How Solidarity Economy St. Louis Prevents Another Mike Brown Tragedy

Cowry member Julia Ho talks to Mira Luna from Shareable about SE St. Louis:
Why did MORE shift into solidarity economy organizing from more traditional political organizing?
In St. Louis, a major symptom of racial oppression is the criminalization of poverty, which leads to further economic insecurity and segregation. For example, cities depend heavily on traffic fine revenue to sustain themselves, which creates an unfair burden on the working poor and those affected by racial profiling because unpaid fines often lead to bench warrants and jail time. Currently, we are working on an initiative to get traffic fines paid through community service projects that are managed through our local timebank, the Cowry Collective, while also putting pressure on the municipal courts to stop issuing these warrants in the first place.