As 2024 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on how to stay centered in this time of great uncertainty and pain. One way we center ourselves is by intentionally re-committing to the movement for resilient communities everywhere. Our commitment is rooted in our indispensable community of co-dreamers, supporters, partners, clients, comrades, and family. That includes you! 

Here’s our 2024 Annual Report which includes reflections from the year. Some highlights include:

• our work with Poor Magazine to denounce the criminalization of homelessness;
• our series of events on The Future of Work: Nourishing Life Giving Labor; and
• our policy campaigns to ban land grabs, abolish “family zoning,” and create a legal model for worker cooperatives owned and controlled by people in prison. 

There’s also a bunch of pictures of us and our comrades being awesome, badass, joyful, and/or silly together. We hope you take a look!

As we prepare for 2025, we are finding hope and motivation in our work of building economies of care and cooperation.  

If you’re able to support us, please contribute here. Every dollar helps to sustain our work in 2025 and beyond!

ICYMI! Here's the Recording of our Webinar: The Legal Ethics of Client-Led Work (MCLE)

On Dec 2, 2024, we hosted an activity approved by the California State Bar for 1 MCLE credit in Ethics. Check out the recording of this webinar where we invited long term clients, Homefulness and Sawalmem, to share reflections on how they experienced working with staff attorneys. We also shared the ethical lessons our staff attorneys have learned by doing client-led work.

ATTN: Cooperatives! The requirement to comply with the Corporate Transparency Act is on hold

A Texas federal court has issued a nationwide order prohibiting enforcement (for now) of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). This means companies currently do not have to submit sensitive information about their “beneficial owners” by the January 1st, 2025 due date. This requirement was particularly concerning to many worker cooperatives with members who have mixed immigration statuses. The CTA is a law that requires any business entity created at the state level - like LLCs or corporations - to submit certain information to the federal Department of the Treasury, unless it falls under an exemption. The government has already filed an appeal, so the court’s order prohibiting enforcement may be lifted at some future date. As long as the Texas court’s order remains in effect and unchanged, there is no requirement to make any CTA filings. You can read more about the court’s order here, and more info on the CTA can be found here and here. This is something to keep an eye on for anyone who thought about complying with the CTA but has not yet complied.

Collaborate to Co-liberate: Enroll in our upcoming session for the Learning Track

The Learning Track exposes individuals and organizations newer to the ideas of liberatory self governance to the potential and possibility of practicing liberation within our movement organizations and offers concrete skills and tools to support participants to begin to embark on the path of collective governance.  In the Learning Track, participants can select the individual modules that are most interesting and relevant to their current organizational needs.  

Registration links for each module are available on the Sustainable Economies Law Center website.  You are welcome to register for Learning Track modules at any time throughout the year.

Module 1A: Creating Liberatory Organizations, with Harmonize - Join our friends at Harmonize in the opening module of Collaborate to Co-Liberate 2025 to ask ourselves: what structure will best serve us to achieve our vision in the world?  

In our solidarity economy and social justice movement left organizations, we hold ambitious visions for building a more liberatory future.  Many of us are also experimenting with creative organizational structures that allow us to live those liberatory visions more fully.

School for Organizing: Now Accepting Applications on a Rolling Basis

The Community Democracy Project (CDP) is now accepting applications to their School for Organizing! In this historic moment, the ground is being laid for the kind of world we—and future generations—will inhabit. Every Saturday from February 1 to April 13, 2025, CDP will host teach-ins in Oakland along with hands-on experience activities to prepare you for the fight ahead. The topics will include How to Run for City Council; How to Start a Ballot Initiative Campaign; How to Address Conflicts in Movement Spaces; Door-knocking and Phone-banking; Democracy in Practice; and so much more! This cohort will prioritize youth activists (17 to 24 years old) who live in Oakland, CA, but all are welcome to apply.