User:Windsorcommons

I am board president of the Windsor Workers' Education Centre in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The centre has funding to educate non-union workers, often women newcomers to the country, on their rights under existing employment law and learn how to exercise those rights. Windsor, an auto manufacturing centre across the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan, has one of the highest rates of unemployment in canada and could be considered a "rust belt" city. Windsor is designated as the 4th most diverse city in Canada, and with a population of 218,000, that's quite astounding.

We are seeking to expand the centre's mandate with the formation of a Common Space that would encompas the workers' centre with legal expertise, a community newspaper, a cafe and a makerspace. This space would be a place of experimentation on how to create a solidarity economy by bringing a diverse people together to manage the space in a democratic manner using the 7 principles of the cooperative movement and what we learn(and contribute to)from P2P. Beyond the existing economy, the commons is envisioned as a response to the corporate neoliberal model of accumulation leaving workers with an austerity agenda.

I am a member at large on the Windsor District Labour Council, I produce and host a campus/community radio program on CJAM 99.1FM at the University of Windsor exploring social justice and environmental issues, and I am VP of the board governing the First Unitarian Universlaist Church of Detroit. As well I am a board member of Windsor's Global Resource Centre which has as it's prime mandate the management of a ten Thousand Villages store.