Community Wealth Building Series

Today’s corporate, capitalist economy is radically unequal, ecologically unsustainable, and embedded in recurring boom-and-bust cycles of crisis. The concentration of wealth means a concentration of power that puts the priorities of capital over those of the people. 

For over a decade, longtime reporter on economic and social change, Laura Flanders, has been looking for alternatives – new economic models that are different from the kind of capitalism we’ve come to know, or state socialism. What if, she asks, instead of tweaking the system to reduce the damage, we reorganized entirely so that both local and national economies produced better outcomes for people, communities and the planet in the first place? 

That’s the essence of community wealth building, and Flanders found some serious experiments that address human rights, justice, and equity, from the U.S. to the U.K, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.

In this special series with the Laura Flanders Show, we explore how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing their assets, anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people – from land to money and finance. 

They’re democratizing business structures to share decision making and to value labor and land through municipal ownership, cooperative and worker-owned businesses. They’re advancing legislation that would make it easier for those businesses to get loans, government contracts and technical assistance. 

Through principles of mutualism and equity, they’re creating alternatives to the too-big-to-fail, for-profit banks with public banking models, local currencies and time-banking projects, expanding credit unions and member-owned financial cooperatives.

They’re tackling the acute housing crisis, transforming the view that land and housing are simply commodities for short-term profit, and reminding us that governments have the power to make affordable housing a human right. They’re creating land trusts, advancing policies that support tenant-rights, rent control and eviction defense, and advocating for millions of social housing units to be created that are permanently kept off the private market.

Can all these democratic experiments be woven together to create a “next system” – one that creates wealth that’s deeply rooted, widely shared and in the hands of local residents committed to a liveable planet and thriving local economies into the future? That’s the essence of community wealth building.

Guest Host:

Laura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends, which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.

Episode 1

Community Wealth Building: Democratizing the Economy

We explore community wealth building with American political economist, historian, and author Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, along with India Pierce Lee about her work with the Collaborative in Cleveland, Ohio; and John McMicken, Executive Director of Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperative Corporation. 

Episode 2

From Wealth Supremacy to Community Wealth Building: Models for Democratizing the Economy

Today’s corporate, capitalist economy is radically unequal, ecologically unsustainable, and embedded in recurring boom-and-bust cycles of crisis. Not surprisingly, people are looking for alternatives. What if, instead of tweaking the system to reduce the damage, we reorganized entirely so that both local and national economies produced better outcomes for people, communities and the planet in the first place? Featuring Democracy Collaborative Distinguished Senior Fellow, Marjorie Kelly; Preston City Council Member, Matthew Brown in the UK; and community wealth building adviser to the Scottish Government, Neil McInroy.

Episode 3

Solidarity Economics: Taking It to the Bank to Build Community Wealth

We look at how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing the assets that exist in their place. It’s the Kryptonite to the corporate model that extracts wealth from communities. Instead, they’re anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people – from land to money and finance. We hear from Nicole Ndumele from the Center for American Progress; Mike Strode, from the Kola Nut Collaborative; and Deyanira del Río of the New Economy Project.

Episode 4

Commodity or Human Right? How Community Wealth Building Can Address the Housing Crisis

Housing is a human right, or so says the International Declaration of Human Rights. But could we organize our economies with that in mind? Across the country, communities have land and properties and people who need homes. What’s stopping us bringing them together in a way that increases community wealth and wellbeing for everyone? Featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Writer; Saoirse Gowan, Policy Associate with the Democracy Collaborative; Noni D. Session, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative

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