Feel to Real has wrapped up!

It has been such a joy to gather with you all during the Fall Feel to Real Learn-in series. In November, we talked about the power of People’s Movement Assemblies across the South. Communities use this model of organizing to gather people affected by injustice to discuss and analyze what’s happening to community members and create action plans to realize change. We talked about the history of PMAs and why direct democracy is such an important part of a solidarity economy. In December, we explored aspects of the Care Economy, like what it is and what it means to talk about the whole health of ourselves and our communities. We looked at this conversation through the lenses of childcare, home healthcare, mutual aid, and a model of direct primary healthcare. 

You can read more about the Learn-in series, including recordings and resources from each on the VASEN website. These will continue in February 2023.

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Solidarity in the Caribbean

Close your eyes for a moment and think about the sound of waves lapping along the beige sands of a Caribbean country, where the sun is piercing and warm. Breathe deeply as you envision the scene. 

It’s beautiful, right? But this is also one-dimensional. The current American understanding of Caribbean nations tends to rely heavily on what that nation can provide, whether that be from a tourist experience or coveted tropical products. There must be stunning views, spectacular food, and grand parties to even make it to an average person’s radar. 

Fortunately, Caribbean nations are more multidimensional than that. The diversity within borders and around the sea is a force to be reckoned with and the history is integrally rich when providing context to today’s modern world. Part of that history involves the formation of solidarity networks under the rule and/or intervention of corrupt or failing governments...

Patricia Troup, an intern at VASEN, has written up a blog post about solidarity in the Caribbean. To read the full post and more about her, please click here.

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Upcoming events

• Jan 5th at 2:00pm est – Please consider joining VASEN members for a group reading of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon-Nembhard. On Jan 5th, we’ll be discussing Part 1: Early African American Cooperative Roots (pg. 27-77). 

• January 16th –  Harrisonburg’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Coalition is hosting an online celebration of  “People’s Day”. Register here: http://MLKJrWay.org

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Keep in touch with us.

1. This month, we started using Zulip. It’s an online communications channel where we’re sharing interesting articles, upcoming events, job openings, and more. It’s also where we gather to continue our conversations in between coordinating and community calls/events. Join us! Just click here and sign in with your email address. If you used Slack to communicate with VASEN, you should be able to just update your password. This will take the place of our Slack channel moving forward.
2. To read more about our work, explore past events and current news, check out the website https://vasolidarity.org and join the emailing list at https://groups.io/g/VASEN

Happy Holidays to you and all your loved ones!