The Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Network (MASEN) is a statewide coalition and community, building regenerative and reparative, post-capitalist futures across the Commonwealth. MASEN aims to strengthen solidarity economy through:
Solidarity economy is grassroots economic justice
Solidarity economy is a dynamic and adaptive global movement and set of practices that advances a post-capitalist vision for our collective work and resources.
Solidarity economy is a diverse system of production, distribution, exchange, consumption and surplus allocation grounded in values of Solidarity, Equity, Democracy, Sustainability and Pluralism.
Solidarity economy is a culture that defends each living being’s right to well being, in harmony with each other and with nature.
Welcome to the Massachusetts Solidarity Economy
From a glorious intersection of necessity and vision, communities across the Commonwealth are upholding an age-old tradition of mutual aid and are building infrastructure for collective liberation. Centuries of colonial have created unfathomable and obscene concentrations of wealth, accumulated on the backs of poor and mostly Black and Brown people and extracted from the earth without abandon.
Along with the rest of the world, in Massachusetts, many of our most commonplace economic practices, policies, institutions, and cultural norms believe that there are throw-away people and places on a throw-away planet. But in every county of the Commonwealth there are people who know we are indispensable. Communities are finding ways of doing “economics” (creating and sharing value) that are rooted in cooperation, trust, justice and care, not in capitalist ideals of private property, individualism and wealth accumulation.
Grassroots community and policy organizations have long been fighting to defend the line. But imagine if, for every day we spent fighting (for affordable housing, environmental regulation, defunding the police, protecting workers and immigrants etc.), we could have a day for building what comes next.
Join us!
There are so many ways to join the solidarity economy movement in Massachusetts. Too many to list them all but here are a few key first steps for getting involved with MASEN and hopefully we can point you in the right direction:
- Shift your spending and economic relationships towards the solidarity economy. Check out the Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Map for ideas.
- Sign up for the Our Common Wealth newsletter and “like” the MASEN Facebook page to keep in touch with happenings across the state, and within the network.
- If you’re part of an organization, business or group participating and building the solidarity economy in Massachusetts, please join us as a member.
- If you’re a worker cooperative in particular, please also join our sister network, the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP), which is advancing an exciting statewide policy platform.
- To join the more decentralized MASEN listserve, please send an email to ma-sen-subscribe [at] lists.riseup.net.
- For any questions, needs and offers, or if you’d like to join a MASEN working group, please reach out to solidarityeconomy.ma [at] gmail.com. Let us know what you’re up to and what you’re interested in and we’ll get you plugged in.
Active Members
