The Big Scary “S” Word and Economic Democracy

Join the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, Dissent magazine, NYC-DSA’s Housing Working Group, In These Times, and Housing Justice for All for the third installment in a series of virtual events inspired by the film The Big Scary “S” Word. This month’s discussion will focus on worker cooperatives and the fight for economic justice.

The Big Scary “S” Word, a new documentary feature from director Yael Bridges examining the past, present, and future of socialism in the United States, connects the dots between many of our social and economic crises and focuses on American socialists’ responses.

On September 14, the filmmaker will join us to show a clip from the film and answer questions about the movie. The panelists will discuss and respond to your questions about how we get where we need to go now to work beyond capitalism for economic democracy.

Yael Bridge is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker. She produced Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC. She was also the director of productions at Inequality Media, making viral videos that tackled complex political issues and gained over 100 million views in 2016. She holds an MFA in documentary film and video from Stanford University and an MA in media studies from the New School. She resides in Oakland, where she works as a filmmaker and film educator.

Jabari Brisport is a New York State Senator in District 25.

Ricardo Samir Nuñez is a worker cooperative ecosystem development specialist supporting cultural practices, policies, organizations, and systemic changes that allow communities to build beyond the interlocking systems of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. He is currently the Director of Economic Democracy at the Sustainable Economies Law Center where he co-coordinates educational programs, legal services, policy advocacy, and regional and national ecosystem development to restore human labor to right relationship with people and the planet. He is board president of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and at-large board member at the California Center for Cooperative Development and the Southern California Focus on Cooperation.

Cea Weaver has worked as a tenant organizer, campaign researcher, and housing policy advocate in New York State for over ten years. She is from Rochester, New York and holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from NYU.