On June 20-22, 2008, members of worker cooperatives and their supporters from around the
country visited New Orleans to hold our 3rd conference, "Democracy at Work," at Loyola
University. The worker cooperative movement, as well as the general cooperative movement,
brings innovative democratic economic development strategies to a city and region in obvious
need of new ideas and alternative strategies, particularly to better support and reinvigorate low-
income communities and communities of color. I have worked with residents/survivors who
want more information about viable alternative models of community-based economic
development. Because the Gulf Coast and New Orleans are areas in which the gaps between rich
and poor and Black and White are glaring and disturbing, there has been national and local
discussion of and action around alternative development strategies, and democratic and
sustainable principles and priorities for rebuilding. Ralph Nader, the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, and the "Big Idea" project out of Canada all have actually
proposed using the cooperative economic model for business and housing development in New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Common Ground
Collective are already using cooperative, community-based activities in their efforts to help
survivors and rebuild neighborhoods. However, wide public recognition is lacking, and there is
no coverage by traditional media of grassroots economic organizing, and in particular
cooperative economic development, for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Moreover,
there are few resources allocated for cooperative economic development in the Gulf Coast or any
region in the United States. At the very least residents need more information about cooperative
economic development, alternative democratic community-based models of development, and
examples of cooperative economics among communities of color.