We Connect NYC
People's Choice Communications is a multi-stakeholder cooperative launched by members of IBEW Local #3 who have been on strike against Spectrum since 2017, the longest strike in US history. Their mission is to put themselves back to work and bridge the digital divide by building community-owned broadband Internet networks. The cooperative ownership structure will allows them to cut out the excessive profits taken by large corporate ISPs, and instead return wealth to the people responsible for building and using the network. Profits are reinvested in the community to support community organizing, education, job training, and dividends for users.
Strategy: Worker Ownership or Co-ops
Industry: Utilities,
https://peopleschoice.coop/
Project Details
Worker Target: Telecommunications workers
Innovation Fund Cycle: Fall 2020
Status: Semi-Finalist,
Organization Type: Worker Co-ops,
Stage of Development: Pilot,
What We're Asking:
- Is cooperative development a viable strategy for worker empowerment? While many people support the idea of cooperatives in principle, the US labor movement has yet to invest to bring this strategy to scale.
In the New Deal, the federal government facilitated the creation of cooperatives to connect rural areas with power and phone service. Can we apply this approach to the digital divide of our own times, which predominantly impacts working class people in urban areas who cannot afford Internet service at inflated corporate prices?
Can cooperatives fund and strengthen community organizing?
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