A few weeks ago, several members of the LEAF team headed to Baltimore, MD for the 2019 Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD). Organized by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the conference took place at the architecturally jaw-dropping University of Baltimore School of Law (pictured below). ECWD’s 17th annual conference’s goal was to “build awareness of worker-owned businesses while strengthening existing worker co-ops”.
It certainly accomplished that goal. Over three days, LEAF staff participated in eye-opening breakout sessions, panels, and activities covering a wide range of topics, including Black solidarity economies, cooperative financing structures, marketing without burnout, and much more.
At a time when it’s all too easy to feel discouraged by the trajectory of the nation’s economy, it was reinvigorating to be immersed with passionate leaders in the cooperative landscape who refuse to believe that a better future is not possible. Inclusion, equity, and solidarity were interwoven into traditional narratives of economic development–cooperatives understand that in order for a few of us to succeed, we all need to succeed.
The LEAF team hopes to take this reaffirming energy and use it to continue to grow and expand the cooperative sector, and help to build a more inclusive and just economy one co-op at a time.
