The successful campaign to block Amazon HQ2 from locating in western Queens was a watershed moment of community power, but the underlying framework of trickle down economic development, now decades old, remains entrenched. Drawing on assets and experiences from their organizing work in the Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as inspiration from work around the US and around the world, community and labor organizers from the Kingsbridge Armory fight and Interfaith hospital crisis will share in this session the experiences that led them towards a vision of building economic democracy, pivoting from community benefit to shared ownership and control of the assets in their communities.

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The successful campaign to block Amazon HQ2 from locating in western Queens was a watershed moment of community power, but the underlying framework of trickle down economic development, now decades old, remains entrenched. The experience was foreshadowed years ago in the Bronx with the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment fight, in which a community-labor coalition succeeded in getting the city council to defeat a proposed shopping mall redevelopment plan. Ultimately, the development moved forward with a landmark community benefits agreement. When Interfaith Hospital in Brooklyn was proposed to be shut down, community and labor once again fought to preserve and strengthen a community asset. In these struggles, organizers are asking for something more than just a share of community benefits, and working to articulate a vision to guide their work for self-determination, community control, and well-being across the entire Bronx, not just at one redevelopment site or in one neighborhood. Drawing on assets and experiences from their organizing work in the Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as inspiration from work around the US and around the world, community and labor organizers from the Kingsbridge Armory fight and Interfaith hospital crisis will share in this session the experiences that led them towards a vision of building economic democracy, pivoting from community benefit to shared ownership and control of the assets in their communities.