Through The Portal Episode 2 - Economic Democracy with Esteban Kelly

Through the Portal is a podcast from the Social Justice Portal Project, a national collaborative think tank hosted by the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago. Each month, grassroots activists and radical scholars will give voice to community struggles, national strategies and sustainable alternatives for the future. The guest speakers, who are also Portal Project participants, explore what it means to walk through the portal of the current moment by centering racial and social justice issues. On Episode 2, Dame and cohost Teresa Cordova of UIC talk Economic Democracy with Esteban Kelly. Esteban is Executive Director for the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and is a worker-owner and co-founder of AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance), a worker co-op that builds capacity for social justice projects through intersectional training and consulting. He breaks down how building a worker coop might be easier than you think, the ways that we have to reclaim concepts of structure and organization from the capitalist class, and what he imagines the great labor awakening of today turning into. SHOW NOTES Learn more about Esteban's work - http://Aorta.coop Clark Arrington - https://www.heroes.coop/post/clark-arrington Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance - https://philadelphia.coop/ The Working World - https://www.theworkingworld.org/us/ The US Federation of Worker Cooperatives - https://www.usworker.coop/home/ Democracy at Work Institute - https://institute.coop/ The CIA reads French theory: on the intellectual labor of dismantling the cultural left - https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-cia-reads-french-theory-on-the-intellectual-labor-of-dismantling-the-cultural-left/ Cyborg Manifesto - https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/donna-haraway-a-cyborg-manifesto ROC USA - https://rocusa.org/ EB PREC - https://ebprec.org/ Kensington Corridor Trust - https://kensingtoncorridortrust.org/ Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard - https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06216-7.html The Revolution will not be Funded - https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-revolution-will-not-be-funded When to Talk & When to Fight: The Strategic Choice between Dialogue & Resistance - https://bookshop.org/books/when-to-talk-and-when-to-fight-the-strategic-choice-between-dialogue-and-resistance/9781629638362 Dragonfly Partners - https://www.dragonfly-partners.com/ Learn more about the Portal Project: https://sjiportalproject.com/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker