How do we relate to government and state power in growing solidarity economies?

Governments can support or undermine our efforts to build solidarity economies. State support for solidarity economies can come in the form of enabling policies and public investment. In some places, the cooperative movement is deeply embedded in government through political parties and tax law. In others, colonial and oppressive governments have repressed solidarity economies because community self-determination weakens top-down control. Almost everywhere, public policy gives advantages to capitalist ownership at the expense of collective power. We can push governments for the policies and resources to support our efforts and we can grow solidarity economies autonomously, without resources or support from the state.

We must relate to government and state power as it is, even as we organize for it to be something else. We can form alliances with governments and the people in them. We can align ourselves with politicians to build our power, and we can cultivate our own people to seek office. We can also work outside of government, designing solutions that do not require its participation or that even escape its notice. If we consider the solidarity economy as part of a “dual power” strategy, which calls for building alternative institutions (like cooperatives) and counter institutions (like political groups and federations) to defend those alternative institutions, we can challenge the state’s control of society and shift power toward new forms of self-governance.

Government is only one kind of governance—which is, broadly, how we make decisions about how to use our collective power and manage our common resources. In the world we’re working toward, democracy happens everywhere, not just in the politics surrounding governments. We decide how powerful and centralized governments should be, and what kinds of democracy we can practice within them. When we practice democratic governance in our daily lives, we have opportunities to learn about how to make those decisions, and to acquire the skills and perspective we need to self-govern.

Finally, the governance of our communities today is shaped by nation-state borders that privilege multi-national corporations and the Global North. We envision solidarity economies in a world organized instead by bioregional and ecosystem boundaries, with governance by and for those affected by the decisions we make—governance that can meet the needs of the land, the water, and all creatures who live here.