Q&A: Solidarity Research Center’s Yvonne Yen LIU on the Power of Cooperative Economics

Summary

The Solidarity Research Center based in Los Angeles, California, was established in 2014 by a group of researchers and academics with roots in organized labor. Now they are working on projects across the country, linking the ethos of the labor movement and the dynamics of the cooperative economy to build and promote cooperatives across a wide range of sectors.

“I like the term ‘solidarity economy’ because it’s linked to the history of the movement against privatization of the common and neoliberalism,” says the group’s research director Yvonne Yen Liu. “It’s like the motto of the World Social Forum — another world is possible. Many of these people-centered practices are about recognizing invisible labor and recognizing what the earth provides. Many communities have been doing that since the beginning of the human species. Not everything is immersed in a capitalist framework. There are other economic and social practices.” We caught up with Liu to learn more about their unique approach to cooperative development.