The Law Can Help Us Build the World We Want

When most folks think about lawyers, they picture expensive corporate attorneys, courtroom dramas, or politicians arguing over legislation. Rarely do we think of the law as a tool ordinary people can use to build a better world. But that’s exactly what the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) has been proving for years.

Here at Redneck Gone Green, we talk a lot about the importance of resisting what’s wrong and also building what’s right. That’s because we know that we have to do both. We have to fight corporate greed, White Supremacy, economic inequality, and environmental destruction. But we also have to build democratic institutions that give people real power over their own lives. That’s what we call Build & Fight. SELC is a fantastic example of what that looks like in practice.

Instead of asking how capitalism can be made a little less cruel, SELC asks three much deeper questions:1. Who owns the things we need and use?

2. Who makes the decisions about what is done with them?

3. Who benefits from these decisions?

SELC helps folks answer those questions in practical and inspiring ways.

They help workers create cooperatives where employees own the business instead of outside investors. They help communities establish land trusts that keep housing permanently affordable instead of allowing speculators to drive prices through the roof. They help local organizers navigate legal challenges so they can spend more time building community wealth and less time worrying about paperwork.

This isn’t about finding loopholes in the law. It’s about using the law to strengthen democracy.

The French socialist André Gorz gave us a powerful idea that has shaped organizers for decades: Non-Reformist Reforms. Some reforms leave the basic rules of the game unchanged. They may provide temporary relief, but they don’t shift power.

Non-reformist reforms are different. They solve real problems today while expanding people’s capacity to govern themselves tomorrow. They move us beyond simply managing capitalism toward building the institutions of a democratic, solidarity economy.

That’s exactly why worker cooperatives and community land trusts are so important. They’re not just good programs. They’re democratic institutions. Every cooperative teaches people how to govern a workplace together. Every community land trust takes land out of the speculative market and puts it under community stewardship. Every successful solidarity economy project gives people more confidence that another way of organizing society is not only possible—it’s already happening.

This is also why local politics matter so much. We don’t have to wait for Congress to act before we start building a different economy. Cities can support worker cooperatives. Counties can help establish community land trusts. States can create public financing tools. Community organizations can build mutual aid networks, cooperative businesses, and neighborhood institutions right now. Every one of those victories creates new possibilities for the next one.

The People’s Network for Land & Liberation, the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, and countless local organizations around the country are already doing this work. SELC provides something every movement needs: legal tools that help turn bold ideas into durable institutions.

We live in a time when many people feel powerless. Billionaires seem to have more influence than entire communities. Housing grows less affordable. Wealth becomes more concentrated. Democracy itself feels increasingly fragile.

But despair is not a strategy.

Building democratic institutions is a strategy.

Creating community ownership is a strategy.

Using the law to expand democracy instead of protecting concentrated wealth is a strategy.

That’s why I’m excited to be talking with Hasmik from the Sustainable Economies Law Center on Redneck Gone Green. We’ll talk about how communities can use the law not simply to defend themselves, but to build a future rooted in cooperation, shared ownership, and economic democracy.

I hope you’ll watch the interview, share it widely, and most importantly, ask yourself one simple question:What’s one institution my community could build today that would give ordinary people more power tomorrow?

Because every cooperative, every community land trust, every neighborhood assembly, and every solidarity economy project is another brick in the foundation of the world we’re fighting to build.

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