CWCF is pleased to feature Let’s Talk Worker Co-ops: Building Decolonized Co-ops, a workshop at the 2024 Conference presented by Kisa Hamilton, Denise Bishop-Earle, and Yvette Bailey of Transform Practice. Taking place from 2:30 – 4:00 pm ET on November 19, the workshop will explore how to build diverse, inclusive, and welcoming co-ops focusing on decolonizing, intersectional feminist ways of working towards building shared power, joy, and abundance.
The workshop will provide education and information on African and Indigenous knowledge and approaches to leadership, how these can inform new leadership models and approaches, and identify and discuss racialized groups’ challenges starting co-ops.
The workshop will employ the anti-racism/anti-oppression lens Transform Practice uses for learning and unlearning when facilitating systems transformation for equity. Hamilton notes that while this approach may be unfamiliar to some, it is very rewarding.
“What we know from experience in our work is that when we are true to these practices of doing this, how enriching and how fruitful the work becomes,” she says. “And how empowering the work becomes.”
Hamilton adds that she hopes participants will leave the workshop with not just the practical tools to adopt a new approach, but the courage to make it happen.
“I hope it inspires them to be bold, to be different,” she says. “To do the work differently and to take the time to do the work differently.”
The workshop aligns with the theme of the Conference, which focuses on how worker co-ops are well-positioned to respond to the multiple crises the world is facing. Bishop-Earle notes that times of crisis can present opportunities as well as challenges.
“Sometimes in adversity, that’s when we have the best growth,” she says. “Because that’s when we actually bring forth all our resources and our powers within us in order to move forward. So I think in times of trouble, we actually probably grow better.”
And while the workshop draws upon Indigenous and Afrocentric approaches, Hamilton stresses that its content will be relevant to everyone.
“I think the Indigenous and the Afrocentric approaches we do, it’s not like ‘oh, they’re just for African people or Indigenous people,’” she says. “Culturally across the world, people do these on a smaller scale. We just want to widen that scale to say there’s really greatness in these approaches.”