Here’s a little story for anyone who’s noticed that things aren’t going too well in our communities. Small businesses are going under, unemployment is on the rise and money’s becoming scarce. Read more …

Imagine that there’s an enormous economic crash coming. Say, the biggest economic crash in history. Outlandish, I know, but just give it a try. Read more …

This is the third in a series of articles about community wealth building and mutual credit, by Dave Darby and Dil Green of Lowimpact.org and the Open Credit Network. Read more …

This is the first of three articles in three days about ‘community wealth building’ (CWB) and mutual credit. Today we’re explaining community wealth building, and reviewing a book: The Case for Community Wealth Building. Tomorrow we’ll blog about how mutual credit can help post-Covid communities, and on Monday, Dil Green continues the theme, explaining how CWB and mutual credit is a match made in heaven. Read more …

Our topics include vegetarianism and veganism, but also keeping animals (for meat, dairy, eggs, honey, wool, leather, work etc); and also fishing and hunting animals in the wild. Is this incongruous? As a sustainability / new economy organisation, should we be promoting only veganism, rather than the keeping and/or eating of animals? Read more …

This is the last of six articles this week about how we can keep local economies afloat during the coming economic slump. There is already a scarcity of money, as the coronavirus crisis forces businesses to lay off workers, and sole traders to give up. But it will get much worse. How can we keep communities alive, and local economies trading when there’s no money around? Mutual credit can solve the problem of scarcity of money in the wake of the coronavirus. The Open Credit Network are building a mutual credit network for the UK. Read more …

This is the third in a series of articles about how mutual credit can help us get through the economic problems caused by the corona virus. The main points to get across are:

1. There’s going to be a shortage of money.
2. Mutual credit is a moneyless trading system.

That’s it! Mutual credit can help local economies survive when there’s no money around.

Matthew’s article goes deeper into the concept of mutual credit, and compares its potential to cryptocurrencies in an economic depression. Read more …

In part 1 I described why a resilient economy needs be to separate from the failing capitalist juggernaut and that we need to start by finding new economic partners from without the Market. Read more …

Donald Trump recently derided Greta Thunberg and everyone pleading with government to heed environmental science as ‘doomsayers’. The more imminent peak oil or environmental collapse appear, the more intransigent our political system seems to be. Whatever the reasons for this, responsible citizens can only accomplish so much while the political and economic winds are blowing against them. Read more …

This is Part 2 of an interview with Debbie Clarke of Unicorn Grocery – a co-operative grocery store in Manchester. In Part 1, I talked with Debbie about what it’s like to work in a co-operative grocery. Here we talk about the “Grow your own Grocery” guide that her co-op has produced for people who might be interested in starting a co-operative grocery in their town – as well as how to develop the co-operative economy generally. Read more …

This is Part 2 of an interview by Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org / NonCorporate.org with Lynne Davis of the Open Food Network as part of a series of interviews with people building the new economy. Here’s Part 1, and below is the transcript of the interview, plus the video. Read more …

Today I’m talking with Debbie Clarke of Unicorn Grocery – a cooperative grocery store in Manchester; and the thing I’m particularly interested in about Unicorn Grocery is that instead of wanting to become a huge chain, they’ve got a toolkit called ‘Grow your own Grocery’ to help people set up cooperative grocery stores in their own towns. Read more …

Lowimpact.org are working with Open.coop to build a new, co-operative, moneyless, mutual credit trading system for the UK, with a view to joining many similar schemes around the world to create a new global trading system, that requires neither banks nor interest. The point of this article is to invite you, if you own or work for a small businesses, to join the directory, find new customers and suppliers, and trade in mutual credit, in cash, or in a combination of both. Read more …

Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org / NonCorporate.org interviews Lynne Davis of the Open Food Network as part of a series of interviews with people building the new economy. Here’s the transcript of the interview, plus the video (below). Read more …

The Marine Conservation Society is challenging people to get through July single-use plastic free. Could you rise to the challenge? Clare Fischer explains how to take part. Read more …

Today I’m talking with Dil Green, who is a member of the Lowimpact.org co-op. He used to be an architect, and was a founder member of Brixton LETS, and is now on the team of the UK Mutual Credit Network. We’ll be talking about how mutual credit and the viable system model can be used to build a new non-extractive economy.

Read more …

This is part 2 of an interview with Maresa Bossano, who is the co-ordinator for the Community-Supported Agriculture Network in the UK. Part 1 is here.

Today we’re sharing ten tips for running a market stall or craft fayre stall from the folks behind The Soap Kitchen. Read more …

This week we’re talking with Matthew Slater of the Credit Commons Collective, working to build a mutualist, credit-based alternative to the current money system. Read more …

I often trawl the web just speculatively looking for new people or new ideas, clicking on links from interesting sites. TEDx talks are a favourite. A few years ago I came across an intriguing TEDx talk by Professor Jem Bendell called ‘the Money Myth’. Read more …