The mayor hopes it is the start of something big
Between Thursday, June 13th, and Saturday, June 15th, a national gathering rooted in the principles of coming together to prosper together took place in Minnesota’s Capital. The National Conference on Black Cooperative Agenda was in St. Paul as the city prepared to ascend to an ambitious goal decreed by Mayor Melvin Carter for Saint Paul to one day be the cooperative capital of the county.
From California to New York and several states in between, the country was well represented in the Union Depot.
Christina Nicholson, the Cooperative Finance Developer for the Worker-Owner Initiative at Nexus Community Partners, shared her considerations in choosing a site for the conference.
“We chose Union Depot for a couple of reasons: our organization has a relationship with Saint Paul, and we’ve partnered on a $2.5 million grant to do cooperative development in the next three years. Another reason is that Union Depot has a deep relationship with Rondo [neighborhood] and the Black community here in Saint Paul.
With the local leadership and insight of Nexus Community Partners, the organization behind the conference- Network for Developing Conscious Communities (NDCC) was able to pull off the three-day event brimmed with 18 sessions that covered topics concerning the history of cooperatives, best practices in navigating the structure of cooperatives, and the connection between cooperatives and overarching social, political, and economic truths of the country.
The conference’s opening plenary was commenced by the founder of NDCC, Ron Hantz, President and CEO of Nexus Community Partners Repa Mekha, Youthprise President Marcus Pope, and Columinate Consultant LaDonna Sanders Redmond. Moderated by Nexus’s Danielle Mkali and American Sign Language interpretation led by Valerie Shirley- it was clear from the tone the opening session was meant to ground visitors and locals alike in why cooperatives have and continue to matter.
Each panelist spoke to the interconnected nature of cooperatives and movements centered on countering violent, exclusionary, and oppressive forces. Sanders Redmond began the conversation by naming the connection between Ida B. Wells’s anti-lynching endeavor and the People’s Grocery lynchings of 1892.
From the session, we learned that the burgeoning resurgence of Black cooperatives requires incorporating the needs and voices of the youth, a population that perpetually challenges the status quo. Pope shared here that Youthprise is working to create a housing cooperative.
Expressions of Cultural and Spiritual Dimensions felt like a natural follow-up. In addition to other themes in this session, the term Ubuntu—“I am because we are”—was discussed in perhaps the most comprehensive way I have ever known. Session panelist Tamah Yisreal explained that Ubuntu is “the foundation for shared ownership.”
Following lunch, I attended an afternoon session titled Legal Framework: Navigating the Legality of Forming a Cooperative. In an impressive 90 minutes, the discussion spelled out how being familiar with your state’s laws for cooperative structures is imperative to help define and protect your intentions and goals to form a cooperative.
On the second day, Mayor Melvin Carter didn’t hold back in illustrating why cooperatives are incubators of equity, not the amorphic spirit of equity but the actual distribution and accumulation of wealth needed for people to pursue well-being and self-determination. “There is nothing more expensive in this country than being poor in this country,” he said.
Conference attendees outside Minnesota were especially impressed when they learned about Saint Paul’s guaranteed basic income pilot and Inheritance Fund.
Harnessing Technology for Success: Digital Solutions for Black Cooperatives, led by a panel that included Ini Augustine, presented the various and surprisingly extensive list of digital tools to help a cooperative’s ability to succeed.
Augustine cautioned cooperatives to consider the context of surveillance, which often targets the Black diaspora when implementing new digital tools.
One of the last afternoon sessions for the conference on Sustainable Cooperative Food Sourcing and Supply Chain featured Somali American Farmers Association Director Naima Dhore and Carl Johnson of Storehouse Grocers and Coffee. Dhore and Johson shared their experiences building cooperatives in Minnesota’s food and agriculture sector.
When the mic was turned to the audience for open dialogue, Alicia Jones, an attendee who calls both Baltimore and Harlem home, shared, “The thoughtfulness of this conference was phenomenal.”
Zoë Bourgerie attended with curiosity to learn more about community ownership of assets like businesses, housing, and cultural anchors. “I learned that many cooperatives are born out of many community members wanting to provide better service or resources in their community,” Bourgerie shared.
“Leaving from this conference, I feel validated in how to move from individual projects to sustainable and impactful work that we can do together. I’ve made a lot of connections and have many resources to dig into.”
To learn more about The National Conference on Black Cooperative Agenda, contact NDCC ndccinfo@ndccnetwork.org or Nexus Community Partners info@nexuscp.org to get connected.
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