Intensive Trainings 

Intensive Training: Anti-Racism for Collective Liberation

This two-day workshop aims to ground participants in anti-racist organizing approaches, and help them collectively develop relevant theory, vision and strategy to build the worker cooperative movement.  Day one will be led by Catalyst Project, a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Catalyst Project is committed to anti-racist work in majority white sections of left social movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white communities and building multiracial left movements for liberation.

In day two of this anti-racism intensive workshop, participants with draw on anti-racism analysis developed in day one to focus on how to create and center anti-racist worker cooperatives.  This session will begin by tracing the history of worker cooperatives in both challenging and upholding white supremacy in the US and internationally.  Following this discussion, participants will look at examples of worker co-ops and other cooperative organizations that have successfully integrated anti-racist politics and practices into their structures. Participants will workshop possibilities for implementing similar plans at their own co-ops and in the broad cooperative movement in the goal of finding new ways of integrating racial justice and economic justice across the cooperative movement.

Trainers: The Catalyst Project; Esteban Kelly, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Intensive Training: Developing Democratic Capacity

No one ever said that democracy was easy, but it doesn’t have to wear you out, either.  Without effective tools to structure and support accountable participation, workplace democracy can sometimes feel like trying to dig a well with a spoon.  This intensive training aims to help you find and use the best shovel for the job.

Day one will focus on developing systems of participation and accountability that work. We will look at various models from different workplaces, as well as some theories of democratic participation. Topics covered will include: mapping your decision-making, setting performance standards, evaluations and reviews, hiring and firing, grievance processes, and building a culture of accountability. We will emphasize what management and non-management cooperatives can learn from one another.

Day two will get down to the details: tools for effective meetings, facilitation training and conflict resolution strategies and approaches.

Trainers: to be confirmed