What Spirit 2.0 got right about what it got really wrong
What's in this week's newsletter
🔗 What I am Rooting Into: What Spirit 2.0 got right about what it got really wrong
🎙️ Coming Up in the Commons: Root Commons 6/4 Networking Call + Book a 30-min 1:1 Networking Strategy Call with me
🤝🏾 Network Connections: 10% off LIFT Economy Next Economy MBA registration + New Progressive Communicators Monthly Call + All Hands Talent Matching Platform
What I am Rooting Into
What goes up...
The final Spirit Airlines passenger flight touched down at Dallas Fort Worth Airport on Saturday May 2nd following it's abrupt announcement it was going out of business as a result of mounting debt, rising jet fuel prices, and failure to secure a $500 million federal government bailout.
Heart-wrenching videos immediately circulated of devastated workers facing immediate unemployment, pilots making tearful final announcements to passengers, air traffic controllers exchanging heartfelt gratitude with Spirit crews, and the last Spirit flight out of Las Vegas tipping its wings side to side on its ascent, performing a final "wing wave."
The collapse of Spirit Airlines was almost immediately eclipsed by content creator Hunter Peterson — who once flew Spirit Airlines for 24 hours straight — going viral within a day of the shutdown. In the immediate aftermath he launched "Spirit 2.0": a campaign to have people collectively buy the airline and run it as a publicly owned carrier, structured like the Green Bay Packers collective ownership model. "No billionaire can move the team. No hedge fund can gut it for parts."
In the same amount of time he once spent flying on Spirit Airlines, by Sunday May 3rd Hunter Peterson's platform had collected non-binding individual pledges totaling $23 million from 36,505 people. Today it stands at $337 million from 371,552 pledges.
I watched the contagious enthusiasm and genuine commitment to the ideals of cooperative ownership take off in real time.
I also watched the inevitable descent.
...must come down.
I winced when Hunter Peterson began referring to himself incredulously as the "Potential Future CEO of Spirit Airlines" and brought in a team that dressed itself up as a well-matched cooperative model but became a controversial mess. With the best intentions, Hunter Peterson ran headfirst into default governance practices he was earnestly trying to get out of.
And then, a couple weeks ago, he posted this video.
He had taken a beat. He slowed down.
He apologized for bringing in a team that wasn't fully vetted. He stepped back from the CEO framing and named himself a community leader among community leaders stewarding this collective venture. He outlined in detail the pivot toward a financial, legal, cooperative, and labor union infrastructure that will be foundational to Spirit 2.0's bid going forward.
The most important lesson here is not how to create a publicly owned airline. The lesson is in watching an energized well-intentioned human demonstrate the extraordinarily messy way we will inadvertently default to the very extractive practices we are trying to unravel from. The lesson comes in seeing the honest, humbling way we can course-correct and keep building.
"Now it needs to stop being about me, and start being about us."
So we keep building.
When I talk about Root Commons being rooted in solidarity economics principles, I say that as someone who was not raised in structures guided by these principles.
I am on the verge of turning 50 years old. I was raised on Saturday morning cartoons, Kix cereal, and the myth of trickle-down economics. I constantly run headfirst into the ways scarcity and resource-hoarding were culturally draped around me like a security blanket. I now see how they function as a straightjacket.
I am rooting for Spirit 2.0. But even more, I am rooting for all of us who are energized by it to find ways in our daily life to actually live into solidarity and cooperative economic practices.
So we can build. Brick by brick.
Coming Up in the Commons
📢 Last Call! Register for this month's Root Commons Networking Session
Our first Root Commons Networking virtual call will be this Thursday 6/4 10-11am PT. All subscribers welcome.
This is a facilitated, intentional, no-BS space to come forth with your job-seeking, business-building, hiring, and partnership needs so we can collectively broker connections to people and resources that help us pay the bills and get rad sh*t done.
🌱 Book a 30-min 1:1 Networking Strategy Call with me
All paid (standard or solidarity rate) Anti Networking Networking Club members can book a free 30-minute 1:1 Networking Strategy call with me to help identify networking connections; strategize around a new business idea; or get support for your job-seeking and client development needs.
I love having these calls so join the Anti Networking Networking Club and grab time with me!
Network Connections
10% off LIFT Economy Next Economy MBA Registration
As an alumni of the Lift Economy's Next Economy MBA program I get to offer you an additional 10% off registration using the code MBAMESH10. Make sure to entire my name upon checking out!
LIFT Economy's Next Economy MBA is an incredible program for anyone wanting to ground their work in the social impact space with a vibrant alumni network representing organizations including the Black Farmer Fund, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, the Center for Economic Democracy, the UC Center for Climate Justice, and many more. Check out their Q&A sessions or reach out directly to me for a chat.
Progressive Communicators Monthly Call
Root Commons member and comrade Arielle Rebekah is hosting a Monthly Networking Session for Progressive Communicators through their Liberation Education Collective for all self-identified social justice and progressive communicators, whether or not you currently or have ever held a formal communications role. I plan to join the next call and yes of course you can and should attend their monthly call and Root Commons networking calls whenever it works for you!
All Hands Talent Matching Platform
If you are looking for work in communications, development, digital, operations, and tech for social impact check out All Hands, a free job search service where you can drop in your resume and search for progressive-oriented jobs.
Have something you would like to share with the Root Commons network? Hit reply and let me know!