Renee Hatcher Explores the Vital Role of Solidarity Economy and Cooperatives

From Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes Everything Co-op

March 27, 2025 Everything Co-op continues its Women’s History Month series centering on the theme “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” set by the National Women’s History Alliance. This episode features Renee Hatcher, Professor and Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC Law. Vernon and Renee discuss the vital role of solidarity economy and cooperatives at this moment in history. Renee Hatcher is a human rights and cooperative lawyer and solidarity economy organizer. She is currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Law at GW Law School in DC. She serves as the Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC Law in Chicago, a pro bono legal clinic that provides free legal support to community-based businesses, non-profits, cooperatives, and other solidarity economy enterprises. Recently, Renee served as the Co-Director of Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem at CUPPA’s Center on Urban Economic Development (CUED). Renee has significant experience organizing and providing legal support to worker cooperatives and community-based initiatives to empower workers and community residents. Her work and research focus on legal and non-legal strategies to build power in Black, low-income neighborhoods and other communities of color rooted in solidarity economy organizing and theory. In 2022, the city of Chicago allocated $15 million dollars to support the cooperative ecosystem, including a substantial grant to UIC, as the “hub” organization, to conduct research and convene the Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem. Renee co-directs the “hub” with her close colleague, Associate Professor Stacey Sutton. Most recently, Renee served on Mayor Johnson’s Transition Committee on Economic Vitality and Equity. This appointment has been a part of Renee’s long-standing efforts to advance cooperative development in Chicago to improve the lives of Black, brown, and poor communities.