange emissions credits, with some oversight markets will decrease emissions overtime by responding to the market and increased costs.

Solidarity Economics Emissions

The safety and security of families and communities and our environment are of the utmost importance. Ending extractive economies is the only way to ensure we can truly care for eachother. Movements and communities can show us the way and innovation should follow their lead.

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IN SMALL GROUPS ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

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LET’S PRACTICE

– What economic issues are you working on?

– What arguments/narrative work? Come up short?

- How does the language of “trickle down” “job creators”, and “personal responsibility” impact your work?

- How does your story of “government” impact your what is possible?

– How can the language of “our economy”, “mutuality is prosperity”, and “movements” help or not?

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solidarityeconomics.org/

For more reports and data, visit dornsife.usc.edu/eri

Ashley K. Thomas athomas2@usc.edu

Popular Education Tools like comics and videos!

Deeper dives and more!

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THANK YOU!

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LET’S PRACTICE

Worker Justice

Housing Justice

Care Economy

Health care & equity

Financial Equity

Ending poverty

Climate & Environmental justice

Defund / Refund

Food & Water Equity

Land Back & Rematriation

Transportation

People’s Budgets

Reparations

Housing

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NARRATIVE LANDSCAPE

TOXIC NARRATIVES

WHERE SOLIDARITY OR MUTUALITY ALREADY EXISTS

FUTURE

CAMPIGNS

GAPS AND CONTRADICTIONS

HOW CAN YOU ARTICULATE THE SOLIDARITY NATTARTIVE YOU WILL NEED TO WIN?

WHAT’S IN THE WAY? WHAT DO YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM?

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LET’S PRACTICE

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NARRATIVE LANDSCAPE

TOXIC NARRATIVES

WHERE SOLIDARITY OR MUTUALITY ALREADY EXISTS

FUTURE

CAMPIGNS

GAPS AND CONTRADICTIONS

HOW CAN YOU ARTICULATE THE SOLIDARITY NATTARTIVE YOU WILL NEED TO WIN?

WHAT’S IN THE WAY? WHAT DO YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM?

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LET’S PRACTICE

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It is not a unified economic system that is a solution to all our economic challenges.
It is not a full rebuttal of capitalism.
It doesn’t provide solutions engaged with the means of production (land, capital).

American Enterprise Project

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WHAT ISN’T SOLIDARITY ECONOMICS?

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How can you use Solidarity Economics in your work? What would you need to be successful with that? What do you need from us?

Other comments, questions, curiosities?

DISCUSSION

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MADE FOR MUTUALITY

Isn’t to say that we aren’t selfish sometimes, but that we are also driven by mutuality and neoliberal conceptions have blinded us to that and have been leaving us only feeding only our selfishness.

https://bibilium.com/the-magnificent-story-of-two-wolves/

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METHODS

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What do we add and where do we focus?

Mutualism as fundamental to human nature
Race and racism
The need for popular narratives and social movements to rewrite our economic rules

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Where do you see mutuality in your work
Where are there opening in the financial industry to move it towards a solidarity economy? What would it take? How can you work with movements?
How does Solidarity Economics support your work towards building a more liberatory economy?

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SOLIDARITY TODAY, SOLIDARITY FOREVER

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-to-bridge-social-justice-and-the-financial-markets/

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MADE FOR MUTUALITY

“Why do people tip?” - Ofar H. Azar:

Social norms
Showing gratitude
Recognizing wait staff depend on wages
Avoiding feeling guilty

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MADE FOR MUTUALITY

Peer-to-peer production:

Workplaces that value employee participation

Yochai Benkler: Peer-to-peer production like Wiki and Linux build highly used products

The value of building collaborative workplace – Southwest, Toyota.

Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/11367/the-penguin-and-the-leviathan-by-yochai-benkler/

• By building on countless voluntary contributions, open-source software communities have developed some of the most important infrastructure on which the World Wide Web runs� • Experiments with pay-as-you-wish pricing in the music industry reveal that fans will voluntarily pay far more for their favorite music than economic models would ever predic� • Many self-regulating communities, from the lobster fishermen of Maine to farmers in Spain, live within self-regulating system for sharing and allocating communal resources� • Despite recent setbacks, Toyota’s collaborative shop-floor, supply chain, and management structure contributed to its meteoric rise above its American counterparts for over a quarter century.� • Police precincts across the nation have managed to reduce crime in tough neighborhoods through collaborative, trust-based, community partnerships.

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY

	Neoliberal (Oppressive)	Liberal (Partial Effort)	Solidarity Economics
How do we care for each other?	One-on-one	Redistributive taxation & regulation	Building caring institutions ???
What makes us worthy?	Enterprise	Work	Our humanity
How to get to prosperity?	Some will be sacrificed for the greater good; efficiency	Regulate the market and redistribute wealth	Focus on building prosperity

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY

	Neoliberal (Oppressive)	Liberal (Partial Effort / Trap)	Solidarity Economics
Human nature	Self-interested, competitive individuals	Self-interested, competitive individuals and social groups	Individuals in community who act out of mutually (which includes competition and collaboration)
Coordination	Markets	Government	Social norms and mutuality that shape all institutions
Role of Government	Limited: Incentivize and invest	Central: Regulate and repair	Strong supportive: Connect and collaborate; Req’d for scale

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FRAMING OUR ECONOMY

	Neoliberal (Oppressive)	Liberal (Partial Effort)	Solidarity Economics
Response to policy questions	Free market forces by deregulating, cutting taxes, etc.	Tax and invest; regulate the market	Shore up those most impacted to stabilize all & reinforce the commons
Recession	Deregulate, free up the market, cut taxes, go lean, bail outs	Create jobs by investing in major infrastructure project, cash transfers	Support those who are most vulnerable, which will stabilize everyone else
Housing	Build, build, build	Affordable housing, Tenant protections	Social housing
Universal Family Care	None – rely on family and social connections	Fix Social Security, Invest in childcare	Free child and elder care for all, paid parental leave
Climate	None – privatize and drill	Cap and Trade	Cap-and-Dividend, Cap-and-Invest, Just Transition

Our economy is not some abstract natural phenomenon driven by immutable forces, but rather created by people through collaboration as well as competition.

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The disease that revealed our illness

THE COVID SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

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The disease that revealed our illness

THE COVID SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

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The disease that revealed our illness

The crisis that illustrated our mutuality

THE COVID SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters

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The disease that revealed our illness

The crisis that illustrated our mutuality – and our division

THE COVID SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

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The disease that revealed our illness

The crisis that illustrated our mutuality – and our division

A broader context that makes deep change urgent

THE COVID SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

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There is no going back to a normal that did not work for so many

We do not need a recovery but a reimagination & restructuring that challenges inequality & lifts up commonality

THE BOTTOM LINE

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Centering racial equity and anti-racism

Crafting a new economic story that can become “common sense”

Committing to social movements for change

SO WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE?

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A deep interrogation of anti-Black and anti-indigenous racism – and how that sets the terrain for othering, xenophobia, hate, and structural inequality

CENTERING RACIAL EQUITY

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RACIAL INEQUALITY TODAY

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