Color Coded’s Definition of Democratic Economic Power
In literal terms, democratic economic power is a collective practice in which all individuals have the capacity and ability to influence and direct the wealth and resources of their people and/or region. Our abilities, gender, race, class, access to technology, etc. must never marginalize any of us from taking part in our economy.
This demands the following:
- centering historically-excluded people (Black, Indigenous, people of color, trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary people, disabled people, et al.);
- acknowledging and healing intergenerational trauma caused by Indigenous genocide, the Atlantic slave trade, ongoing slavery and human trafficking, and all imperialism;
- dismantling of (what our colleagues at LA COiL) call Cemscawship: Capitalist, Eco-murdering, Settler Colonial, Ableist, White Supremacist, Heteropatriarchy;
- dismantling hierarchical forms of decision-making and practicing horizontalism;
- checks and balances on economic power;
- empowerment of workers and communities to make their own decisions to live a dignified life;
- redistribution of wealth;
- diversity of production scales and models: including small-scale, subsistence and self-employment;
- solidarity economics that are fair, sustainable, planet- and people-centered
- public ownership and co-ownership of technologies;
- reclaiming the commons: communal land stewardship