As the group drew up long lists of existing
community assets, it became clear that at least many parts of the vision are
quite possible and attainable; some are already in process. Already the Pioneer
Valley is home to a number of locally-owned small businesses, some with
progressively-minded owners. A Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives connects
worker-owned businesses with each other. The region hosts many organizations
that promote green building, alternative energy production and usage, and dozens
of successful Community-Supported Agriculture farms providing produce, dairy,
and meat to families around the region.

But to build a local economy that
will truly meet the needs of residents, the Valley needs much more of all of
this. More worker-owned businesses, more cooperatives, more farms -- and more
support for these initiatives by government, people, and businesses not yet
using sustainable and cooperative models. In the community mapping exercise we
recognized that while many people want to live in the area, it's a hard place to
make a living. Jobs are sparse, and well-paid jobs are even fewer. Unemployment
is at 4.1% in Hampshire County, 4.8% in Franklin County, and 6.4% in Hampden
County. These official unemployment rates do not sufficiently capture the
reality. First off, unemployment rates only include people who have actively
searched for a job during the past month; people who have given up searching
because they haven't had luck aren't counted. People who worked an hour or more
in the past week are counted as employed, meaning that the rate does not give us
any idea of the level of underemployment; the number of people who worked a few
hours at low-paid job who would like another job to help make ends meet remain
hidden by the statistic.

One topic the group kept coming back to was
money. There are plenty of people who want employment in the area. A natural
area of employment would be green jobs: building and operating a more extensive
public transit system, weather-proofing and winterizing homes, installing solar
panels, developing and running cooperative systems to recycle oil from
restaurants for home heating purposes, and so on. But how can we achieve this in
a time when every agency in the state is being asked to cut their budget by
10%?

Hope that the Obama administration can bring the changes working
people want is tempered by economic worries. In one session, my small group's
discussion turned into a brainstorm of demands for new federal economic policies
- increasing social spending, a job creation program, living wages, and added
regulatory controls on banks and financial markets. Progressive taxation,
massive cuts to military spending, substituting New Deal-style 90% taxation on
the wealthy for the tax cuts of this decade, would make this all possible
without putting the country into more debt. We also experimented with how to
describe these economic issues and the needed changes in an accessible way.
Steve Schnapp of United For a Fair Economy aptly described the current moment:
"We're experiencing the culmination of an intensification of policies that
shifted the tax base away from the wealthy ... now there's a larger tax burden
on work and less of a tax burden on wealth." It also was clear we need to
develop better skills for working together effectively, building alliances
across race and class lines throughout the entire Pioneer Valley.

While
it's still too early to tell what will come of the workshop, some exciting ideas
emerged in the visioning, which I pass along with the hope of sparking similar
activities in other communities:

• Organize an ongoing cross-class group to discuss how to build a local,
  sustainable economy together while confronting classism (Class Action has
  resources for how to do this).
• Host meet-ups to connect organizers working on diverse endeavors for
  informal consulting, idea-sharing, and community-building.
• Work with community development corporations, neighborhood associations, and
  town committees to hold meetings of neighbors to conduct basic education about
  taxes and the economy, share energy-saving tips, and educate about how to
  affordably obtain solar panels and other energy saving and generating resources.