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This is one of a series of forthcoming reports by Diné Policy Institute that will focus on the question of land reform and renewal in the Navajo Nation. In this report, the focus is mainly on survey results from a longitudinal survey in the community of Shonto. This community was chosen in order to demonstrate the nature of social change in the Navajo Nation. Although most of the data is from Shonto, it is supplemented with subsequent focus groups in Tonalea, Kayenta, and Tsaile. The report also looked at the work of the Little Colorado River Watershed Chapter Association to identify new innovative approaches toward grassroots organizing and governance. Theirs is an approach to distribute resources and organizing along natural boundaries like watersheds, instead of artificial BIA divisions of space.
Research Justice Training at Diné Policy Institute
Authors: Ashley Claw and Ricki Draper, Diné Policy Institute
Yvonne Yen Liu and Diana Benitez with the Solidarity Research Center (SRC) led a participatory training for Diné Policy Institute staff and interns. The three-day training covered material on research justice, solidarity economies, GIS, and statistical analysis. The training focused on Diné Policy Institute’s ongoing land reform project and included discussion about pressing social and economic issues within the Navajo Nation.
No Piece of the Pie: US Food Workers in 2016
Authors: Food Chain Workers Alliance and Solidarity Research Cooperative
The 21.5 million workers in the food system make up the largest employment sector in the United States, with 14% or over one out of every seven workers in the U.S. working along the food chain. In the five key sectors of the food chain — production, processing, distribution, retail, and service — poor working conditions, below average wages, and discriminatory and abusive practices are all commonplace. While overall employment in the food system recovered relatively quickly from the Great Recession of 2007-2009, workers themselves have not seen positive changes. Since the Food Chain Workers Alliance’s 2012 report The Hands That Feed Us, wages overall remain stagnant, food workers are accessing food stamps at higher levels, health and safety problems have increased, and membership in unions has declined.
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An Analysis of New Economy Metanarrative
Partners: New Economy Coalition, Center for Story-based Strategy, Solidarity Research Cooperative
The New Economy Coalition interviewed its member groups and allied organizations to learn more about how they were communicating the “new economy” in their work. The goal was to explore the need and appetite for long-term collaboration on new economy messaging and narrative strategy. The interview process was designed in partnership with the Center for Story-based Strategy. Solidarity Research Cooperative analyzed the data and co-created the report.
Prison Strike's Financial Impact in California
Authors: Solidarity Research Center and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
September 9, 2016 was the start of the largest prison strike in U.S. history. Over 72,000 incarcerated workers in 22 states refused to provide their labor to profit the prison industrial complex. California forces 5,588 incarcerated workers to labor in exchange for little or no compensation. The financial losses to the California prison system are as much as $636,068 in revenue or $156,736 in profit for every day of the prison strike.
The Feminist Next System
Partners: Solidarity Research Cooperative and The Next System
Solidarity Research Cooperative, in partnership with the Next System Project, conducted a literature review of feminist theorists, activists, and experiments tied to next system design. It was not exhaustive; but, instead, focused on a few key areas. We looked, in particular, for feminists, feminist experiments, and theories that propose (or model) comprehensive system designs for a political economy radically different from contemporary capitalism. We broadened our search to include specific concepts or experiments that could potentially form one component of a new system design. All in all, we found few comprehensive system designs from feminist perspectives, especially in recent literature.
Authors: Solidarity Committee of the Capital District and Solidarity Research Center
The Solidarity Committee of the Capital District and Solidarity Research Center have released the report SUNY and Sweatshops: How is SUNY Enforcing its Apparel Anti-Sweatshop Policy?  It describes an investigation into how well the State University of New York (SUNY) is enforcing its five year old anti-sweatshop policy which is meant to deal with working conditions in the supply chain of its licensed apparel. The report concludes that the SUNY schools appear to be falling far short of a credible effort to deal with the sweatshop issue.
The Crisis in Our Schools: A Report on Working and Learning Conditions in NYC Public Schools
Authors: Movement of Rank and File Educators in collaboration with Solidarity Research Center
The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) recently conducted a survey of United Federation of Teachers (UFT) members to find out more about their working conditions and students’ learning conditions. The findings of this survey indicate that the decay of the New York City schools has reached crisis levels under the leadership of the Unity Caucus, the incumbents in the current elections for leadership of the UFT. Change is urgently needed.
System change and community organizing: A conversation on the long arc of history with “Mother” Mamie Moore
Authors: Solidarity Research Center with “Mother” Mamie Moore
We believe that any vision of a next system that doesn’t ultimately resonate with those working on the ground for economic and racial justice in the communities most marginalized, exploited, and oppressed by the current one is not really getting at what really needs to be next. A big part of this is listening and learning, with humility and respect, to the voices of the people who have been fighting on the frontlines—here, we asked Kate Diedrick of Solidarity Research Center to talk with Atlanta-based community organizer “Mother” Mamie Moore about her trajectory as an activist and advocate for system change starting at the neighborhood level.
By The Numbers: Challenges and Opportunities for Black-Asian Solidarity
Authors: ChangeLab and Solidarity Research Center
We have collected this set of economic data to help frame a conversation about racial justice strategy, to identify questions for further inquiry, and to address the potential of Black-Asian coalitional work that is grounded in real conditions.