JASecon Grassroots Economy Festival
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The grassroots economy celebrates with a free festival Sept. 26th, 2009 An all day, free to the public, festival in celebration of an emerging bottom-up economy for people and the planet took place in Oakland, CA. Approximately 450 people and 50 organizations participated, bring together worker-cooperatives, urban gardeners developing food security measures, advocates of human powered transportation, gray water activists and complimentary currency promoters. Folks involved with the Transition Towns and the Fair Trade Cities movements and alternative community energy programs joined in to network and begin to develop strategies for future collaboration. Publishers, authors, a theater group and many other participants had a festive time. A youth Hip-Hop performance occurred at lunch time (Arizmendi pizza for all) and the day ended with a dinner for participants in the evening. The venue offered the opportunity for tabling inside a large hall and for demonstration projects in the adjacent tree-shaded yard. Bike parking was also available and four well-attended panels met in a sunny patio. Panels discussed how to start a worker cooperative, explained financial and other support resources for the grassroots economy, and a third outlined urban food security issues and projects. The final panel analyzed how to build an alternative by creating synergies between the different areas of the grassroots economy and with environmental and social justice organizations. The festival was a bottom-up trade fair that tried to show what people working together could do to help each other meet real needs. This was the first time an event like this took place in the SF Bay Area and the responses were uniformly positive. The working group of co-op members, non-profit participants and social justice activists, called JASecon, for a just, alternative and sustainable economy, are planning a short documentary to post online and background materials to aid other communities replicate a similar festival. Bringing folks together who work and volunteer in various, essentially economic activities, generates enthusiasm for collaboration and, we hope, can lead to “stepping up” all projects.
JASecon working group.
October, 2009 For more information please email: info@jasecon.org Visit our website: www.jasecon.org Article from Ryan Van Lenning oakland Local reviews festival A survey for festival participants
Panels 11:00 am - Co-op 101: An introduction to worker cooperatives. Kasper Koczab and Dave Karoly - Network of the Bay Area Worker Cooperatives
12:30 pm - Resources for the Grassroots Economy: Financial and development resources to meet community economic needs. Panelists will discuss the resources available to community projects. Jenny Kassan - Katovich Law
2:00 pm - Urban Food Security: Communities must take food back from global capital. How are we building just, sustainable, locally-based food systems that meet our communities’ needs and provide meaningful work? Dana Harvey- Mandela MarketPlace
3:00 pm - Building the Alternative: The grassroots economy is a solution to the economic crisis and holds a vision of the world we want to create. How can we nurture a local economy that gives working folks power and control over the economy and their work lives, leveraging available resources? How can social and environmental justice work support the development of a new economic paradigm? How we can create more synergy and interdependence between grassroots economic projects? How can we build a just, sustainable economic alternative to scale? Moderator/Facilitator: Gopal Dayenini -GAIA and Movement Generation
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