Building a Local Economy that Works for All

Liana Foxvog, National Organizer, SweatFree Communities

Fifty people from an array of community organizations in Western Massachusetts gathered November 20-21 at a workshop organized and led by Class Action and United for a Fair Economy to discuss the state of the economy, build skills in bridging the class divide, and strategize on how to build a sustainable, local economy in the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

Visions for a sustainable, local economy included: a trolley system connecting rural communities, small towns, and cities, living wage ordinances, community reinvestment by businesses, living wage ordinances, a time bank where you can exchange hours you worked for goods and services provided by others, banking with Common Good Bank, worker-owned local businesses, broader application of prevailing wage laws, and more. One theme that was met with nodding heads was that one hour of work doing one type of task should be worth the same as one hour of work doing another type of task, regardless of what the job is. The idea that bankers would not need to hire janitors because the bankers would do the janitorial work received applause. But if janitors weren't hired then what would they do? Well, they would be gaining job training and working in jobs where they have balanced job complexes -- maybe they could be the bankers.

As the group drew up long lists of existing community assets, it became clear that at least many parts of the vision are quite possible and attainable; some are already in process. Already the Pioneer Valley is home to a number of locally-owned small businesses, some with progressively-minded owners. A Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives connects worker-owned businesses with each other. The region hosts many organizations that promote green building, alternative energy production and usage, and dozens of successful Community-Supported Agriculture farms providing produce, dairy, and meat to families around the region.

But to build a local economy that will truly meet the needs of residents, the Valley needs much more of all of this. More worker-owned businesses, more cooperatives, more farms -- and more support for these initiatives by government, people, and businesses not yet using sustainable and cooperative models. In the community mapping exercise we recognized that while many people want to live in the area, it's a hard place to make a living. Jobs are sparse, and well-paid jobs are even fewer. Unemployment is at 4.1% in Hampshire County, 4.8% in Franklin County, and 6.4% in Hampden County. These official unemployment rates do not sufficiently capture the reality. First off, unemployment rates only include people who have actively searched for a job during the past month; people who have given up searching because they haven't had luck aren't counted. People who worked an hour or more in the past week are counted as employed, meaning that the rate does not give us any idea of the level of underemployment; the number of people who worked a few hours at low-paid job who would like another job to help make ends meet remain hidden by the statistic.

One topic the group kept coming back to was money. There are plenty of people who want employment in the area. A natural area of employment would be green jobs: building and operating a more extensive public transit system, weather-proofing and winterizing homes, installing solar panels, developing and running cooperative systems to recycle oil from restaurants for home heating purposes, and so on. But how can we achieve this in a time when every agency in the state is being asked to cut their budget by 10%?

Hope that the Obama administration can bring the changes working people want is tempered by economic worries. In one session, my small group's discussion turned into a brainstorm of demands for new federal economic policies - increasing social spending, a job creation program, living wages, and added regulatory controls on banks and financial markets. Progressive taxation, massive cuts to military spending, substituting New Deal-style 90% taxation on the wealthy for the tax cuts of this decade, would make this all possible without putting the country into more debt. We also experimented with how to describe these economic issues and the needed changes in an accessible way. Steve Schnapp of United For a Fair Economy aptly described the current moment: "We're experiencing the culmination of an intensification of policies that shifted the tax base away from the wealthy ... now there's a larger tax burden on work and less of a tax burden on wealth." It also was clear we need to develop better skills for working together effectively, building alliances across race and class lines throughout the entire Pioneer Valley.

While it's still too early to tell what will come of the workshop, some exciting ideas emerged in the visioning, which I pass along with the hope of sparking similar activities in other communities:

• Organize an ongoing cross-class group to discuss how to build a local, sustainable economy together while confronting classism (Class Action has resources for how to do this).
• Host meet-ups to connect organizers working on diverse endeavors for informal consulting, idea-sharing, and community-building.
• Work with community development corporations, neighborhood associations, and town committees to hold meetings of neighbors to conduct basic education about taxes and the economy, share energy-saving tips, and educate about how to affordably obtain solar panels and other energy saving and generating resources.