Cooperation for liberation
WE ENVISION
a New Orleans with a strong Solidarity Economy Movement:
where Black, Brown, and Indigenous New Orleanians–fueled by the inherent brilliance, bravery and audacity of our ancestors– sustainably own our own labor and mentor each other on the collective and equitable governance of resources such as: food, care, land, and culture.
CNOs’ mission is to strengthen the solidarity economy movement in New Orleans, centering Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, prioritizing people and planet over profit. We do this by organizing educational resources, honoring people’s stories, base building, and technical assistance that supports building economic alternatives to meet our needs.
Solidarity and Cooperation come from the Black and Indigenous practice of collective work to meet collective needs. Cooperation can look like community childcare, feeding one another, pooling together our resources to meet our needs, practicing mutual aid in our daily lives or in the face of a disaster, owning our own work through a cooperative business, and so on. We engage in cooperative practices in our daily lives. When we live in solidarity with one another, we are moving with the intention of caring for one another, and knowing that our own health and security comes from the health and security of our communities.
As workers, we are continuously at risk of being taken advantage of by our current capitalist system, which values the product of our labor over our humanity as workers, community members, family members, and culture bearers. Solidarity economies center the needs of a region or community over monetary gain. Part of building a solidarity economy movement is shifting our expectations as working class people of how the economy is a resource that should benefit us--not exploit us--and that we can work in alignment with our values without sacrificing our basic needs.
Cooperation New Orleans believes in creating the space, conversation, educational opportunities, and hands-on technical assistance necessary to see this movement thrive in New Orleans. We see informal and formal.
Cooperative businesses and projects use practices that our communities have been using for centuries, along with the
7 Cooperative Principles to allow workers to have ownership of their work, and ultimately care for themselves and others.
Our base is comprised of Black and Indigenous working-class New Orleanians working together to meet our own needs.
Our ecosystem is made up of these workers, small businesses, cooperatives, non-profit organizations, technical assistant providers, donors, and .
What is your role in the solidarity economy?
"Black cooperatives are actually not a new strategy, it was in cooperation that formerly enslaved people built community, and so it is no surprise that many Black communities continue to create cooperative enterprises as a means to own the development that is taking place in their neighborhoods. "
Tamah Yisrael, Founder and Steering Committee Member
Want to support a worker-owned business in New Orleans?
Find them on the map!
Co-ops and Community
Our ecosystem is comprised of various individuals, cooperative businesses and mutual aid projects working to meet the needs of our communities. Below is a list of some of our cooperators, and where you can find them in New Orleans.
Groups listed as "TA Providers" are co-ops and movement partners that also work to provide technical assistance and support to other cooperative projects in our ecosystem.
PATOIS Film Festival
Founded in 2004 by New Orleans artists and activists, PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival is dedicated to nurturing the city’s human rights community, supporting the work of local organizers and organizations involved in these struggles, and providing a forum for artistic expression of local and international issues.
Project Hustle
Project Hustle is a Black, queer, hood feminist-led transformative organizing project in Southeast Louisiana. We center Black working class hustlers through people-power building, popular education, and storytelling projects that capture our creativity and ingenuity as Black women, Black femmes, and Black queer workers.
TMH Financial Solutions
TMH Financial & Management Solutions is proud to be a financial management company that helps business clients make sound financial decisions on a daily basis. Our commitment is to help businesses succeed by performing the critical accounting and bookkeeping functions needed to remain financially solvent and compliant with financial regulations.
Ujima Childcare Co-op
Ujima is providing community-led education that activates the young learner into collective action, through project-based learning, cooperative practices and Black libratory care. The Ujima Childcare Cooperative is held by organizers, educators, artists, and environmentalists who share their wealth of knowledge, to families of all structures, that centers a child’s development and prepares them to be change-makers.
Turnkey Collaborative