We had a hunch that transitioning from a tech ecosystem that perpetuates oppression and extraction to one that supports healing, justice, and collective well-being is strongly tied to how we share value and “ownership.†We set out to design and pilot a model for a financial trust that is rooted in the principles of “Liberatory Technology†(e.g., tech that empowers all people, especially our world’s most marginalized, to obtain freedom, thriving, and greater access to our full aliveness.) The structure of a trust could grow to be supportive infrastructure for a more shared and equitable tech ecosystem that cycles wealth and value back into the hands of all shareholders in the system vs. extracting it for the gain of a few. The first step in designing and piloting this financial trust was taking the time to build trust amongst ourselves. Trusts and other models of shared ownership and mutuality are counter to the conditioning many of us have from capitalism and dominant culture. Therefore, there needs to be a collective foundation rooted in trust, understanding, and care before jumping into this agreement together. In addition to collective trust building, this also requires self-reflection about the ways in which we each carry the limitations of the dominant system within ourselves and what we are willing to give up and unlearn in service of collective well-being. Additionally, we plan to use the $10,000 of the LIF-funded project “Legal Support for Luminaries Orgs†that Mobius received to hire a lawyer to support the design and creation of our trust. We will likely work with estate and trust lawyer Stuart Green.
