By Kenzie Love
In 2012, thousands of Quebec students engaged in protests over the provincial government’s increase in post-secondary tuition fees. With the repeal of the fee increase later that year, it might have seemed to some as though the issue was over. But the activists and organizers continued to meet and decided their work was actually just beginning.
“The students and people around the table at that time came to the conclusion that the social solidarity economy and a co-operatives transition of the economy was the only long-term solution to austerity measures,” says Olivia Champagne. “As a means to ensure that people had ownership, had democratic governance, and had a say in their economic conditions.”
The solidarity incubator working group which arose from these discussions continued its work over the next four years, with initiatives including the creation of The Hive Cafe Co-op, a solidarity co-op on the campus of Concordia University and hosting the Transform/er Montreal conference, which brought together activists from across Canada and the world. The working group then conducted a survey which found in 2016 that no other campus incubators focused on the social solidarity economy in Canada, and realized this void was an opportunity for them to fill.
“There was no one specifically focused on doing this type of work,” says Champagne. “So that was the green light that the organizers needed to proceed in trying to institutionalize and solidify SEIZE.”
Thus the Solidarity Economy Incubation for Zero Emissions, aka SEIZE, a non-profit structured as a solidarity co-operative was born. While the acronym has changed some over the years to find ways to incorporate the “Z”, Champagne says the organization’s values and principles have remained the same, focusing on advancing the social solidarity economy through the three pillars of Educate, Organize, and Incubate.
Guided by these pillars, SEIZE works to develop and mobilize networks to push forward a democratic economy; helps collective entrepreneurs and community organizers access the skills and strategies they need to be engaged in the social solidarity economy; and supports a network of nonprofits and cooperative enterprises (and emerging projects) in strategic sectors, including technology, media and culture, food systems, land-based industries, and housing.
The underlying mission behind SEIZE’s work is to advance the transition from capitalism to a more sustainable, democratic, and human-centric economy, something that’s reflected in all of their work and its unique structure. SEIZE’s six worker members — there are also 22 support members and roughly 350 user members —operate as a cross-functional team with diverse skills and experiences. So instead, worker members are able to divide up all the required tasks to ensure that everyone has a mix that reflects their interests, capacity, and expertise, as well as the demands of the organization as a whole.
“What I love about working at SEIZE and being a part of it is that we are fortunate in having our own community of practice, and that enables us to do things a little bit differently,” says Champagne. “It’s important to ensure that everyone’s portfolio includes tasks that truly fulfill them, alongside responsibilities that may feel more demanding. So that way, when we’re working as a team, everyone’s putting in and getting out a kind of personalized experience that helps them professionally develop.”
Looking ahead, SEIZE plans to continue its focus on the housing crisis, building on the “from Crisis to Consensus report” it published earlier this year with a Housing Justice Convergence conference being planned for March 7th-9th 2025 in Montreal. It’s also working to obtain more outside funding to allow it to expand its work to other provinces. And all of its work contributes to the global economic transformation its members envision.
“We aim to unite both the labour and social movements,” says Champagne. “So that we can expand the realm of possibilities of organizing and be able to respond to challenges more effectively, to drive transformative economic change.”
SEIZE and CWCF are very values-aligned. One of the CWCF staff members, Executive Assistant, was part of the Hive Cafe Co-operative for many years and is still a member. She, too, was in university in Montreal during the time of the student strikes. Several past CWCF members, Rebecca Smyth, Hannah Rackow, Jess Noriega-Lessard, Ben Rackow, and Mateusz Salmassi were also significantly involved in student organizing, especially at Concordia and McGill, but also elsewhere. In addition, CWCF and SEIZE have given each other associate memberships in each other’s organizations. Our two organizations have a lot in common, in terms of the goal to replace capitalism with a worker / solidarity co-operative economy and society. We share SEIZE’s commitment to climate justice, too.