The New Social Compact

The coronavirus pandemic has upended the world’s economy and exposed the fissures that undergirded the New Deal social compact and neoliberalism. History reveals that such moments of upheaval are transformative, offering a window of time that is ripe for large-scale, innovative structural change. What world do we want to create in the pandemic’s wake? The New Social Compact Project envisions, defines, and lays the groundwork for new social compacts that center equity within a transforming capitalism.  

Our Advisory & Organizing Committee connects activists, academics, labor organizations, faith leaders, policy experts, global labor activists, climate leaders, workers, young people, philanthropists, elected leaders and more.  

We kicked off the project in the spring of 2021 with a public forum attended by more than 1200 people from five continents. We held 25 virtual sessions with 150 panelists over four days.  The conversation continues in ongoing webinars. Our June 2-3, 2022 public event, “The Pandemic Worker Wave and a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Working-Class Prosperity in a Transformed World” lifted up this era of working-class ferment, which holds the possibility of a global workers’ rights revival. Ten panels over two days hosted hundreds of participants around the world to discuss worker activism.