These two ideas at the heart of the Occupy Movement — the struggle against structural inequality and the desire for a more directly democratic process to take back control over our lives — share much in common with the ideas underlying Community Economic Development (CED). Contemporary CED first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, when activists in low-income communities fought for local residents to have a direct leadership role in efforts to revitalize those communities, and, in an era of widespread protest movements and civil unrest, private foundations and the federal government began to provide funding to support community-based non-profit organizations seeking to improve their neighborhoods through locally-designed, community-controlled projects. While some of those funders may have been motivated by a desire to squelch the more radical voices in low-income communities of color, the political visions of these newly government-and-foundation-funded community organizations varied. While many groups sought to avoid confrontation and simply improve community services and promote neighborhood self-sufficiency, others grew out of the civil rights, Black Power, and other community and activist movements and fought to stimulate “grassroots political action to advance a broad-based, redistributive economic agenda.” By the 1970s, a significant number of these organizations became Community Development Corporations (CDCs), and their projects included the development of affordable housing, locally-owned businesses, job training, and social services programs.
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