The Democracy Collaborative

Have you seen our latest video on what is Community Wealth Building?

In an America where two thirds of workers today live paycheck to paycheck, and the top 1% of wealthiest Americans today own more than the bottom 50% combined, it means fighting the extraction crisis by building wealth and power locally.

Something has fundamentally broken in America, but something can be done to fix it.

As our CEO, Stephanie McHenry, explains, we call the solution Community Wealth Building - or CWB.

Community Wealth Building is a model that is growing in scale and transforming cities for the better. Cities like Cleveland, Ohio, where CWB policies are breaking generational cycles of poverty and disinvestment.

Community Wealth Building is a model that can build a fairer economy for everyone and make the American dream real again. But we need state and local leaders willing to think differently about policy design.

What if the economy worked for all of us?

Visit democracycollaborative.org to learn more

The Democracy Collaborative | Building Community Wealth *What is Community Wealth Building?*In an America where two third...

Following last month's state visit, analysts scrambled to predict the next steps in U.S.-China relations. But many are failing to see the wider picture, or what renowned economist and The Democracy Collaborative Fellow Michael Hudson has coined "the New International Economic Order".

"Although its industrial socialism is called autocratic in the West, China is pursuing essentially the same policies as those which made U.S. and European industrial capitalism so successful (...)," Hudson writes in his latest piece for the series 'Creating a New International Order'.

Read 'A Clean Slate: How the Oil War's Aftermath Will Transform the World Economic Order' in full → https://www.democracycollaborative.org/whatwethink/a-clean-slate

Our President Joe Guinan gave a tribute to David K. Cobb - a friend, collaborator, and The Democracy Collaborative fellow who passed away on Labor Day - at the Memorial held last weekend at the Arcata Playhouse in Humboldt County, CA.

“He had a beautiful big heart and a big brain to match. He taught me a lot even as he was still learning himself, right to the end.” - Joe Guinan

You can read more about David's extraordinary life and work, as well as Joe's and other colleagues' tributes to David on the blog here ➡ https://www.democracycollaborative.org/blogs/remembering-david-cobb-1962-2026

📖 NOW ON THE BLOG

In Boston, a mom-and-pop shop has begun a new chapter under employee ownership, showing how Community Wealth Building financial ecosystems are becoming a popular wealth creation solution in communities across the U.S., Marjorie Kelly writes.

"It takes a community to build community wealth. In the case of Tropical Foods, the worker ownership structure preserves a long-established retailer, as it changes who benefits from wealth creation."

Read the full piece ➡️

Creating Financial Ecosystems for CWB — The Democracy Collaborative In Boston, a mom-and-pop shop has begun a new chapter under employee ownership, showing how CWB financial ecosystems are becoming a popular wealth creation solution in communities across the U.S., Marjorie Kelly writes.

Now on

❗️Iraq: US troops withdraw
❗️EU declares fuel emergency
❗️Worst quarter for US Treasuries since 1994

❕Midterms: Voter concerns, polls and more
❕Amnesty International: 'ICE must be abolished'
❕ underway

trackingthecrisis.org

In the second instalment of our 'From the Archives' series, The Democracy Collaborative's VP of Research & Policy, Thomas Hanna, looks into the transcript of a 1968 symposium convened to discuss the "Community Self-Determination Act” - or CSDA.

The CDSA was one of the earliest attempts to implement through public policy what would later be known as Community Wealth Building (CWB).

Learn more about the history of the CSDA and how many of the debates held around it in the late 1960s strongly resonate today by clicking here ➡

Transcript from the Community Self-Determination Symposium — The Democracy Collaborative December 12, 1968, Participants include: Senator Ga***rd Nelson, Gar Alperovitz, Senator Charles Percy, Senator Jacob Javits, and Senator Fred Harris

We are delighted to announce that our Vice President of Research & Policy, Thomas Hanna, will be speaking at the Public Banking Institute national conference Public Banking for Public Prosperity: A Declaration of Financial Independence Prosperity, taking place in at the Friends Center in Philadelphia, PA, on October 21-24.

Get your tickets now at publicbankinginstitute.org

⚠️ NOW OUT ⚠️

The immediate cause of the looming world depression is clear enough. Renowned economist and The Democracy Collaborative Fellow Michael Hudson delves into the repercussions of the Oil War as he continues his series 'Creating a New International Order'.

"For most countries, their deepening balance-of-payments deficits will put pressure on their exchange rates, confronting them with the choice of whether to use their limited reserves to pay for higher-priced oil and food imports or to pay their foreign debt service falling due,” he writes.

Read 'A Clean Slate: How the Oil War's Aftermath Will Transform the World Economic Order' in full →

A Clean Slate: How the Oil War’s Aftermath Will Transform the World Economic Order — The Democracy Collaborative The immediate cause of the looming world depression is clear enough. Renowned economist Michael Hudson delves into the repercussions of the Oil War as he continues his series Creating a New International Order .